How Arkansas Death Records Work

Arkansas closes death certificates for 50 years under state law, limiting copies to kin and documented legal or benefit claims. Cause-of-death copies are gated even tighter than the base record. No informational option — and the $10 fee is kept as a search fee even when no record is found.

Online orders add roughly $7 in portal and ID-verification fees on top of the $10 certificate, so mail can be the cheaper route. Content reviewed July 30, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.

Where to Order

Arkansas Department of Health, Vital Records
Official Free
The official custodian. Application forms, current fees, eligibility rules, and processing times — order direct and skip the third-party markup.
🌐 healthy.arkansas.gov
CDC — Where to Write for Vital Records
Official Free
The federal directory of every state's vital records office — the authoritative answer to 'where do I order' for any state and any year.
🌐 www.cdc.gov

Frequently Asked Questions

How long are Arkansas death records restricted?
Arkansas closes death certificates for 50 years under state law, limiting copies to kin and documented legal or benefit claims.
Can I get a copy if I'm not family?
No informational option — and the $10 fee is kept as a search fee even when no record is found.
Can I search Arkansas deaths online for free?
There is no free official index; Arkansas runs its own online ordering portal rather than VitalChek.
What if I just need to confirm a death or find an obituary?
Skip the certificate entirely: newspaper obituaries (many are indexed by library databases), the Social Security death index carried on the big genealogy platforms, and probate case files in the county court that handled the estate all confirm a death without touching the restricted certificate.

Related Arkansas Records

The Arkansas vital records page covers the full birth-marriage-death picture; birth certificates follow their own (usually longer) privacy clock; probate lives in Arkansas court records; and people search shows how death records fit a full person lookup. County pages list the local offices that issue copies.