Malvern vs Perla

A side-by-side comparison of Malvern and Perla: population, income, housing, and more.

Malvern and Perla are places in Arkansas. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Malvern has the higher population (10,938 vs 197 in Perla). Malvern has the higher median home value ($95,500 vs $93,000 in Perla). Since 2019, Malvern's population has grown faster (+0.2% vs -25.7%).

Population, income & housing

	Malvern	Perla
Population	10,938	197
Median age	38.3 yrs	33.9 yrs
Median household income	$40,602	—
Median home value	$95,500	$93,000
Median gross rent	$760	$520
Housing units	4,030	103
Homeownership rate	55.3%	58.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	10.7%	4.4%
Unemployment rate	5.0%	8.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Malvern	Perla
Population	10,920 → 10,938 (+0.2%)	265 → 197 (-25.7%)
Median household income	$33,549 → $40,602 (+21.0%)	$33,750 → $26,875 (-20.4%)
Median home value	$93,200 → $95,500 (+2.5%)	$62,500 → $93,000 (+48.8%)
Median gross rent	$585 → $760 (+29.9%)	$543 → $520 (-4.2%)

Malvern

Population

10,92010,938

Median household income

$33,549$40,602

Median home value

$93,200$95,500

Median gross rent

$585$760

Perla

Population

265197

Median household income

$33,750$26,875

Median home value

$62,500$93,000

Median gross rent

$543$520

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Malvern	Perla
Under 5	4.8%	6.6%
5 to 17	15.0%	32.5%
18 to 24	7.0%	3.0%
25 to 34	19.2%	8.1%
35 to 44	15.0%	5.6%
45 to 54	12.6%	11.2%
55 to 64	9.1%	15.7%
65 to 74	10.8%	15.2%
75 and over	6.5%	2.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Malvern	Perla
White (non-Hispanic)	60.5%	29.4%
Black or African American	32.2%	45.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	1.5%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	3.9%	23.4%
Hispanic or Latino	3.0%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Malvern	Perla
No high school diploma	15.2%	15.8%
High school graduate	47.6%	57.9%
Some college or associate's	26.6%	21.9%
Bachelor's degree	7.5%	2.6%
Graduate or professional degree	3.2%	1.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Malvern	Perla
Drove alone	84.0%	81.8%
Carpooled	10.9%	5.5%
Public transit	1.0%	0.0%
Walked	2.3%	9.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	1.7%	3.6%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Malvern	Perla
1-unit, detached	73.5%	69.9%
1-unit, attached	1.5%	1.9%
2 to 4 units	10.7%	5.8%
5 to 19 units	7.3%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.3%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	6.7%	22.3%

Poverty & households

	Malvern	Perla
Poverty rate	21.1%	20.3%
Average household size	2.53	3.13
Mean commute (minutes)	20	17
Median year structure built	1969	1983