Northwest Arkansas business and civic leaders have a lot to do to best manage ongoing and expected growth in Benton and Washington counties. That management was the strategy focus Northwest Arkansas Council officials outlined Wednesday (April 15) at their semi-annual meeting.
The meeting, held at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, addressed the council's "growing home" strategy.
Staring at 1 million Northwest Arkansas metro residents by 2050 may seem a bit much, but the metro's population has increased from 325,000 in 2010 to more than 622,000 at last count in late 2025. Nelson Peacock, CEO of the NWA Council, said that growth is accelerating. Between 1994 and 2010, the region averaged 23 new residents per day, with the average now around 40 people per day and expected to be 43 through 2050.
Peacock said the only way to stop growth is to become a place where people don't want to live, and that's not the mindset in the region.
"We want to find ways to leverage the growth and we could do it in the right way," he said. "And that's why we've asked national experts to come in to help us to align what they've seen in other communities with what we've heard from community...
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