Best PlacesConway County, AR Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Conway County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Conway County ranks 2,645th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and civic engagement ranks lowest.

#2,645
of 3,144 counties
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 3,144 counties
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Conway County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Conway County area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

Conway County's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Affordable childcare
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Conway County with other counties.

Where Conway County ranks high

  • Cheap childcare$481 a month, better than 93% of counties
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 82% of counties
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 81% of counties
  • Low property taxBetter than 74% of counties
  • Tree shadeBetter than 71% of counties

Where Conway County ranks low

  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 6% of counties
  • Health outlookBetter than only 11% of counties
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 12% of counties
  • Household income$55,388 median, better than only 17% of counties
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 19% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Conway County

A household needs to earn about $39,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Conway County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $55,388, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$39,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$904
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $153,399 home
Median rent
$1,031
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$782
Property tax$71
Homeowners insurance$51

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Conway County's effective rate of 0.55%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Conway County

Conway County's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
43
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
21%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1821%
18 to 3418%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6421%
65 and older21%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Conway County.


Who works in Conway County, and how

Work in Conway County centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
8%
below the national average
Unemployment
5.6%
above the national average
Job growth
+0.9%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social16%
Retail trade12%
Manufacturing11%
Education9%
Agriculture & forestry7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 90%
  • Work from home 8%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Conway County

Conway County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties. That concentrates in some parts of Conway County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
82
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 39.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 35% of counties
Coffee shops
11
about 5.3 per 10,000 residents, more than 52% of counties
Parkland
83 acres
about 4.0 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 47% of counties

Is Conway County growing, and who is moving in?

Conway County has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Little Rock, AR.

Population growth
+2%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
21,422
up from 20,995
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Little Rock, AR287 / yr
Pope County, AR175 / yr
Denver, CO92 / yr
Fayetteville, AR52 / yr
Fort Smith, AR31 / yr

Where people leaving Conway County go

Little Rock, AR477 / yr
Hagerstown, MD39 / yr
Cross County, AR37 / yr
Jefferson County, AR37 / yr
Baxter County, AR26 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Conway County, month by month

Conway County sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 51, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January51°39°30°
April74°61°50°
July93°81°72°
October77°63°52°

Flying in and out of Conway County

The nearest airport, Bill and Hillary Clinton Ntl/Adams Field, is about 43 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Memphis International, about 155 miles away.

Nearest airport
LIT
Bill and Hillary Clinton Ntl/Adams Field, about 43 miles
Airport size
Small hub
102nd-busiest in the US, 47 nonstop destinations
Average drive
62 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Conway County

Schools across Conway County average a C, better than 39% of counties.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Conway County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Conway County measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Conway County against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Conway County suits

Families

Schools land around the 39th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Internet is fast and widely advertised and 8% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Conway County

Is Conway County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Conway County ranks 2,645th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on affordable childcare, state finances, and a stable housing market, and lowest on civic engagement and health outcomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Conway County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $153,399. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $55,388 median income, cost of living beats 20% of counties.

Is Conway County safe?

Conway County is safer than 40% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $560 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Conway County?

July highs average about 93 degrees, and January highs near 51 with lows near 30. That works out to about 89 pleasant days a year, more than 51% of counties.

Is Conway County good for families?

Schools beat 39% of counties, crime safety beats 40%, and childcare runs $481 a month.


Compare Conway County with other counties


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Conway County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Conway County represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

Conway County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Conway County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Conway County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Conway County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Conway County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Conway County detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.