3,541 people (2024 Census estimate, −0.5% since 2020)
895 square miles of land · 4 people per square mile
“Highest” and “lowest” are just order, not grades: a high rank for poverty or hazard losses means more of it. Each figure's source is in its section below.
5 active community water systems list Smith County in the area they serve, reporting 2,713 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| SMITH CENTER, CITY OF groundwater · local government · KS2018303 | 1,572 served |
| SMITH CO RWD 1 groundwater · local government · KS2018305 | 475 served |
| KENSINGTON, CITY OF groundwater · local government · KS2018302 | 401 served |
| LEBANON, CITY OF groundwater · local government · KS2018304 | 182 served |
| GAYLORD, CITY OF groundwater · local government · KS2018301 | 83 served |
Source: U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), active community systems, . Look up any system's violations and test results with EPA's search using its ID.
About 9 people were held in Smith County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2019), or 444 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2014 it was about 7.
Source: Vera Institute of Justice, Incarceration Trends (built from federal Bureau of Justice Statistics jail surveys). Counties without their own jail, or that share one, may show no figure.
2 school districts have their office in Smith County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $7.3 million — $6.9 million to run schools, about $15,254 per student, plus $360,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $2.3 million local (mostly property tax), $5 million state, $671,000 federal.
Spent $4.3 million — $4.1 million to run schools, about $23,107 per student, plus $148,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $1.3 million local (mostly property tax), $2.4 million state, $832,000 federal.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Districts are listed by the county of their main office; some serve neighboring counties too.
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025 (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute), which gathers federal data (CDC, Census, and others); measures cover different recent years. Blank lines aren't reported for small counties.
Overall risk: Very Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Smith County about $8.3 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Relatively High; social vulnerability: Relatively Low.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
281 bridges in Smith County: 90 in good condition, 159 fair, and 32 poor (11.4%). “Poor” means a main part — the deck, the beams, or the supports — is rated 4 or lower on the federal 0–9 scale. It doesn't mean unsafe to drive; unsafe bridges are closed.
| K8 HWY over MIDDLE BEAVER CREEK · built 1941 | 727 vehicles a day |
| US281 HWY over WHITE ROCK CREEK · built 1937 | 492 vehicles a day |
| U ROAD (RS 626) over LINDSEY CREEK · built 1930 | 80 vehicles a day |
| J ROAD over NORTH FORK SOLOMON TRIB · built 1936 | 50 vehicles a day |
| R ROAD over DRY CREEK · built 1970 | 50 vehicles a day |
| 200 ROAD over CEDAR CREEK TRIBUTARY · built 1966 | 40 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $163,739 of work in Smith County in fiscal 2025, about $46 per resident — to the county, cities, schools, hospitals, nonprofits and others.
Source: USAspending.gov, grants by place of performance, fiscal 2025 (Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025). Search it by county to see each award.
From Grants.gov: posted grants listing county governments as eligible, soonest deadline first; research-only and overseas programs left out; list updated 2026-10-13, refreshed weekly. 62 are open in all. Cities, towns, school districts and nonprofits have their own lists there.
Registration deadlines, early voting and polling places for Kansas are on the federal site vote.gov, which links to the state's official election office.
The budget, property tax rates, audits, local officials and offices for Smith County come from the county's own records, which we haven't gathered — not gathered, never hidden. See what a full county site looks like, or ask to have Smith County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Kansas: the state government and every county in Kansas.
Nearby counties: Franklin County, NE (29 mi) · Phillips County (30 mi) · Jewell County (30 mi) · Osborne County (30 mi) · Webster County, NE (31 mi) · Mitchell County (41 mi).