Arkansas
State Government
Governor
Sarah Huckabee Sander (R)
State Senate
6
Democrats,
29
Republicans
State House
18
Democrats,
82
Republicans
Economic well-being - Arkansas
Extreme poverty rate
0.1
Food insecurity
0.2
Minimum wage
11.0
Percent of working families under 200% of the poverty line
0.4
Poverty rate
15.5%
Unemployment rate
3.8
Number of Black or African American children living in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment
Number of Hispanic or Latino children living in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment
Percent of individuals who are uninsured
9.4
Poverty by demographic - Arkansas
Child poverty rate
0.2
Number of Asian and Pacific Islander children below 200% poverty
N/A
Number of Black or African American children below 200% poverty
80000
Number of Hispanic or Latino children below 200% poverty
58000
Senior poverty rate
12.1 %
Women in poverty
1,535,219
Arkansans Who Saw Medicaid Work Requirements Up Close Warn of 'Chaos'
“Many of the Republicans pushing for Medicaid work requirements — permanent program cuts that will strip up to 14 million people of their health care coverage — likely have no idea what it takes to comply with them. We do. As legal aid lawyers, we were on the front lines helping low-income people in Arkansas keep their health care coverage when the state rolled out work requirements in 2018. The policy caused chaos for everyone involved: people receiving Medicaid, hospitals and health clinics, pharmacies, social services organizations and state agency caseworkers. No officials serious about governing should willingly create such problems for their own state.