Bowling Green vs Smiths Grove

A side-by-side comparison of Bowling Green and Smiths Grove: population, income, housing, and more.

Bowling Green and Smiths Grove are places in Kentucky. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Bowling Green has the higher population (73,638 vs 684 in Smiths Grove). Smiths Grove has the higher median household income ($51,583 vs $48,419 in Bowling Green). Bowling Green has the higher median home value ($232,100 vs $159,600 in Smiths Grove).

Population, income & housing

	Bowling Green	Smiths Grove
Population	73,638	684
Median age	27.9 yrs	47.9 yrs
Median household income	$48,419	$51,583
Median home value	$232,100	$159,600
Median gross rent	$948	$1,156
Housing units	32,726	308
Homeownership rate	37.3%	76.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	32.0%	14.7%
Unemployment rate	5.1%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bowling Green	Smiths Grove
Population	67,600 → 73,638 (+8.9%)	763 → 684 (-10.4%)
Median household income	$42,216 → $48,419 (+14.7%)	$48,056 → $51,583 (+7.3%)
Median home value	$161,000 → $232,100 (+44.2%)	$108,400 → $159,600 (+47.2%)
Median gross rent	$778 → $948 (+21.9%)	$922 → $1,156 (+25.4%)

Bowling Green

Population

67,60073,638

Median household income

$42,216$48,419

Median home value

$161,000$232,100

Median gross rent

$778$948

Smiths Grove

Population

763684

Median household income

$48,056$51,583

Median home value

$108,400$159,600

Median gross rent

$922$1,156

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bowling Green	Smiths Grove
Under 5	6.7%	3.5%
5 to 17	16.2%	17.0%
18 to 24	22.1%	4.8%
25 to 34	14.9%	6.4%
35 to 44	12.3%	14.6%
45 to 54	8.8%	11.3%
55 to 64	8.1%	19.2%
65 to 74	6.4%	14.2%
75 and over	4.6%	9.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bowling Green	Smiths Grove
White (non-Hispanic)	63.2%	79.4%
Black or African American	12.7%	14.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	1.8%
Asian	7.2%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.9%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.0%
Two or more races	5.0%	3.2%
Hispanic or Latino	10.7%	1.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bowling Green	Smiths Grove
No high school diploma	14.5%	17.4%
High school graduate	25.2%	40.9%
Some college or associate's	28.3%	27.0%
Bachelor's degree	19.3%	9.8%
Graduate or professional degree	12.7%	4.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bowling Green	Smiths Grove
Drove alone	74.5%	87.6%
Carpooled	13.6%	1.6%
Public transit	0.3%	0.0%
Walked	4.7%	3.8%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.2%	7.0%
Other means	1.4%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bowling Green	Smiths Grove
1-unit, detached	44.9%	96.4%
1-unit, attached	2.7%	0.6%
2 to 4 units	17.8%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	21.9%	0.0%
20 or more units	8.6%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	4.2%	2.9%

Poverty & households

	Bowling Green	Smiths Grove
Poverty rate	25.4%	15.1%
Average household size	2.29	2.27
Mean commute (minutes)	19	27
Median year structure built	1991	1970