City safety & data profile

Forrest CityAR

Forrest City, AR is a 15K-resident city in St. Francis County with a median household income of $35,689.

St. Francis County, Arkansas. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Forrest City, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Forrest City has a population larger than 26% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $92,000, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

15K
Population (place)
Bottom 27%
By size
$35,689
Median income (place)
$92,000
Median home (place)
37.7%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Forrest City

Forrest City posts a median household income higher than 1% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Forrest City area.

Bottom 2%
by median income, US cities
1
hospital in & near Forrest City

Where Forrest City income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$35,689 Bottom 1% higher than 1% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Forrest City $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in AR

Population among 39 AR places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Little Rock is the largest AR city on this list; Centerton leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in AR

Median household income among the same 39-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Centerton posts the highest place-level median income in AR; Little Rock is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Forrest City, AR beyond the headline numbers

Forrest City sits inside St. Francis County, Arkansas, at roughly 35.01°N, -90.79°W. Population 14,672, $35,689 median household income. Median home value $92,000, median rent $805. Poverty rate 37.7%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

1 hospital in/around Forrest City, 0 with an ER.

37.7% of Forrest City, AR residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.

Housing is inexpensive against local pay -- the median home in Forrest City runs about 2.6 years of median household income, in the cheapest quarter of reporting cities.

Only 2.7% of Forrest City workers report working from home, the lowest quarter of reporting cities -- an economy still built around showing up somewhere.

Among the CDC measures on this page, stroke departs furthest from its peer median: 6.2% in Forrest City, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

Public transit carries 0% of Forrest City workers, a smaller share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Forrest City from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
14,672
Forrest City · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$35,689
-60% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$92,000
-78% vs avg
Median Age (place)
36.9
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (St. Francis County): Forrest City's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
22K-20%
Median Income
$42,574+38%
Median Home Value
$90,900+39%
Poverty Rate
28.5%+0%
Unemployment
9.2%-28%

Economics

Economics indicators for Forrest City, AR
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$805/mo
Poverty Rate
37.7% +204% vs avg
Unemployment 13.5%
Bachelor's Degree+ 13.8%
Work From Home 2.7%
Public Transit 0%

Population

White 23.4%
African American 73.4%
Asian 0.2%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

High Blood Pressure
53.2%
Obesity
52.9%
Short Sleep Duration
50.1%
Physical Inactivity
46.6%
Current Smoking
26.3%
Diabetes
21.3%
Frequent Mental Distress
21.3%
Frequent Physical Distress
19.5%
Lack of Health Insurance
17.1%
Binge Drinking
12.1%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 37.8%
Annual Checkup 80.1%

Other Measures

Current Asthma
11.6%
Coronary Heart Disease
9.2%
Stroke
6.2%

What alerts and safety updates affect Forrest City?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Forrest City right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet AR-FORREST-CITY · Forrest City

Forrest City: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.

  • FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
  • LEAD-NONE Feed idle
  • DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Forrest City; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Arkansas state hubs · Methodology

Read with this city profile

Tracking Safety Alerts in Your Area

How Areazine tags Forrest City in the CAP feed
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Forrest City, AR? ▼
Forrest City, AR has a population of 14,672 people, located in St. Francis County, Arkansas.
What is the median household income in Forrest City? ▼
The median household income in Forrest City, AR is $35,689 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 37.7%.
What is the median home value in Forrest City? ▼
The median home value in Forrest City, AR is $92,000. Median rent is $805/month.
What are the top health concerns in Forrest City? ▼
The top health indicators in Forrest City include High Blood Pressure (53.2%), Obesity (52.9%), Short Sleep Duration (50.1%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Forrest City? ▼
Forrest City has 1 hospital. 0 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Forrest City? ▼
The median age in Forrest City, AR is 36.9 years. 13.8% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Forrest City, both outside Arkansas so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside AR (37.7% here).

Kiryas Joel, NY 37.6% Carbondale, IL 37.4% Opelousas, LA 37.4% La Homa, TX 37.4%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside AR ($35,689 here).

East Saint Louis, IL $35,700 Greenwood, MS $35,473 Eunice, LA $35,436 Muskegon Heights, MI $35,239

Compare Forrest City with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Helena-West Helena, AR 11K West Memphis, AR 25K Marion, AR 12K New South Memphis, TN 642K Memphis, TN 633K Horn Lake, MS 27K Southaven, MS 53K Hernando, MS 16K
All cities in Arkansas → Compare Forrest City vs Helena-West Helena → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Forrest City's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Forrest City area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare Forrest City against Arkansas peers on any ranking lens. Explore Arkansas

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (St. Francis County) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.