Fort Smith vs Lavaca

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

Fort Smith and Lavaca 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 2,466 in Lavaca). Lavaca has the higher median household income ($90,263 vs $52,692 in Fort Smith). Fort Smith has the higher median home value ($168,100 vs $155,000 in Lavaca).

Population, income & housing

	Fort Smith	Lavaca
Population	89,496	2,466
Median age	36.6 yrs	31.0 yrs
Median household income	$52,692	$90,263
Median home value	$168,100	$155,000
Median gross rent	$852	$890
Housing units	40,146	1,038
Homeownership rate	53.0%	77.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	25.3%	27.3%
Unemployment rate	6.7%	2.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Fort Smith	Lavaca
Population	87,743 → 89,496 (+2.0%)	2,545 → 2,466 (-3.1%)
Median household income	$41,724 → $52,692 (+26.3%)	$60,337 → $90,263 (+49.6%)
Median home value	$121,800 → $168,100 (+38.0%)	$118,100 → $155,000 (+31.2%)
Median gross rent	$685 → $852 (+24.4%)	$767 → $890 (+16.0%)

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

Lavaca

Population

2,5452,466

Median household income

$60,337$90,263

Median home value

$118,100$155,000

Median gross rent

$767$890

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Fort Smith	Lavaca
Under 5	6.6%	6.8%
5 to 17	17.2%	25.8%
18 to 24	9.3%	6.9%
25 to 34	14.7%	15.8%
35 to 44	12.2%	15.3%
45 to 54	11.2%	11.6%
55 to 64	12.8%	9.2%
65 to 74	9.5%	6.1%
75 and over	6.4%	2.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Fort Smith	Lavaca
White (non-Hispanic)	58.4%	86.1%
Black or African American	7.7%	0.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.8%	0.2%
Asian	5.5%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.0%
Two or more races	7.2%	8.9%
Hispanic or Latino	20.0%	4.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Fort Smith	Lavaca
No high school diploma	16.5%	3.2%
High school graduate	28.7%	28.0%
Some college or associate's	29.5%	41.5%
Bachelor's degree	15.2%	19.8%
Graduate or professional degree	10.1%	7.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Fort Smith	Lavaca
Drove alone	77.8%	85.1%
Carpooled	11.0%	10.2%
Public transit	0.2%	0.0%
Walked	1.5%	1.0%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.0%
Worked from home	7.4%	3.7%
Other means	2.1%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Fort Smith	Lavaca
1-unit, detached	65.9%	75.0%
1-unit, attached	2.9%	1.0%
2 to 4 units	14.6%	5.8%
5 to 19 units	9.3%	0.8%
20 or more units	6.6%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.6%	17.4%

Poverty & households

	Fort Smith	Lavaca
Poverty rate	18.3%	5.2%
Average household size	2.41	2.85
Mean commute (minutes)	17	27
Median year structure built	1976	1995