FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – In May, the United Way of Northwest Arkansas, along with the Northwest Arkansas Community Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation and the University of Arkansas’ Community and Family Institute, met with community members to ask for their expertise and input in developing a report assessing the quality of life in Northwest Arkansas, a region defined as Benton, Carroll, Madison and Washington counties. The result, the Northwest Arkansas Community Indicators Report, was released Wednesday, Oct. 29.

Kevin Fitzpatrick, the lead author of the report, director of the Community and Family Institute and the Bernice Jones Endowed Chair in Community in Fulbright College, presented the findings.

“As we proposed back in May, it was important that the report and the larger project take on a regional focus. While we know that many social issues and challenges are specific to cities, school districts and police departments, many social issues transcend jurisdictional boundaries,” said Fitzpatrick. “The Northwest Arkansas Business Council has modeled for us a regional approach — looking at hard infrastructural challenges without being limited by the boundaries of cities, they have forged partnerships to solve problems and enhance the quality of life in the area. That model and vision are partly what directed and motivated this project.”

Areas covered in the report are quality of life, the sociodemographic composition of the region, income and poverty, housing and homelessness, families and households, education, health, public safety, aging, the environment and civic engagement and the arts.

Major points from the report include the following:

• The majority of residents rated Northwest Arkansas as an “excellent” or “good” place to live.
• Population growth since 2000 has slowed considerably, but Benton and Washington counties continue to experience double-digit growth rates.
• With the exception of Madison County, the percentage of children living in poverty has increased steadily since 1990.
• In 2007, the number of observed and estimated “invisible” homeless persons in Benton and Washington counties was 1,170.
• The vast majority of workers, in excess of 70 percent, drive to work alone. However, that rate is declining.
• In 2008, the region’s two largest and fastest growing counties, Benton and Washington, contain more facilities engaging in environmentally harmful activates than the two rural counties, Carroll and Madison.
• Since 1990, increases in the number of foreign-born residents in the region outpaced the growth in foreign-born residents in other parts of the state.

An online copy of the report can be found at http://sociology.uark.edu/2571.htm