Smith Center, KS population, income and ZIP codes

Smith Center city is a small town in Kansas, with 1,585 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #146 of 740 ranked by population — larger than 80% 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 Smith Center city earn a median of $53,963 a year, 31.3% below the national figure of $78,538 and 15% below the $63,750 median for the 200 Kansas 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 11.2% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Smith Center city is valued at $84,600, 72.1% below the national figure and 36% below the $131,300 peer median, while median gross rent runs $646 a month, 54.1% below the national figure, or roughly $7,752 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 14.4% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 1.6×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so purchase prices are unusually low against local pay, the pattern in places where supply is plentiful and wage growth has been flat. 79.3% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. 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.