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Population Trends of Northwest Arkansas


Mith242

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Mith, I am indeed surprised that FSM's not yet been joined with NWA in a Combined Statistical Area.  I don't think in terms of television the market would ever split (too much money to lose for the TV stations) and as such any NWA media buy automatically gets FSM piggybacked in, or vice versa.  (I think there was an article recently about how people are wising up to market their products and/or services in both areas now.)  No matter how long it takes to get a bridge linked across the rive to just the section of I-49 from Barling to Greenwood that will open soon, I think we're going to see ever more cooperation between these two areas.  800,000 people across 9 contiguous counties are nothing to sneeze at.

 

That's about what the populations of either metro Louisville or metro Memphis were 25 years ago.

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It makes just as much sense to include up to Joplin in the same stats.

 

UrbanArkie, I can see your point, but in this case it really doesn't, at least not yet.  Joplin is in the Joplin/Pittsburg DMA (as is, strangely, McDonald County, MO, in the NWA metro)/television market.  Two separate media buys...two separate worlds in many cases. 

 

Again, when we get I-49 finished, let's revisit your idea and see how we roll.

 

(Footnote: I went out west of Bella Vista to see how the bridge on Rocky Dell Hollow Road (the second section of the bypass, set to open in the fall) was coming.  A few hundred feet off the road I noticed a ArkDOT or subcontractor fuel trailer leaking profusely.  Had no idea how to stop it and it's not my property so I called 911...Gravette police, Gravette fire, city of Bella Vista and Ark DOT subcontractors all responded.

 

I could hear the poor fire engine siren winding and weaving its way through the curved roads they now have to traverse, and it took them several minutes to get there.  GPD and the subcontractors, however, just peeled down the dirt carriageway of future I-49.  They were all saying what a blessing it will be for emergency vehicles getting to west Bella Vista when this is finished.  Just a reminder that things WILL change, maybe big time, when we have a fully linked I-49 in the NWA metro, and Joplin WILL become much more accessible and vice versa.)

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  • 9 months later...

Out of curiosity, I did some very rough math.

 

Using the NWA population estimate in the article today, I added the 843 people of West Siloam Springs (Delaware County, OK isn't in the metro yet, WSS certainly is), then calculated the number of days from July 1st until today times 24 (with the "24" signifying the 24 new people per day to the NWA metro), then added the estimated 298,000 in the Fort Smith metro area.

 

Rough population estimate as of today for NWA/FSM: 806,952 people living here between them.

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Out of curiosity, I did some very rough math.

 

Using the NWA population estimate in the article today, I added the 843 people of West Siloam Springs (Delaware County, OK isn't in the metro yet, WSS certainly is), then calculated the number of days from July 1st until today times 24 (with the "24" signifying the 24 new people per day to the NWA metro), then added the estimated 298,000 in the Fort Smith metro area.

 

Rough population estimate as of today for NWA/FSM: 806,952 people living here between them.

 

That's interesting.  NWA and Fort Smith don't share a lot of stuff other than TV markets, but there is quite a bit of back and forth between the two metros.  I wonder if we'll ever see a CSA declared between the areas.  They'll obviously never be parts of the same metropolitan area because of the mountains and national forest between the areas.  

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That's interesting.  NWA and Fort Smith don't share a lot of stuff other than TV markets, but there is quite a bit of back and forth between the two metros.  I wonder if we'll ever see a CSA declared between the areas.  They'll obviously never be parts of the same metropolitan area because of the mountains and national forest between the areas.  

Yeah, I agree with you.  We'll never be in the same metro.  But I could certainly see a CSA being established at some point.  But maybe we'll need NWA to become even larger and dominant to draw in more people from Ft Smith.  One interesting thing I was reading about was that Ft Smith was a larger 'trade area' (not really sure how they technically classified it) than the cities of NWA.  While NWA is a single metro it basically is divided between Benton and Washington Counties.  With many people sticking to their own county.  Makes sense because there really isn't one dominant city in NWA.  So in many cases you can stick to your own county for many things without having the need to cross into the other county.

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  • 1 month later...

2014  Census Estimates are out today for cities and counties:

 

Fayetteville - 80,621
Springdale - 76,565
Rogers - 61,464
Bentonville - 41,613
Bella Vista - 27,688
Siloam Springs - 15,944
Centerton - 11,193
Lowell - 8,334
Farmington - 6,477
 
Benton County - 242,321
Washington County - 220,792
 
Here's a quick link for plugging in whatever county of city you'd like to know more about.  http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2015/05/census_population_estimates_fo.html
 
 
 
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Well finally some good news about Fayetteville.  I am not surprised as there are close to 100 homes either just finished or under construction in my little area of NW Fayetteville right now.  They can not build them fast enough.  I wonder if any of growth numbers are a reflection of the University's recent booming growth.

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Well finally some good news about Fayetteville.  I am not surprised as there are close to 100 homes either just finished or under construction in my little area of NW Fayetteville right now.  They can not build them fast enough.  I wonder if any of growth numbers are a reflection of the University's recent booming growth.

Yes and for quite a while Springdale was closing the gap on Fayetteville but now Fayetteville is adding just a little more of a cushion.  Still wouldn't be surprised if Springdale passes up Fayetteville at some point in the future though.  

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Yes and for quite a while Springdale was closing the gap on Fayetteville but now Fayetteville is adding just a little more of a cushion.  Still wouldn't be surprised if Springdale passes up Fayetteville at some point in the future though.  

Springdale is still struggling on the real estate side.  Especially on the East side of town.  I do see the west side blowing up over the next few years near the Don Tyson and Elm Springs Road Exits.  Hopefully Fayetteville can hold on to it's status as number 1 in population in NWAR.  It is making ground on Fort Smith pretty quickly as well.  I think the gap is less than 5,000 now.  

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Springdale is still struggling on the real estate side.  Especially on the East side of town.  I do see the west side blowing up over the next few years near the Don Tyson and Elm Springs Road Exits.  Hopefully Fayetteville can hold on to it's status as number 1 in population in NWAR.  It is making ground on Fort Smith pretty quickly as well.  I think the gap is less than 5,000 now.  

I've always wondered if by the time Fayetteville finally caught up to Ft Smith that Springdale would pass them both up.   :lol:   Either way, looking forward to an NWA city eventually becoming the the second biggest city in the state.  I think growth in Ft Smith has really slowed down so it may happen a little sooner in the future than I had anticipated.

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I've always wondered if by the time Fayetteville finally caught up to Ft Smith that Springdale would pass them both up.   :lol:   Either way, looking forward to an NWA city eventually becoming the the second biggest city in the state.  I think growth in Ft Smith has really slowed down so it may happen a little sooner in the future than I had anticipated.

Fort Smith seems to be losing some of the industrial jobs they have had over the past few decades and that might keep the growth to a minimum.  Fayetteville will be opening up more land for development once Rupple Road is extended to MLK and once Van Ashe is widened and connected to Hwy 112.  I guess we will see what happens over the next year or two.

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Yes I am sure the UofA growth has played its part but people underestimate the number of people who live in Fayetteville that work for Tyson, Wal-Mart and vendors. Our neighbors in Fay. are always from those employers. People seem to assume if you work at one of the corporate locations you must live in Springdale or Bentonville.

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