Smelterville vs Wardner

A side-by-side comparison of Smelterville and Wardner: population, income, housing, and more.

Smelterville and Wardner are places in Idaho. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Smelterville has the higher population (670 vs 300 in Wardner). Wardner has the higher median home value ($302,900 vs $117,600 in Smelterville). Since 2019, Wardner's population has grown faster (+58.7% vs -9.2%).

Population, income & housing

	Smelterville	Wardner
Population	670	300
Median age	49.2 yrs	31.1 yrs
Median household income	$46,597	—
Median home value	$117,600	$302,900
Median gross rent	$825	$1,119
Housing units	343	157
Homeownership rate	79.2%	48.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	0.0%	17.6%
Unemployment rate	5.1%	1.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Smelterville	Wardner
Population	738 → 670 (-9.2%)	189 → 300 (+58.7%)
Median household income	$36,667 → $46,597 (+27.1%)	$45,000 → $34,643 (-23.0%)
Median home value	$68,200 → $117,600 (+72.4%)	$111,300 → $302,900 (+172.1%)
Median gross rent	$753 → $825 (+9.6%)	$645 → $1,119 (+73.5%)

Smelterville

Population

738670

Median household income

$36,667$46,597

Median home value

$68,200$117,600

Median gross rent

$753$825

Wardner

Population

189300

Median household income

$45,000$34,643

Median home value

$111,300$302,900

Median gross rent

$645$1,119

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Smelterville	Wardner
Under 5	3.7%	5.7%
5 to 17	11.9%	12.7%
18 to 24	11.2%	2.3%
25 to 34	6.6%	34.7%
35 to 44	9.0%	8.3%
45 to 54	14.9%	10.7%
55 to 64	17.8%	10.7%
65 to 74	20.4%	12.0%
75 and over	4.5%	3.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Smelterville	Wardner
White (non-Hispanic)	86.9%	93.3%
Black or African American	0.0%	2.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.7%	1.3%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	9.4%	1.7%
Hispanic or Latino	3.0%	1.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Smelterville	Wardner
No high school diploma	19.2%	0.4%
High school graduate	39.4%	54.6%
Some college or associate's	41.4%	27.3%
Bachelor's degree	0.0%	16.0%
Graduate or professional degree	0.0%	1.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Smelterville	Wardner
Drove alone	75.5%	93.6%
Carpooled	8.0%	0.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	1.8%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	16.5%	2.9%
Other means	0.0%	1.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Smelterville	Wardner
1-unit, detached	71.4%	97.5%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	1.3%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.6%
Mobile home & other	28.6%	0.6%

Poverty & households

	Smelterville	Wardner
Poverty rate	19.9%	6.7%
Average household size	2.14	2.29
Mean commute (minutes)	22	31
Median year structure built	1947	1938