Arkansas vs Mississippi: two economies side by side

Arkansas and Mississippi share a border. Here are the two economies on the same measures, with the rank of each among 51 states and DC.

SoutheastArkansas leads on 8, Mississippi on 3 of 11 measures

Indicator	A · AR	B · MS	Ranks
GDP, 2025	$196.0B	$162.8B	35 · 37
Real GDP growth, 2025	+0.93%	+1.3%	44 · 40
Real growth a year since 2015	+2.0%	+1.2%	24 · 41
GDP per person	$62,922	$55,117	50 · 51
Income per person, 2025	$61,697	$54,433	47 · 51
Real income per person (2017 $)	$55,219	$48,465	38 · 51
Price level (US = 100)	86.9	87.0	51 · 50
Housing costs (US = 100)	58.2	56.5	49 · 50
Unemployment, September 2026	3.9%	3.3%	26 · 13
Population	3,114,791	2,954,160	33 · 35
Population growth a year since 2020	+0.66%	−0.03%	19 · 45

Highlighted: the higher value, or the lower one for prices and unemployment. BEA (GDP, income, price parities), BLS (unemployment).

Fig. 1Real GDP, index 2015 = 100Chained 2017 dollars

ArkansasMississippi

Fig. 2Unemployment rateMonthly, seasonally adjusted, since 2015

ArkansasMississippi

Industry mix, 2025

Share of each state’s GDP. Sorted by the gap between the two.

Industry	AR	MS	Gap, pp	Larger in
Government	11.0%	16.0%	5.0	MS
Management of companies	5.4%	1.1%	4.3	AR
Wholesale trade	8.0%	5.3%	2.7	AR
Manufacturing	12.8%	14.9%	2.0	MS
Real estate	11.1%	12.3%	1.2	MS
Accommodation & food	2.9%	3.9%	1.0	MS
Health care	8.6%	7.6%	0.9	AR
Retail trade	7.6%	8.2%	0.6	MS
Construction	4.3%	3.7%	0.6	AR
Finance & insurance	6.3%	5.9%	0.4	AR
Utilities	2.8%	3.1%	0.3	MS
Administrative & waste services	3.1%	2.8%	0.3	AR
Information	2.0%	1.7%	0.3	AR
Agriculture	2.1%	1.8%	0.3	AR
Transportation & warehousing	4.3%	4.0%	0.2	AR
Professional services	3.9%	3.7%	0.2	AR
Mining, oil & gas	0.4%	0.5%	0.1	MS
Other services	2.3%	2.2%	0.1	AR
Education	0.6%	0.6%	0.0
Arts & recreation	0.6%	0.6%	0.0