Happy Birthday Arkansas

On June 15th, 1836 Arkansas became an official state of the United States. A lot has changed over the past 185 years within the state. In order to celebrate this occasion, we are sharing facts from our Data-Z website to see what changed over the years in Arkansas.

According to our annual Financial State of the States Report, Arkansas received a “C” grade for its fiscal health. Most recently, Arkansas went into the pandemic with a debt burden of $1.4 billion. Sadly, Arkansas did not have enough money to set aside when to deal with the fluctuating markets influenced by the pandemic. It is expected Arkansas will lose $4 billion in revenue as a result of the uncertainties regarding the pandemic.

Although Arkansas’ $1.4 billion shortfall seems high, other states such as West Virginia, Maine, and New Mexico struggle with $2+ more billion dollars of state debt. When broken down to a per-taxpayer level, each Arkansas taxpayer would need to give the state an additional $1,700 to get it out of debt.

According to Data-Z minimum wage rates have increased from 2017-2021 in Arkansas. The minimum wage in Arkansas is now at $11/hour.

In Arkansas, the number of full-time public school teachers has increased over a five-year time period. In 2019, there were 3,000 more full-time public teachers than the previous year.

Arkansas’ female population is at 51% in 2019 whereas its male population is at 48% in 2019. Although Arkansas has a greater female population than its male population, these gender percentages have remained constant over the past decade.

Surprisingly, we see a 10-degree difference in Arkansas’ winter temperatures between 2020-2021. In 2021, the average winter temperature for Arkansas dropped to 35-degrees Fahrenheit.

You can learn more fun facts about Arkansas and make your own charts using Data-z. And we at Truth in Accounting wish Arkansas a very happy 185th birthday!

Anna D’Aprile is a press and communications intern at Truth in accounting