Fort Smith, AR
Fort Smith, AR-OK Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Fort Smith, AR-OK Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Fort Smith ranks 255th for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 277th for income. A household earns $60,327 a year while median rent runs $906/mo, making it expensive relative to what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 14% below the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is cost of living (12th of 300), while education is the soft spot (282nd). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 16th and home prices 35th among the 300 metros CityLedger tracks.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you in Fort Smith, your take-home is worth about $68,191 once local prices are factored in — local prices stretch it further than the U.S. average.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
The numbers
Income & cost
- Median income
- 277th of 300↑33.6%$60,327
- Cost of living?The local price level vs. the U.S. average of 100 (BEA). Lower means cheaper. This is raw prices, not adjusted for income.
- 12th of 30086 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $70,239
- Per-capita income
- $31,874
- Full-time pay
- $37,690
Housing
- Median rent
- 16th of 300↑28.1%$906/mo
- Home value
- 35th of 300↑64%$207,000
- Property tax
- $1,062/yr · 0.5%
- Sales tax
- 9.46%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 129th of 3004.2%
- Bachelor's+
- 282nd of 30021.4%
- Avg commute
- 51st of 30021.4 min
People
- Population
- 232,848
- Population change
- -6.5%
- Median age
- 39.1 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 7.1%
- Broadband
- 92.9%
Environment & risk
- Air quality (AQI)
- 116th of 30044
- Natural-hazard loss
- 172nd of 300$14/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 279th of 30024.4%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 12.9%
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ACS), U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. EPA, FEMA, CDC, NOAA — every figure's source is listed on our methodology page. Data built 2026-06-14. ↑↓ mark the change since 2019.
How CityLedger scores it
Transparent weights — see our methodology.
Strengths
- + Cost of living
- + Rent
- + Home prices
- + Commute
Watch-outs
- – Affordability
- – Household income
- – Education
- – Health
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — ft smith rgnl ap.
What jobs pay in Fort Smith
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Pharmacists
- $133,520
- IT managers
- $114,760
- Software developers
- $114,140
- Financial managers
- $104,990
- Civil engineers
- $100,330
- Lawyers
- $88,100
- Registered nurses
- $79,870
- General & operations managers
- $70,330
- Accountants & auditors
- $62,990
- Secondary school teachers
- $60,960
- Elementary school teachers
- $52,620
- Electricians
- $52,500
- Police officers
- $51,070
- Plumbers
- $48,350
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $47,580
- Carpenters
- $42,420
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $41,710
- Customer service reps
- $37,500
- Construction laborers
- $36,950
- Janitors
- $31,200
- Retail salespersons
- $28,350
- Cashiers
- $27,480
- Waiters & waitresses
- $23,680
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 — annual median wage. Cross-industry, all experience levels.
Where new residents move from
The states sending the most people to the Fort Smith metro, by estimated movers (U.S. Census 2022 migration flows, 5-year). Moves from elsewhere in Arkansas are excluded to show where out-of-state arrivals originate.
- Texas1,091
- California884
- Missouri495
- Colorado431
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Fort Smith
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Fort Smith metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Fort Smith metro?
- Median gross rent across the Fort Smith, AR-OK Metro Area is $906 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Fort Smith.
- What is the median household income in the Fort Smith metro?
- A typical household in the Fort Smith, AR-OK Metro Area earns $60,327 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Fort Smith expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Fort Smith, AR-OK Metro Area runs about 14% below the U.S. average (BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024) — prices are lower than average, before accounting for local pay.
- Does a paycheck go far in the Fort Smith metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $70,239 (versus its face value of $60,327). CityLedger rates the Fort Smith, AR-OK Metro Area expensive for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Fort Smith metro?
- The median home value across the Fort Smith, AR-OK Metro Area is $207,000 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Fort Smith metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Fort Smith, AR-OK Metro Area is 4.2% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).