Arkansas jumped two spots in the latest 50-state study of overall child well-being, ranking 43rd in the country. Those are the results from the 2026 Kids Count Data Book, developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The state made progress in 7 areas, including drops in teen births and children living in high-poverty neighborhoods.
And for the first time each state received a score (from 0 to 1,000), tracking 16 indicators in four domains which include: economic well-being, education, health, and family and community factors – over a 5-year period from 2019-2024.
While the national state average came to 547, Arkansas received a score of 427, with the lowest score in education.
The nonprofit Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF) responded to the results, noting on their website that sharp increases in the children’s uninsured rate and the number of young children not in school as factors for some of Arkansas’ lower rankings,” in the five year period.
As the 2026 KIDS COUNT Data Book points out, while 13,000 fewer children live in poverty than before the pandemic, 20% of Arkansas kids still live in poverty. That constitutes one in five children, for a total of 138,000. While that’s a 9% drop, the national average from 2019-2024 was 12%.
Then there’s the percentage of children living in homes with a high ‘housing cost burden.’ That is defined as more than 30% of income spent on housing. Arkansas experienced a 14% increase over that five year period, while the national average was just 3%.
The AACF is calling on state lawmakers to take note of these results and take action. The agency’s first suggestion is to stop further efforts to further cut or even eliminate Arkansas’ state income tax.
On a regional level of state rankings, Texas and Oklahoma tied with a ranking of 44th for overall child well-being, while Louisiana ranked 48th, only ahead of New Mexico and Mississippi. When it came to state rankings on the health domain Arkansas fell to 48th, Texas 47th, and Louisiana 49th.
On a larger scale, the report includes a number of bright spots nationally:
- reductions in teen births & children living in high-poverty areas;
- declines in child poverty;
- increases in parental employment & educational attainment;
- improvements in on-time high school graduationrates; and
- a slight decrease in overweight/obese children & teens
The study points to several factors for these gains including economic recovery, effective public policies and sustained public health efforts.
Yet every state (47) experienced declines in education, another indicator how deeply the pandemic impacted students and school.
