Population Trends of Northwest Arkansas

[KJW]

Had a thread in the "Coffee House", archived now, about the population from India in Northwest Arkansas. This article

 

http://5newsonline.com/2012/05/31/the-indian-community-is-spicing-things-up-in-nwa/

 

indicates there may be now as many as 4,000 Indian families in NWA.  I know many single men, particularly contractors, have to be arriving from India on temporary visas.  But if you count a family as averaging 3-4 people (and some of our new neighbors bring parents with them) that could be around 12,000 - 16,000 people from India here at least.  Given we now have in Benton County alone at least one Hindu and two Sikh temples, that may either be a little high or about right (some Indian families are attending protestant churches here as well).  I'm guessing the number is closer to 4,000 people, or maybe 2,000 families (still a lot).

 

Here's another article saying that movie theatres are now showing "Bollywood" films...didn't know that.  Good for them.  (The article says there are only 2,500 Hindus estimated in the area, but I do think many of the people from India, don't know how many, may not practice Hinduism.  Sikhism is an offshoot but a separate religion so I wouldn't think they'd be counted):

 

http://www.thecitywire.com/node/24922#.Ugebe5I4ujk

 

It won't be as large as New York or Los Angeles, but I'd be curious to see how NWA's India community compares in size with other areas across the nation at this point in time, especially given how TATA (won't even get into their name, but it's a respected one in India) has their name on the tallest building in Bentonville now.

 

Sorry, I'm not sure how we're supposed to post links on Urban Planet now.

[Mith242]

Had a thread in the "Coffee House", archived now, about the population from India in Northwest Arkansas. This article

 

http://5newsonline.com/2012/05/31/the-indian-community-is-spicing-things-up-in-nwa/

 

indicates there may be now as many as 4,000 Indian families in NWA.  I know many single men, particularly contractors, have to be arriving from India on temporary visas.  But if you count a family as averaging 3-4 people (and some of our new neighbors bring parents with them) that could be around 12,000 - 16,000 people from India here at least.  Given we now have in Benton County alone at least one Hindu and two Sikh temples, that may either be a little high or about right (some Indian families are attending protestant churches here as well).  I'm guessing the number is closer to 4,000 people, or maybe 2,000 families (still a lot).

 

Here's another article saying that movie theatres are now showing "Bollywood" films...didn't know that.  Good for them.  (The article says there are only 2,500 Hindus estimated in the area, but I do think many of the people from India, don't know how many, may not practice Hinduism.  Sikhism is an offshoot but a separate religion so I wouldn't think they'd be counted):

 

http://www.thecitywire.com/node/24922#.Ugebe5I4ujk

 

It won't be as large as New York or Los Angeles, but I'd be curious to see how NWA's India community compares in size with other areas across the nation at this point in time, especially given how TATA (won't even get into their name, but it's a respected one in India) has their name on the tallest building in Bentonville now.

 

Sorry, I'm not sure how we're supposed to post links on Urban Planet now.

Yeah a lot of people do think of Hinduism when they think of India.  But yes there are other religions as well.  I often hear that they say they have decent populations of about every major religion in India.  But I'd say Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims form the main proportion of the population as a whole.

[RAK]

There's already a small Sikh temple off 71b.  Can't recall exactly where.

[KJW]

Funny thing. When I made the post I didn't even know about the India Independence Day article in yesterdays BCDR.  BTW, they estimated 2,500 people of Indian descent here in NWA.  Sure seems along both Moberly Avenue and now in the Apartments, and now subdivisions, off Airport Road between the new Neighborhood Market and the WM Distribution Center there may be even more.  Welcome.

 

BTW, this was probably mentioned earlier, but I saw also earlier in the paper that they're targeting to have the Midtown Shopping Center razed(? - doubt they build on top of it) and new WM Neighborhood market + 3-story building in its place by late 2015 in downtown Bentonville.

[KJW]

Thinking of the evil "Rothbart" in the (wonderful, I thought) TBS children's animated movie "The swan princess":  "Today's the day, Willie...today's the day..."

 

Well, don't think this is quite as evil by a long shot (depending upon whether you're a native or not) but according to KNWA:

 

"May 28th's the day, Willie (Clinton?  )...May 28th is the DAY (that NWA's population officially hits 500,000) !!"

 

(Urban planeteers of NWA may want to take advantage of this):

 

 

 

The Northwest Arkansas Council hopes to get residents pumped about hitting the half million mark, so it's launching a contest to celebrate. Starting at midnight on Wednesday, May 28, post photos to your social media sites featuring you and your friends and family enjoying Northwest Arkansas!

"What we want is for people to use social media to celebrate why Northwest Arkansas is such a great place for a half million residents now," Malone says.

You can post as many pics as you want, just be sure to use the hashtag #NWA500K. That automatically enters you to win a $500 Walmart gift card and a gift basket of local swag. The contest ends on June 9.

[RAK]

Well, that's a nice birthday present for me.  

[KJW]

Well, that's a nice birthday present for me.  

 

Happy birthday in advance, RAK!

