Northwest Arkansas State of the Region Report 2021

The State of the Northwest Arkansas Region Report is an annual publication, commissioned by the Northwest Arkansas Council, that serves as a tool for evaluating economic performance. In 2018, the Northwest Arkansas Council created a strategic action agenda for 2018-2021. In this plan, the performance of Northwest Arkansas is benchmarked with other contemporary, high-performing regions: Austin, Des Moines, Madison, Durham-Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Provo-Orem. The 2021 State of the Region Report compares Northwest Arkansas with these regions in the areas of gross domestic product, employment, unemployment, establishment growth, average annual wages, research and development, and average domestic airfares. The 2020 Census was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and, as a result, updated data for the following indicators is not available: median household income, poverty, educational attainment, homeownership costs and commuting time