Arkansas is an incredible, amazing state. It’s got great beauty and greater people. Like all awesome things, Arkansas also has some haters. Those haters are obviously dummies, but there are a few things about our glorious state that we’d all be better off not knowing.
- In 2014, CNBC named Arkansas the tenth worst state to live in.
Flickr/Stuart Seeger
- Arkansas is the third least physically healthy state in America.
Flickr/Martin Lissmyr Part of the problem is cigarettes. One quarter of all adult Arkansans smoke.
- Obesity: it is estimated that one third of Arkansans need to fight the fat.
Wikimedia/ninjapoodles All the fried vegetables probably don’t help.
- One third of Arkansas children live in poverty.
Yale Photogrammar/Arthur Rothstein
- In 2008, Arkansas lawmakers fixed a law passed in the previous session—a law that made it legal for Arkansans of any age to marry as long as they had parental permission. That’s right, for a few months it was legal for toddlers to marry in Arkansas.
Flickr/Jamey M Photography
- Arkansas is the tenth most dangerous state in the U.S.
Wikimedia/Bawar Slimane Crime rates in Pine Bluff and Little Rock don’t help much.
- As of 2013, the time of the last nationwide rankings, Arkansas had the fourth highest teen pregnancy rate in the United States.
Pixabay/greyerbaby The good news is that that number is in decline. As of the latest statistics, the teen birth rate amounts to 39.5 births per 1,000 girls ages 15-19, which is down 5% from previous years.
- It is technically legal to beat your wife in Arkansas, but you may not do it more than once a month.
Wikimedia/Senior Airman Rusty Frank
- While recent measures for quality of pre-k education and high school graduation rates put Arkansas in a pretty good place as far as education goes, the college graduation rate is only 39%. That makes us 48th in the nation.
Wikipedia/AKS.9955
- Arkansas has the second highest average combined state-local sales tax rate.
Pixabay/TBit
- In 2015, XNA was ranked as the fifth worst airport in the nation.
Flickr/Joanna Poe
- It’s illegal to keep an alligator in a bathtub.
Wikipedia/Gareth Rasberry The truly troubling part is that at some point someone kept an alligator in a bathtub and they had to make a law about it.
Well, there we are. Now let’s try to forget all of these.
Flickr/Stuart Seeger
Flickr/Martin Lissmyr
Part of the problem is cigarettes. One quarter of all adult Arkansans smoke.
Wikimedia/ninjapoodles
All the fried vegetables probably don’t help.
Yale Photogrammar/Arthur Rothstein
Flickr/Jamey M Photography
Wikimedia/Bawar Slimane
Crime rates in Pine Bluff and Little Rock don’t help much.
Pixabay/greyerbaby
The good news is that that number is in decline. As of the latest statistics, the teen birth rate amounts to 39.5 births per 1,000 girls ages 15-19, which is down 5% from previous years.
Wikimedia/Senior Airman Rusty Frank
Wikipedia/AKS.9955
Pixabay/TBit
Flickr/Joanna Poe
Wikipedia/Gareth Rasberry
The truly troubling part is that at some point someone kept an alligator in a bathtub and they had to make a law about it.
OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article.
