Salem city, AR population, income and ZIP codes

Salem city is a small town in Arkansas, with 1,471 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #172 of 625 ranked by population — larger than 72% of them. The median age here is 46.8 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Salem city earn a median of $35,679 a year, 54.6% below the national figure of $78,538 and 28% below the $49,306 median for the 209 Arkansas cities we cover. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 35.8% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in Salem city is valued at $88,200, 70.9% below the national figure and 32% below the $128,900 peer median, while median gross rent runs $619 a month, 56% below the national figure, or roughly $7,428 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 20.8% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 54.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.