An individual’s health is impacted by many factors, including their race, age, sex, income, or disability.  Health disparities, when one group has a much higher rate of disease compared to another, is particularly pronounced for different racial and ethnic groups in Arkansas.

There are more than 2,380,000 whites in Arkansas, which makes whites the largest racial group at slightly over 78 percent in 2019. There are more than 471,000 blacks in Arkansas, which makes blacks the second largest group with 15.4 percent of the population. Hispanics are classified as an ethnic group and they comprised 8.5 percent of the state’s population in 2019. While the percentage of blacks in Arkansas is higher than the average for the U.S. as a whole (12%), the percentage of Hispanics is considerably lower than the national average (18%).

Arkansas Percentage of Population by Race/Ethnicity, 2010-2019

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division

To understand the health problems facing the state it is important to look at the people and how they live. There are close to three million people living in Arkansas.  Children under the age of 18 make up 23 percent of the population while individuals over 65 make up 17 percent, with both rates closely resembling the rates for the U.S. There are 490,000 people in Arkansas who live with a disability, not including those who live in nursing homes. This is 18 percent of the total population, which is much higher than the U.S. rate of 13 percent.

The population in Arkansas is highly concentrated with nearly one-third of the state’s population residing in just three counties – Pulaski, Benton and Washington.

Population in Arkansas by county in 2019

Data Source: U.S. Census Bureau 2019 Population Estimates