Barling vs Fort Smith

A side-by-side comparison of Barling and Fort Smith: population, income, housing, and more.

Barling and Fort Smith are places in Arkansas. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Fort Smith has the higher population (89,496 vs 4,919 in Barling). Fort Smith has the higher median household income ($52,692 vs $52,009 in Barling). Fort Smith has the higher median home value ($168,100 vs $125,200 in Barling).

Population, income & housing

	Barling	Fort Smith
Population	4,919	89,496
Median age	44.7 yrs	36.6 yrs
Median household income	$52,009	$52,692
Median home value	$125,200	$168,100
Median gross rent	$893	$852
Housing units	2,599	40,146
Homeownership rate	73.5%	53.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.5%	25.3%
Unemployment rate	4.3%	6.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Barling	Fort Smith
Population	4,910 → 4,919 (+0.2%)	87,743 → 89,496 (+2.0%)
Median household income	$47,443 → $52,009 (+9.6%)	$41,724 → $52,692 (+26.3%)
Median home value	$108,600 → $125,200 (+15.3%)	$121,800 → $168,100 (+38.0%)
Median gross rent	$925 → $893 (-3.5%)	$685 → $852 (+24.4%)

Barling

Population

4,9104,919

Median household income

$47,443$52,009

Median home value

$108,600$125,200

Median gross rent

$925$893

Fort Smith

Population

87,74389,496

Median household income

$41,724$52,692

Median home value

$121,800$168,100

Median gross rent

$685$852

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Barling	Fort Smith
Under 5	6.2%	6.6%
5 to 17	12.4%	17.2%
18 to 24	11.1%	9.3%
25 to 34	9.9%	14.7%
35 to 44	11.1%	12.2%
45 to 54	16.0%	11.2%
55 to 64	12.2%	12.8%
65 to 74	10.4%	9.5%
75 and over	10.6%	6.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Barling	Fort Smith
White (non-Hispanic)	77.1%	58.4%
Black or African American	2.2%	7.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.8%
Asian	6.8%	5.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.2%
Some other race	0.0%	0.2%
Two or more races	2.9%	7.2%
Hispanic or Latino	10.9%	20.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Barling	Fort Smith
No high school diploma	11.6%	16.5%
High school graduate	43.3%	28.7%
Some college or associate's	24.6%	29.5%
Bachelor's degree	15.4%	15.2%
Graduate or professional degree	5.1%	10.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Barling	Fort Smith
Drove alone	83.0%	77.8%
Carpooled	8.6%	11.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.2%
Walked	0.0%	1.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.1%
Worked from home	8.4%	7.4%
Other means	0.0%	2.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Barling	Fort Smith
1-unit, detached	72.4%	65.9%
1-unit, attached	0.7%	2.9%
2 to 4 units	9.1%	14.6%
5 to 19 units	2.7%	9.3%
20 or more units	5.2%	6.6%
Mobile home & other	9.9%	0.6%

Poverty & households

	Barling	Fort Smith
Poverty rate	16.8%	18.3%
Average household size	2.04	2.41
Mean commute (minutes)	19	17
Median year structure built	1984	1976