 

Here's more from The City Wire on this:

 

 

‘BUMPS US UP ANOTHER GEAR’

 

The 500,000 milestone is not just a number, according to David Erstine, executive broker with CBRE-Northwest Arkansas. He said being able to market the region as one with 500,000-plus residents will further assist an already dynamic regional economy in attracting new businesses, restaurants and amenities.

 

“It helps broaden the scope of who would be looking at Northwest Arkansas from a business standpoint, especially from a commercial real estate standpoint and a retailer’s standpoint,” said Erstine, who has more than 10 years in commercial real estate work. “There are certain thresholds that are automatic ... to being included on site selection sheets, and this will be one of them.”

 

Erstine admitted that the region has long had a recruitment advantage over larger metro areas by having Wal-Mart Stores based in Bentonville and the associated thousands of good-paying jobs with the Wal-Mart supplier community. However, he said the 500,000 mark will help bolster the advantage.

 

“But it (500,000 population mark) definitely strengthens the story. It gets us up a notch. It bumps us up another gear. For any of those groups who have identified 500,000 plus (as a qualifier) ... that’s just one more benchmark we’ve met,” he explained.

 

Erstine said the next metro population benchmark is 750,000, almost the size of central Arkansas’ metro area. The Census estimate for the central Arkansas metro area in 2013 was 724,385, up from 610,518 in 2000.

http://www.thecitywire.com/node/33237#.U39z4vldVqM

 

[RAK]

Thank you!  I see they're doing a lot of touch up work around Pauline Whitaker.  More lamps and what might be trees coming in for the islands.  The AMP is almost ready, too.  This will be an area helping to bring in more folks.

[jb1087]

I don't know if this has been discussed before (I apologize if so), but what are they counting in this 500,000?  Fort Smith and Fay/Spr/Rog are 2 separate MSAs.  If you add them together, even several years ago, it was over 500,000.  Are they removing Fort Smith from it's surrounding cities and adding it to the F/S/R one to get 500k?  

I would think the F/S/R MSA on it's own will be over 500k any year now, if not already.  Census estimates had it at 482k in 2012.

[wmr]

I don't know if this has been discussed before (I apologize if so), but what are they counting in this 500,000?  Fort Smith and Fay/Spr/Rog are 2 separate MSAs.  If you add them together, even several years ago, it was over 500,000.  Are they removing Fort Smith from it's surrounding cities and adding it to the F/S/R one to get 500k?  

I would think the F/S/R MSA on it's own will be over 500k any year now, if not already.  Census estimates had it at 482k in 2012.

 

The Fayetteville Springdale Rogers MSA is comprised of Benton, Washington and Carroll counties in Arkansas and McDonald County in Missouri.  That's the NWA metropolitan area defined.  Fort Smith is its own metro area.  You can google this, btw.  http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Northwest+Arkansas+Metro+Area

[nickbenso]

The northwest Arkansas metropolitan statistical area is Washington, Benton and Madison counties in Arkansas and McDonald county in Missouri. These counties are the ones that are being counted in the 500,000. Here's the link

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers_metropolitan_area

[KJW]

The northwest Arkansas metropolitan statistical area is Washington, Benton and Madison counties in Arkansas and McDonald county in Missouri. These counties are the ones that are being counted in the 500,000. Here's the link

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers_metropolitan_area

 

Indeed.  Fort Smith's metro is Sebastian, Franklin, Crawford (AR), LeFlore, Sequoyah (OK).  If we ever add FSM/NWA together their population would be just under 800,000 today, likely at that mark by year's end.  If Adair (Stilwell, Westville) and Delaware (West Siloam Springs, Grove, Jay) in Oklahoma are added to NWA's metro as some have speculated will happen, the NWA metro (today) would be about 562,000, 862,000 if combined with the FSM metro.

 

BTW, if NWA keeps growing as expected it will be hard though not impossible for the two Oklahoma counties to NOT become part of it.  Perry County, AR (now in the Little Rock metro) wasn't part of the metro when Little Rock metro's population was "only" in the 500,000 range even though it borders Pulaski County.

[wmr]

Individual city estimates are out for July 1, 2013 ;  2010 numbers, versus 2013 estimates in bold:

 

Fayetteville -  73,580 -  78,960

Springdale - 69,797 - 75,229

Rogers - 55,964 - 60,112

Bentonville - 35,301 - 40,167

Bella Vista - 26,461 - 27,642

Siloam Springs - 15,039 - 15,856

Centerton - 9,515 - 10,556

Lowell - 7,327 - 7,940

Farmington - 5,974 - 6,304

[Mith242]

Indeed.  Fort Smith's metro is Sebastian, Franklin, Crawford (AR), LeFlore, Sequoyah (OK).  If we ever add FSM/NWA together their population would be just under 800,000 today, likely at that mark by year's end.  If Adair (Stilwell, Westville) and Delaware (West Siloam Springs, Grove, Jay) in Oklahoma are added to NWA's metro as some have speculated will happen, the NWA metro (today) would be about 562,000, 862,000 if combined with the FSM metro.

