72401Jonesboro, Arkansas

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 72401.

63out of 100
Area Score
Top 39% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 40% of 6,210 published ZIP areas59
GrowthTop 11% of 5,428 published ZIP areas74
Housing affordability4132nd of 6,685 published ZIP areas72
ClimateTop 49% of 6,789 published ZIP areas70
Physical resilience4043rd of 6,709 published ZIP areas48
Access5242nd of 6,791 published ZIP areas81
Economic stability6031st of 6,742 published ZIP areas32
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.4% and median household income $45,329, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

792 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 2% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

Rent takes 24% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.2 times that income.

At a glance

Population
42,602
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$45,329
Bottom 10% nationally
Density
481/sq mi
88.5 sq mi of land
Median age
33.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Jonesboro
Arkansas
Metro area
Jonesboro, AR
Nearest major airport
BYH
37 mi · Arkansas Intl
Median home value
$188,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 52% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 2.6% over the past year, to 39,538 employed residents.

Median household income of $45,329 is below 90% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,135$45,329Bottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,200$27,009Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate30.7%Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute18.7 minBottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher24.0%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment39,538Bottom 39%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)5.9%Top 3%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)2.6%Top 2%June 2026
Labor force41,361Bottom 39%June 2026
Labor force participation59.5%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$52,610Bottom 2%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$42,240Bottom 3%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 45%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Bottom 48%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202445k40k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $45,329 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 — Jonesboro, AR
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Registered Nurses1,990$78,940
Retail Salespersons1,940$28,960
Fast Food and Counter Workers1,900$26,260
General and Operations Managers1,470$69,370
Cashiers1,340$28,090
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand1,280$37,500

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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Jonesboro, AR, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 15.8 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
13
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
THE ACADEMIES AT JONESBORO HIGH SCHOOLJONESBORO SCHOOL DISTRICT1,50514.9
DOUGLAS MACARTHUR JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLJONESBORO SCHOOL DISTRICT76514.4
VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS MAGNETJONESBORO SCHOOL DISTRICT73118.3
ANNIE CAMP JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLJONESBORO SCHOOL DISTRICT70113.2
INTERNATIONAL STUDIES MAGNETJONESBORO SCHOOL DISTRICT63618.7
HEALTH WELLNESS & ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES MAGNETJONESBORO SCHOOL DISTRICT63318.6
MATH & SCIENCE MAGNET SCHOOLJONESBORO SCHOOL DISTRICT49915.6
LEADERSHIP MAGNET SCHOOLJONESBORO SCHOOL DISTRICT49218.2
KINDERGARTEN CENTERJONESBORO SCHOOL DISTRICT48514.7
EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING CENTERJONESBORO SCHOOL DISTRICT31518.5
NETTLETON STEAM INTERMEDIATENETTLETON SCHOOL DISTRICT31314.2
NETTLETON STEAM ELEMENTARYNETTLETON SCHOOL DISTRICT20614.7

97.6% 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 $923 takes 24% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
24.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$923
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$188,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.16Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate48.9%Bottom 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±64019,301Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$59$923Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$11,069$188,600Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income24.4%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate10.1%Bottom 46%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
74/ 100
Top 11% of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 15% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 9.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
792
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
9.9
Top 12% nationally
Year over year
+2%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
14.6%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Jonesboro, AR, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 91°F and January a low of 31°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 48.5 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station JONESBORO MUNI AP, 3.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation48.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low31°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing43°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

48 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Ice stormElevated
EarthquakeModerate
DroughtModerate
Winter weatherModerate
Cold waveModerate
LandslideModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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.

Craighead County records 4.1 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 14.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 9.6 per 100,000 residents in Craighead County.

Homicide
4.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
9.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
12.3
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 Craighead 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 72401 rather than 72401 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 37 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Arkansas IntlBYH37 mi11,602 ft
Millington/MemphisNQA52 mi8,001 ft
Frederick W Smith Intl/MemphisMEM64 mi11,120 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.

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Area Score
63
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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.

72401 vs Jonesboro

How this ZIP area compares with Jonesboro as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

72401
Jonesboro
Median household income
$45,329
vs
$55,424
Per capita income
$27,009
vs
$33,544
Population density
481/sq mi
vs
1,000/sq mi
Median home value
$188,600
vs
$223,200
Median gross rent
$923
vs
$956
Homeownership rate
48.9%
vs
54.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher
24.0%
vs
31.8%
Poverty rate
30.7%
vs
22.8%
Median age
33.6
vs
33.9

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.