City safety & data profile

Fort SmithAR

Fort Smith, AR is a 88K-resident city in Sebastian County with a median household income of $54,816.

Sebastian County, Arkansas. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Fort Smith, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Fort Smith has a population larger than 91% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $178,100, and 2 hospitals serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

88K
Population (place)
Top 9%
By size
$54,816
Median income (place)
$178,100
Median home (place)
18.3%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Fort Smith

Fort Smith posts a median household income higher than 15% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 2 hospitals serve the Fort Smith area.

Bottom 16%
by median income, US cities
2
hospitals in & near Fort Smith

Where Fort Smith income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$54,816 Bottom 15% higher than 15% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Fort Smith $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in AR

Population among 39 AR places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Little Rock is the largest AR city on this list; Centerton leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in AR

Median household income among the same 39-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Centerton posts the highest place-level median income in AR; Little Rock is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Fort Smith, AR beyond the headline numbers

Fort Smith sits inside Sebastian County, Arkansas, at roughly 35.39°N, -94.40°W. Population 88,194, $54,816 median household income. Median home value $178,100, median rent $884. Poverty rate 18.3%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

2 hospitals in/around Fort Smith, 2.5/5 avg rating, 2 with an ER.

18.3% of Fort Smith, AR residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.

The median home in Fort Smith costs roughly 3.2 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.

Only 7.8% of Fort Smith workers report working from home, the lowest quarter of reporting cities -- an economy still built around showing up somewhere.

Among the CDC measures on this page, physical inactivity departs furthest from its peer median: 35.2% in Fort Smith, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

Public transit carries 0.1% of Fort Smith workers, a smaller share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Fort Smith from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
88,194
Fort Smith · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$54,816
-39% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$178,100
-57% vs avg
Median Age (place)
36.5
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Sebastian County): Fort Smith's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
129K+2%
Median Income
$57,790+43%
Median Home Value
$176,200+54%
Poverty Rate
16%-25%
Unemployment
5.4%-21%

Economics

Economics indicators for Fort Smith, AR
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$884/mo
Poverty Rate
18.3% +48% vs avg
Unemployment 6.5%
Bachelor's Degree+ 23.9%
Work From Home 7.8%
Public Transit 0.1%

Population

White 60.4%
African American 7%
Asian 5.5%
Two or More Ethnicities 6.6%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

High Blood Pressure
40.6%
Short Sleep Duration
39.3%
Obesity
37%
Physical Inactivity
35.2%
Frequent Mental Distress
19.7%
Current Smoking
17.2%
Frequent Physical Distress
16.9%
Lack of Health Insurance
15.3%
Diabetes
13.8%
Binge Drinking
13.5%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 51.1%
Annual Checkup 77.3%

Other Measures

Current Asthma
10.6%
Coronary Heart Disease
7.7%
Stroke
4.1%

Hospitals 2 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
0
★★★★
0
★★★
1
★★
1
★
0
Average Rating
2.5/5
Total Hospitals
2
With ER
2
MERCY HOSPITAL FORT SMITH
FORT SMITH · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★☆☆
BAPTIST HEALTH - FORT SMITH
FORT SMITH · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★☆☆☆

What alerts and safety updates affect Fort Smith?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Fort Smith right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet AR-FORT-SMITH · Fort Smith

Fort Smith: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.

  • FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
  • LEAD-NONE Feed idle
  • DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Fort Smith; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Arkansas state hubs · Methodology

Read with this city profile

Tracking Safety Alerts in Your Area

How Areazine tags Fort Smith in the CAP feed
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Fort Smith, AR? ▼
Fort Smith, AR has a population of 88,194 people, located in Sebastian County, Arkansas.
What is the median household income in Fort Smith? ▼
The median household income in Fort Smith, AR is $54,816 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 18.3%.
What is the median home value in Fort Smith? ▼
The median home value in Fort Smith, AR is $178,100. Median rent is $884/month.
What are the top health concerns in Fort Smith? ▼
The top health indicators in Fort Smith include High Blood Pressure (40.6%), Short Sleep Duration (39.3%), Obesity (37%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Fort Smith? ▼
Fort Smith has 2 hospitals with an average rating of 2.5/5 stars. 2 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Fort Smith? ▼
The median age in Fort Smith, AR is 36.5 years. 23.9% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Fort Smith, both outside Arkansas so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside AR (18.3% here).

Lafayette, LA 18.3% Roanoke, VA 18.3% Victoria, TX 18.3% Huntington Park, CA 18.3%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside AR ($54,816 here).

Clovis, NM $54,820 Chicago Heights, IL $54,798 Rockford, IL $54,752 Baker, LA $54,750

Compare Fort Smith with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Van Buren, AR 23K Fayetteville, AR 83K Tahlequah, OK 17K Siloam Springs, AR 16K Springdale, AR 78K Centerton, AR 12K Rogers, AR 63K Bentonville, AR 44K
All cities in Arkansas → Compare Fort Smith vs Van Buren → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Fort Smith's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Fort Smith area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare Fort Smith against Arkansas peers on any ranking lens. Explore Arkansas

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Sebastian County) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.