Bella Vista, Arkansas

Area Profile

31,697 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Bella Vista, in Benton County.

76out of 100
Area Score
Top 5% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 9% of 3,904 published cities78
GrowthTop 5% of 2,973 published cities80
Housing affordabilityTop 23% of 4,223 published cities94
ClimateTop 39% of 4,223 published cities73
Physical resilienceTop 50% of 4,182 published cities58
AccessTop 31% of 4,226 published cities96
Economic stability2303rd of 4,226 published cities58
The quick read

Bella Vista ranks in the top 9% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 4.2% and median household income of $88,055.

Residential permitting has slowed: 708 units authorized over the past twelve months, 17% below the prior year.

A major airport is 13 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
31,697
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$88,055
Top 26% nationally
Density
700/sq mi
45.3 sq mi of land
Median age
51.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Benton County
Arkansas
Metro area
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR
Nearest major airport
XNA
13 mi · Northwest Arkansas Ntl
Median home value
$296,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.2% is lower than 55% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 4.2% over the past year, to 15,081 employed residents.

42% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 83% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,771$88,055Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$9,445$56,409Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate3.6%Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute28.8 minTop 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher41.8%Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment15,081Bottom 15%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)10.3%Top 1%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)4.2%Top 1%June 2026
Labor force15,744Bottom 15%June 2026
Labor force participation53.5%Bottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$61,240Bottom 20%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$46,610Bottom 12%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.3%Top 37%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.2%Bottom 45%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.72.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.2% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202488k75k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $88,055 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Fast Food and Counter Workers8,370$27,170
Retail Salespersons7,940$30,300
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers7,500$60,480
General and Operations Managers7,010$81,800
Office Clerks, General6,110$39,660
Stockers and Order Fillers5,890$35,040

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There are 19.6 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
1
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
19.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
COOPER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBENTONVILLE SCHOOL DISTRICT62819.6

19.4% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Arkansas’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,395 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
19.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,395
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$296,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.37Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate88.0%Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±50814,514Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$239$1,395Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,093$296,700Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.0%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.4%Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
80/ 100
Top 5% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 10% since 2020, reaching 33,274 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 22.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
708
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
22.3
Top 3% nationally
Year over year
−17%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202433k30k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
20202022202320242025786416
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+89%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 90°F and January a low of 27°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 45.4 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station FAYETTEVILLE NW AR AP, 12.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation45.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low27°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing42°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

58 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are ice storm, cold wave and earthquake.

Ice stormHigh
Winter weatherModerate
WildfireModerate
LandslideModerate
EarthquakeModerate
HailModerate
Cold waveElevated

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, lightning, strong wind, inland flooding, tornado, hurricane, drought.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Benton County records 2.8 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 9.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 4.8 per 100,000 residents in Benton County.

Homicide
2.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
9.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
4.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
11.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Benton County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Bella Vista rather than Bella Vista itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 13 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Northwest Arkansas NtlXNA13 mi8,801 ft
Springfield-Branson NtlSGF72 mi8,000 ft
Fort Smith RgnlFSM78 mi9,318 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
76
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

Other cities in Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
FayettevilleWashington County99,31972vs Bella Vista
SpringdaleWashington County88,16076vs Bella Vista
RogersBenton County72,98179vs Bella Vista
BentonvilleBenton County58,24982vs Bella Vista
CentertonBenton County21,92081vs Bella Vista
Siloam SpringsBenton County18,69979vs Bella Vista
LowellBenton County10,84980vs Bella Vista

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in Bella Vista

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
7271517,288$82,44775
7271414,350$103,12579