Populations in These 6 Arkansas Counties Are Plummeting

Arkansas is a southern state with 75 counties. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the state had 3,011,555 residents in 2020, but the population increased to 3,045,637 people in 2022. However, not all areas of the state are gaining residents. In fact, populations in some Arkansas counties are falling. We’ll show you the places where the population is going down, and even provide some educated guesses for why that is happening.

6. Desha County

Desha County is in southeastern Arkansas, along the border with the Mississippi River and the state for which it is named. The county contains the town of Arkansas City, a town of fewer than 1,000 people.

In 2020, Desha County had a population of 11,395 people. However, the population dropped down to 10,771 in 2022, an estimated loss of 624 people. This is not a huge number of people that left the region. However, the loss was equal to 5.48 % of the county’s entire population!

5. Crittenden County

Crittenden County is in eastern Arkansas along the border with Tennessee. More specifically, the county is directly across the Mississippi River from Memphis, and it even has a city called West Memphis. Roughly half of the county’s population resides in West Memphis, an estimated 24,150 people.

Crittenden County’s population in 2020 was 48,169 people. That number fell to 47,061 people, and that means the area lost 1,108 people. The population loss is equal to 2.3%, a moderate drop in population overall.

Many people have left the Memphis area, both in Tennessee and Arkansas in recent years. A fair number of people left as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and others left as a result of deteriorating economic opportunities in some portions of the county.

4. Phillips County

Phillips County is another county located in eastern Arkansas along the Mississippi River. Helena-West Helena Arkansas is the largest city in the county, and its population was 9,519 people in 2020. That is a large drop from the 2010 census when the city had 12,282 people living in it. The northeastern part of the county contains the St. Francis National Forest.

As a whole, Phillips County had 16,576 people living in it back in 2020. However, 15,304 people lived in the county according to the 2022 estimates. That means the county’s population dropped by an incredible 7.6% despite only losing 1,272 people. This is certainly one of the Arkansas counties that faced a sharp decrease in population over the last two years.

3. Union County

One has to travel to south-central Arkansas to find Union County. This region shares a border with Louisiana to its south. El Dorado is the county seat in Phillips County, and it has a population of 17,756 people. The Ouachita River flows along the county’s eastern border as it travels south into Louisiana.

Union County is another one of the Arkansas counties that suffered a population loss between 2020 and 2022. Originally, the population in the county was 39,049 in 2020. However, the population fell to 37,752. The difference in population is 1,297 people, far more than Desha County. Also, the population loss is equal to 3.32%. This is not a huge loss of residents overall, but it’s still a fair loss of people in the county.

2. Mississippi County

Mississippi County is located in the northeastern part of the state. Situated along the Mississippi River, the county’s largest city is called Blytheville, and it has 13,406 people living in it as of 2020.

Mississippi County started 2020 with 40,692 people living within its borders. However, in 2022, the population in this region dropped to 38,896 people. That means this Arkansas county lost a total of 1,796 or 4.41% of its total population in just two years.

This is a somewhat dramatic drop in population, but not necessarily a surprising entry on this list. After all, most of the population losses in the state are from the eastern side of the state.  

1. Jefferson County

Jefferson County is near the southeastern part of the state, and its largest city is Pine Bluff. This city has 41,253 people living within its borders. Many other parts of the county are rural, featuring extensive farmlands. The Arkansas River plunges through the center of the county.  

Jefferson County leads Arkansas counties with plummeting populations. The 2020 population in this county was 67,261 people. By 2022, the estimates for this area show that 64,246 people live in the area. This equates to 4.48% of the population and a total loss of 3,015 people. That means this area had lost the greatest number of people of any county in the state.

Overall, the Arkansas counties with plummeting populations are mostly concentrated in the eastern part of the state. All but one of the counties on this list are near the eastern border or very close to the Mississippi River. Although the population in these counties is falling, other counties in the state are growing. In particular, Northwest Arkansas is seeing a surge in Benton and Washington counties.

These areas are powerful from an economic standpoint since they are home to the headquarters of businesses like Walmart and J.B. Hunt. People are likely moving to those areas for the mix of job opportunities, abundant land, and a reasonable cost of living in some of the rural areas. All in all, some places in Arkansas are losing population, but those people may simply be relocating from the eastern part of the state to the west.

Summary of Arkansas Counties with Dropping Populations