One in seven Marshallese Americans lives in Springdale, Arkansas
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About 44,000 people of Marshallese origin live in the United States. One in seven of them lives in Springdale, Arkansas.
That's 6,383 people from a Pacific island nation of atolls, settled in a landlocked poultry town in the Ozarks, 6,000 miles from the Marshall Islands. No other city in the continental United States comes close, and the runner-up, Enid, Oklahoma, has less than a third as many. Springdale is also 42 percent Hispanic, up from under 20 percent in 2000. Between the two, a town that was 74 percent white at the century's start is now 34 percent.
| Year | Population | White | Hispanic | Foreign born | Median household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 45,798 | 74.1% | 19.7% | n/a | $36,729 |
| 2010 | 69,797 | 52.7% | 35.4% | 24.0% | $42,879 |
| 2024 | 88,160 | 34.3% | 42.1% | 26.6% | $69,787 |
The answer is chicken. Springdale is the headquarters of Tyson Foods, and the poultry plants of northwest Arkansas have hired successive waves of workers for decades: first local, then Mexican and Central American, then Marshallese.
Marshallese migration runs on an unusual legal track. Under the Compact of Free Association, citizens of the Marshall Islands can live and work in the United States without visas, a status tied to the era when the US used the islands, including Bikini Atoll, for nuclear weapons testing. That means no immigration lottery and no waiting years for papers. When word spread in the 1980s that steady work was available in Springdale, families could simply come, and each arrival made the next one easier.
Chain migration then did what it always does. The community built churches, festivals, and eventually a Marshallese consulate, one of the few anywhere in the US interior. For a new arrival from Majuro, Springdale now offers something no coastal city can: thousands of people who already speak the language.
The transformation happened while Springdale boomed. Population nearly doubled since 2000, and median household income rose from $36,729 to $69,787 as northwest Arkansas, anchored by Tyson, Walmart in neighboring Bentonville, and J.B. Hunt, became one of the fastest-growing metros in the middle of the country.
On the official numbers, Springdale's non-Hispanic "other" category, where Pacific Islanders land in our five-group scheme, is 19.1 percent, one of the highest figures of any city in the country.
It's the same lesson as Palisades Park's Korean plurality or the Salvadoran concentration around Washington: national immigration numbers hide how local the reality is. Whole communities land in specific towns, and the towns are rarely the ones you'd guess. The national profile is on our Marshallese Americans page.
Sources
Figures are from the U.S. Census Bureau, using the 2000 decennial census and American Community Survey 5-year estimates for 2010 and 2024. Marshallese counts are from ACS table B02019 on detailed Pacific Islander origin. Race shares are non-Hispanic, from table B03002, and income figures are not adjusted for inflation. Compact of Free Association migration status is as described in federal law.
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Why do so many Marshallese people live in Springdale, Arkansas?
Springdale is the headquarters of Tyson Foods, and its poultry plants offered steady work that drew the first Marshallese arrivals in the 1980s. Under the Compact of Free Association, Marshall Islands citizens can live and work in the US without visas, so families could follow immediately, and chain migration built the community from there.
How many Marshallese Americans are there?
About 44,000 people of Marshallese origin live in the United States, according to American Community Survey estimates, and 6,383 of them live in Springdale, roughly one in seven. Community institutions have long estimated the true regional number is higher, since Pacific Islander populations are among the hardest for surveys to reach.
Why can Marshallese citizens move to the US without visas?
The Compact of Free Association gives citizens of the Marshall Islands the right to live and work in the United States without visas. The arrangement is tied to the period when the US used the islands, including Bikini Atoll, for nuclear weapons testing, and it removes the usual immigration barriers that slow other groups' migration.
