The other ledger for Arkansas: half of its rural hospitals vulnerable to closure — the highest share in the nation — the country's highest household food-insecurity rate at 19.4%, 55,169 homes missing at the bottom of the rental market, and $10.8 billion of documented water and wastewater need. And a dam inventory where most high-hazard dams have no current inspection on record. Every figure is sourced, dated, and labeled — counted, modeled, or assessed.
How to read this page: the class chip on every measure is the honesty label. Counted = an inspection or enumeration record. Modeled = a study's projection or risk score — printed with the modeler's name. Assessed = a structured survey of required investment — needs as documented, not measurements of decay. Figures keep the form their source gave them; years are printed on every measure.
Click any category to expand it — every measure with its figure, what it means in plain language, and its source.
Hospitals — two models, one warning, no body count. Chartis (50% of Arkansas's rural hospitals vulnerable — the highest share in the nation) and CHQPR (30 hospitals at risk, 12 at immediate risk) use different methods and denominators; both are printed, neither is averaged into the other. Against them, the hard count is two rural closures since 2005 (Sheps Center) — Arkansas's hospital story is exposure, not yet loss.
Food. The headline rate is USDA's: 19.4% of HOUSEHOLDS food insecure, 2022–2024, the nation's highest. Feeding America's 567,110 counts PEOPLE on a different model — the two are labeled by unit everywhere they appear. No current statewide USDA Atlas low-income/low-access resident count was published in the sources retrieved, so no food-desert resident count is printed.
Housing. NLIHC's 55,169-home deficit measures the bottom of the rental market. A production-side estimate (Up for Growth, ~6,400 homes underproduced statewide in 2023) is disclosed in the category note, not hidden: Arkansas's shortage is deep at the floor and in Northwest Arkansas, not uniform statewide.
Water. The $7.7B / $3.1B pair is ASCE's 2025 fact sheet on the federal needs surveys. The Arkansas Natural Resources Commission's larger combined figure (above $13B including stormwater) is disclosed in the category note — different scope, not a contradiction.
Power — a plan, printed as a plan. Entergy Arkansas's 2,600 MW build is a forecast pending PSC approval, covering one utility's territory in a two-market state. The load driving it is named (data centres), including Google's West Memphis campus and Entergy's October 2026 amended filing seeking a higher ceiling — the plan's own moving target is part of the record.
Dams — an honest blank. Arkansas publishes no current poor-condition count for high-hazard dams because, on National Inventory of Dams data, 84% of them have no inspection on record. This page prints the 195-dam exposure and the inspection gap; it does not convert missing assessments into a reassuring zero.
Traffic. Little Rock does not appear in INRIX's ranked 2025 scorecard table and no statewide congestion total is published for Arkansas — so the category runs on TRIP's statewide measures (travel growth, fatality rate) and says so, rather than importing a metro number from another state or a stale year.
Broadband vintages. The $1.024B allocation dates to 2023's FCC map; the 79,000+ unserved locations and ~$305.5M commitment figure are the state broadband office's May 2026 position. Both are labeled with their years so neither is mistaken for the other.