Ark-La-Tex | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Downtown Shreveport, Louisiana, in 2015 | |
 Downtown Longview, Texas, in 2016 | |
.jpg) Broad Street in Texarkana, Arkansas, in 2016 | |
| Country | United States |
| State | |
| Principal cities | |
| Population (2020) | |
• Total | 1,469,860 |
| Time zone | UTC−6 (CST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−5 (CDT) |
| Area codes | 318, 430 and 903, 870, 580 |
The Ark-La-Tex (a portmanteau of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas; also stylized as Arklatex or ArkLaTex) is a socio-economic tri-state region where the Southern U.S. states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas join together.[1] The region contains portions of Northwest Louisiana, Northeast Texas, and South Arkansas as well as the extreme southeastern tip of Oklahoma, in McCurtain County (part of Choctaw Country), partly centered upon the Red River,[1] which flows along the Texas–Oklahoma state line into Southwestern Arkansas and Northwest Louisiana.
The population of the 40-county core region as of 2020 is 1,469,860 people, down from 1,515,056 in 2010.[a] Shreveport, Louisiana, with 187,593 people in 2020, is the largest city, economic and geographic center of the region, and principal hub for both the Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area and Northwestern Louisiana. Longview, Texas, with a population of 81,683 people in 2020, is the second-largest city as well as a principal city of the Tyler–Longview metropolitan conurbation and Greater Longview metropolitan area.[2][3] The twin cities of Texarkana, Texas, and Texarkana, Arkansas, are the fourth- and sixth-largest cities, respectively, but collectively make up the region's third-largest metropolitan area (with a combined population exceeding 140,000 residents) as the center of the Texarkana metropolitan area encompassing Miller County, Arkansas, and Bowie County, Texas. Other cities in the Ark-La-Tex with 20,000 or more residents include Bossier City, Louisiana; Nacogdoches, Texas; Marshall, Texas; and Ruston, Louisiana.
The counties in the area's western section are largely part of the East Texas region (except for McCurtain County, Oklahoma, which is part of the Choctaw Country tourist region) and mainly encompass the Tyler–Longview–Lufkin–Nacogdoches television market area, while the counties and parishes in the eastern half of the region are included in the Shreveport–Texarkana television market. However, some Arkansas counties—under certain, looser definitions of the Ark-La-Tex region—in northwesternmost areas of the southwestern section of the state are included in the Little Rock viewing area.
- ^ a b Campbell, Courtney (2020-03-09). "Visit Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana at the Same Time at This Roadside Marker". Wide Open Country. Retrieved 2020-08-29.
- ^ News-Journal, Longview (27 January 2019). "Editorial: Dallas Fed report makes clear Tyler-Longview a force to be reckoned with". Longview News-Journal. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
- ^ "At the Heart of Texas: Tyler–Longview". www.dallasfed.org. Retrieved 2020-08-29.
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