 

BTW, if NWA keeps growing as expected it will be hard though not impossible for the two Oklahoma counties to NOT become part of it.  Perry County, AR (now in the Little Rock metro) wasn't part of the metro when Little Rock metro's population was "only" in the 500,000 range even though it borders Pulaski County.

I think someone pointed this out a while back.  While it would be nice to add those two OK counties, there really isn't much added population there.  Really Benton and Washington Counties easily make up the huge bulk of the population.  I'm not sure that we'll see Ft Smith or Joplin being added to our metro anytime soon.  I think what's more likely to happen is having one of those metros and NWA being made into a CSA, a combined statistical area.  I suppose maybe both might be added at some point.  But I think both of those are still too far to really become a part of our actual metro.  I think it would take a tremendous amount of growth, one that would push the core of the metro outside the two country area, before Joplin or Ft Smith could ever really be considered being added to the actual metro.

Individual city estimates are out for July 1, 2013 ;  2010 numbers, versus 2013 estimates in bold:

 

Fayetteville -  73,580 -  78,960

Springdale - 69,797 - 75,229

Rogers - 55,964 - 60,112

Bentonville - 35,301 - 40,167

Bella Vista - 26,461 - 27,642

Siloam Springs - 15,039 - 15,856

Centerton - 9,515 - 10,556

Lowell - 7,327 - 7,940

Farmington - 5,974 - 6,304

Thanks for those updated figures.  I hadn't seen those yet.  The way things had been going for years, I'm a little surprised to see Springdale not a bit closer to Fayetteville.  But maybe Springdale's growth has slowed just a touch.  For a while it seemed like it might be pretty soon that it could pass up Fayetteville in population.

[wmr]

At present growth rates, Fayetteville will be around 92,000 in 2020.  Springdale will be around 88,000.  A lot could change between now and then, though.  I'm also surprised to see Fayetteville maintaining its lead.  I guess there has been a lot of multifamily infill in Fayetteville over the past three years which allows for rapid growth.  The infill trend seems to be continuing for now.

[Mith242]

At present growth rates, Fayetteville will be around 92,000 in 2020.  Springdale will be around 88,000.  A lot could change between now and then, though.  I'm also surprised to see Fayetteville maintaining its lead.  I guess there has been a lot of multifamily infill in Fayetteville over the past three years which allows for rapid growth.  The infill trend seems to be continuing for now.

Good point on the infill.  I had to get us off topic but with the addition to the Fayetteville Trail system southwards I've been riding my bicycle around areas of south Fayetteville I've never really explored much before.  Been sorta surprised at some of the interesting modern housing that's been put in what had been previously empty lots.  

[jb1087]

So Fort Smith isn't technically being counted in this 500k then right?  I guess I was thrown off by the articles that talk about the two of them together and then about NWA reaching 500k.

[Mith242]

So Fort Smith isn't technically being counted in this 500k then right?  I guess I was thrown off by the articles that talk about the two of them together and then about NWA reaching 500k.

No, Ft Smith isn't part of the 500,000.  It's a separate metro, not part of the NWA metro.  Ft Smith does have it's own topic on the NWA forum here because of it's proximity.  

[jb1087]

I get the proximity part, but all of the co-marketing stuff seems strange. 

[KJW]

Individual city estimates are out for July 1, 2013 ;  2010 numbers, versus 2013 estimates in bold:

 

Fayetteville -  73,580 -  78,960

Springdale - 69,797 - 75,229

Rogers - 55,964 - 60,112

Bentonville - 35,301 - 40,167

Bella Vista - 26,461 - 27,642

Siloam Springs - 15,039 - 15,856

Centerton - 9,515 - 10,556

Lowell - 7,327 - 7,940

Farmington - 5,974 - 6,304

 

Excellent posts, gang.

 

Here's something sobering.  If the current growth rate of 24 people a day holds for the next 25 years, NWA will grow by at least 8,760 people each year.  That's the equivalent of more than a new city of 800 more people than Lowell's current population emerging in the metro area annually.

[strmchsr77]

Excellent posts, gang.

 

Here's something sobering.  If the current growth rate of 24 people a day holds for the next 25 years, NWA will grow by at least 8,760 people each year.  That's the equivalent of more than a new city of 800 more people than Lowell's current population emerging in the metro area annually.

I would assume that with the university's huge amount of growth over the past 3 years that Fayetteville's population may have already broken 80,000.  I doubt that was factored in for these estimates.

[Mith242]

I would assume that with the university's huge amount of growth over the past 3 years that Fayetteville's population may have already broken 80,000.  I doubt that was factored in for these estimates.

Yeah I'm not sure how the students are counted.  I know at one point they weren't considered 'full time residents'.  But that was a while back and I'm not sure what the criteria is now.

[jb1087]

Does the census go to colleges' on-campus residents? 

[Snaple4]

I don't remember any visiting me when I lived on campus... Although, I do think they hit up those that live off campus though.

[jb1087]

I don't remember any visiting me when I lived on campus... Although, I do think they hit up those that live off campus though.

I don't know how they'd differentiate if you lived off-campus (as in non-owned/affiliated apartments around a campus, etc) from people who are just living in the same building and not going to school.