census

Girl Scout Troop 3458 presents a check to the Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas

Families are taking a hit as pandemic aid ends, inflation continues

BY: - February 27, 2023

Forty million people in the U.S. are having difficulty affording household expenses, and a little more than 25 million people say they sometimes or often do not have enough to eat, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent Household Pulse survey data.  The survey is designed to collect data on household experiences during the […]

Local residents gather at Fayetteville's The Commons Bar & Café in Northwest Arkansas, one of the nation’s fastest-growing metropolitan areas, according to recent census data. (Photo credit: Northwest Arkansas Council)

Migration to NW Arkansas fuels state’s population growth in 2022

BY: - January 31, 2023

BENTONVILLE, Ark. – Jasmine Hudson never thought she would be a long-term Arkansas resident after moving to the Bentonville area to take a job with Walmart Inc. The Tennessee State University graduate joined the Arkansas retail giant nearly a decade ago. She left the company during the COVID-19 pandemic to start her own business with […]

A row of abandoned homes along a residential street in Cairo, Illinois, in 2021. Many small towns like Cairo have a surfeit of vacant housing, but people who need housing often don't live where the houses are. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The nation’s vacant homes present an opportunity — and a problem

BY: - November 28, 2022

With construction costs for new homes and interest rates soaring, vacant housing is drawing more attention as a shortcut to quickly getting more units on the market. But whether vacant homes are a curse or an opportunity depends on where you live. As housing affordability plummets and rents rise, putting more families with low incomes at risk […]