Barling vs Central City

A side-by-side comparison of Barling and Central City: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Barling has the higher population (4,919 vs 570 in Central City). Central City has the higher median household income ($71,071 vs $52,009 in Barling). Barling has the higher median home value ($125,200 vs $123,000 in Central City).

Population, income & housing

	Barling	Central City
Population	4,919	570
Median age	44.7 yrs	41.5 yrs
Median household income	$52,009	$71,071
Median home value	$125,200	$123,000
Median gross rent	$893	$1,014
Housing units	2,599	202
Homeownership rate	73.5%	88.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.5%	11.8%
Unemployment rate	4.3%	7.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Barling	Central City
Population	4,910 → 4,919 (+0.2%)	544 → 570 (+4.8%)
Median household income	$47,443 → $52,009 (+9.6%)	$52,188 → $71,071 (+36.2%)
Median home value	$108,600 → $125,200 (+15.3%)	$144,600 → $123,000 (-14.9%)
Median gross rent	$925 → $893 (-3.5%)	$641 → $1,014 (+58.2%)

Barling

Population

4,9104,919

Median household income

$47,443$52,009

Median home value

$108,600$125,200

Median gross rent

$925$893

Central City

Population

544570

Median household income

$52,188$71,071

Median home value

$144,600$123,000

Median gross rent

$641$1,014

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Barling	Central City
Under 5	6.2%	6.0%
5 to 17	12.4%	20.0%
18 to 24	11.1%	10.2%
25 to 34	9.9%	6.8%
35 to 44	11.1%	13.0%
45 to 54	16.0%	18.6%
55 to 64	12.2%	14.4%
65 to 74	10.4%	8.2%
75 and over	10.6%	2.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Barling	Central City
White (non-Hispanic)	77.1%	84.7%
Black or African American	2.2%	0.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	6.8%	1.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.9%	2.1%
Hispanic or Latino	10.9%	10.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Barling	Central City
No high school diploma	11.6%	5.2%
High school graduate	43.3%	50.8%
Some college or associate's	24.6%	32.1%
Bachelor's degree	15.4%	9.9%
Graduate or professional degree	5.1%	1.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Barling	Central City
Drove alone	83.0%	87.7%
Carpooled	8.6%	6.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	8.4%	6.3%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Barling	Central City
1-unit, detached	72.4%	70.3%
1-unit, attached	0.7%	1.0%
2 to 4 units	9.1%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	2.7%	0.0%
20 or more units	5.2%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	9.9%	28.7%

Poverty & households

	Barling	Central City
Poverty rate	16.8%	12.9%
Average household size	2.04	2.82
Mean commute (minutes)	19	19
Median year structure built	1984	1990