Living in Little Rock, AR

Safety is something you'll want to plan around in Little Rock. The violent crime index is 176, well above the national average of 100, and property crime sits at 173. This doesn't mean every part of the city is risky — many neighborhoods have strong community watch programs and low incident rates. But you absolutely need to research specific areas, invest in good locks and security, and be deliberate about where you choose to live. Source: FBI Uniform Crime Report.

By most measures, yes. The median rent of $1,067/month against a median household income of $60,583/year works out to a 21.1% rent-to-income ratio. Financial planners generally want that number under 30%, so Little Rock clears the bar with room to spare. You'll have breathing space for savings, car payments, and the occasional splurge. Numbers from Census ACS 2023.

Most people in Little Rock are at work within 16 minutes — a pretty reasonable commute by American standards. The breakdown: 76.5% drive alone, 1.0% take public transit, and 10.8% work from home. Rush hour adds time, obviously, but the baseline is manageable.

Not particularly. The climate risk score is 35/100, which puts Little Rock in the low-risk tier. Tornado, Heat Wave, and Flood are the most relevant hazards, but none of them are frequent concerns. Standard insurance should have you covered. It's one less thing to worry about if you're comparing this city to higher-risk metros along the coast or in tornado alley. Data from FEMA disaster declarations and NOAA.

Good, overall. The median AQI sits at 44, which falls within the EPA's "Good" category, and Little Rock logs 260 clean-air days annually. Ozone is the main pollutant. Occasional spikes happen — wildfire smoke, temperature inversions, or high-ozone days — but they're the exception, not the rule. Check AirNow.gov during allergy season or summer heat waves.

Higher than average, yes. The total effective tax rate lands around 15.7% when you add up income, property, and sales taxes. Sales tax is 9.6%. High-tax areas often come with better public schools, infrastructure, and services — but that's not guaranteed, and it's cold comfort on payday. If you're moving from a low-tax state like Texas or Florida, brace for a noticeable dip in take-home pay.

Everything on this page is built from public government sources: rent and income figures from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS 5-Year Estimates, 2023); commute and transportation data from Census ACS tables B08303 and B08006; crime rates from the FBI Uniform Crime Report; climate risk assessments using FEMA disaster declarations and NOAA storm records; air quality measurements from the EPA's Air Quality System database. We refresh each dataset monthly through an automated pipeline and cross-check for anomalies. No surveys, no user-submitted guesses — just official federal data presented in a way that's actually useful for people researching a move.