Milken Institute ranks Northwest Arkansas as nation’s best-performing large metro area

Northwest Arkansas, or the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metro, is the best-performing large metropolitan area in the United States, according to new rankings from the Milken Institute.

The nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank released its Best-Performing Cities 2026: Resilience in a Cooling Economy report on Tuesday (Jan. 27). The report evaluated the performance of 411 metro areas using 13 metrics related to the short- and long-term trends in the labor market, performance of high-tech industries and shared access to economic opportunities. Link here for the new report.

Following are the top metro areas, ranked from 1 to 12, in the 2026 report’s large cities category:

• Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers
• Huntsville, Ala.
• Charleston-North Charleston, S.C.
• Boise City, Idaho
• Raleigh-Cary, N.C.
• Provo-Orem-Lehi, Utah
• Salt Lake City-Murray, Utah
• Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Fla.
• Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, Texas
• Olympia-Lacey-Turnwater, Wash.
• Wilmington, N.C.
• Arlington-Alexandria-Reston, Va.-W.Va.

Northwest Arkansas gained six positions from the 2025 report to become the best-performing large metropolitan area. The metro area, which has steadily risen in the rankings since 2020, rose to the top because of its “thriving labor market anchored by Walmart and several other Fortune 500 companies, along with a robust high-tech sector and excellent housing affordability,” the report shows.

Northwest Arkansas has ranked in the top 15 every year since 2021. The metro area’s labor market has been among the strongest in the United States for several years. Northwest Arkansas ranked 13th or above in every one of the 2026 report’s labor market performance metrics, placing fourth in one-year wage growth and 10th in short-term job growth.

The metro area’s economy is supported by the presence of Walmart’s headquarters, which employs more than 20,000 people, and the headquarters of Fortune 500 companies J.B. Hunt Transport Services and Tyson Foods. The state’s flagship university, the University of Arkansas, is also located in the metro area and helps to supply skilled labor here.

The region also has “a strong and growing high-tech sector, anchored by its management of companies industry,” the report shows. “One potential weakness of Fayetteville’s high-tech sector is its reliance on just a few industries, with the metro ranking 113th among large cities in the number of high-tech industries with a location quotient (LQ) above one.”

According to the report, something usual for fast-growing areas is that Northwest Arkansas “has excelled at providing affordable housing for its residents, ranking 15th among large cities in our affordability metric. The metro’s housing affordability has benefited from a booming construction sector, whose employment grew by an astounding 49.7% from 2019 to 2024. One area of concern for the metropolitan area, however, is its income inequality, which has ticked up in recent years and ranks 132nd among large cities in this year’s ranking.

“Nevertheless, with its dynamic labor market, relatively large supply of affordable housing and attractive location nestled within the Ozark Mountains, Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers looks poised to continue attracting new residents in the years to come,” the report notes.

Despite the report’s note on home affordability, the issue is a concern in the region. Mervin Jebaraj, executive director of the Center for Business & Economic Research at the University of Arkansas, is one of those who have called for more attention to the issue of housing affordability. In an October 2025 address, he also said lack of certain infrastructure could hamper efforts to provide more housing.

“All the zoning codes in the world are not going to build more affordable housing if that zoning is not prepared with new water and sewer infrastructure to go along with it,” Jebaraj said.