Chance vs Smith Island

A side-by-side comparison of Chance and Smith Island: population, income, housing, and more.

Chance and Smith Island are places in Maryland. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Smith Island has the higher population (340 vs 218 in Chance). Smith Island has the higher median household income ($82,443 vs $63,500 in Chance). Chance has the higher median home value ($229,800 vs $104,800 in Smith Island).

Population, income & housing

	Chance	Smith Island
Population	218	340
Median age	62.1 yrs	57.2 yrs
Median household income	$63,500	$82,443
Median home value	$229,800	$104,800
Housing units	229	247
Homeownership rate	97.1%	87.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	4.5%	2.5%
Unemployment rate	6.1%	10.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Chance	Smith Island
Population	470 → 218 (-53.6%)	149 → 340 (+128.2%)
Median household income	$60,833 → $63,500 (+4.4%)	$69,688 → $82,443 (+18.3%)
Median home value	$163,600 → $229,800 (+40.5%)	$110,800 → $104,800 (-5.4%)

Chance

Population

470218

Median household income

$60,833$63,500

Median home value

$163,600$229,800

Smith Island

Population

149340

Median household income

$69,688$82,443

Median home value

$110,800$104,800

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Chance	Smith Island
Under 5	0.0%	0.0%
5 to 17	7.8%	15.6%
18 to 24	0.0%	1.5%
25 to 34	13.8%	1.8%
35 to 44	14.7%	11.2%
45 to 54	2.8%	19.1%
55 to 64	24.3%	14.7%
65 to 74	14.2%	26.5%
75 and over	22.5%	9.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Chance	Smith Island
White (non-Hispanic)	72.5%	97.4%
Black or African American	12.4%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.0%	0.6%
Hispanic or Latino	15.1%	0.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Chance	Smith Island
No high school diploma	22.9%	45.0%
High school graduate	29.4%	42.6%
Some college or associate's	43.3%	9.9%
Bachelor's degree	4.5%	1.8%
Graduate or professional degree	0.0%	0.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Chance	Smith Island
Drove alone	61.3%	31.7%
Carpooled	22.6%	2.9%
Public transit	0.0%	3.6%
Walked	3.2%	15.8%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	12.9%	23.7%
Other means	0.0%	22.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Chance	Smith Island
1-unit, detached	88.2%	87.0%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	11.8%	13.0%

Poverty & households

	Chance	Smith Island
Poverty rate	2.8%	17.9%
Average household size	2.14	1.99
Mean commute (minutes)	32	9
Median year structure built	1970	1950