Brownsville vs Fort Smith
Metro-area medians — Brownsville-Harlingen, TX Metro Area vs Fort Smith, AR-OK Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Fort Smith comes out ahead, winning 6 of the 8 clearly-decided measures.
Brownsville and Fort Smith cost about the same to live in, but Fort Smith households earn about 13% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Fort Smith.
Their widest everyday difference: Fort Smith has cleaner air on a typical day — a median AQI of 44 versus 61.
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, Brownsville leaves you about $3,124/yr better off after tax and local prices.
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.
Choose Fort Smith for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Median rent
- + Unemployment
- + Air quality (median AQI)
More comparisons
Metros closest to Brownsville and Fort Smith on cost, income, size, and education.
Brownsville vs Fort Smith — frequently asked
- Is Brownsville cheaper than Fort Smith?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Brownsville and Fort Smith metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Brownsville or Fort Smith?
- Fort Smith has the higher median household income — $60,327 versus $53,267 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 13% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Brownsville or Fort Smith?
- A paycheck stretches further in Fort Smith. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $70,239 there versus $61,956 in Brownsville.
- Which has cheaper rent, Brownsville or Fort Smith?
- Fort Smith has cheaper rent — a median of $906/mo versus $966/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).