Fort Smith, AR-OK Metro Area Immigration

Population

The Fort Smith Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) population 1/ increased from 160,421 in 1970 to 280,467 in 2010. That was an increase of 74.8 percent.

The foreign-born (FB) population increased from 605 in 1970 to 15,915 in 2010. That was an increase of 2530.6 percent. The foreign-born share changed from 0.4 percent to 5.7 percent.

The share of the overall population that was native-born (NB) increased by 65.5 percent.

	Fort Smith MSA: Population  1970-2010

Sources of Population Change

The primary sources of population change are:

Natural Change [Births minus Deaths or B-D];
Net Domestic Migration [NDM - movement between states]; and
Net International Migration [NIM - movement into and out of the country].
There is also a residual "other" amount that isn't placed in one of those three categories.

The first chart below shows the three population change factors for three periods adjusted for annual average amounts. Domestic migration (NDM) was the major factor adding population in the earliest period, and B-D had that role in the two most recent periods.

The second chart shows the same data but with an adjustment to reflect births to immigrants shifted to NIM. In it, the same respective positions in adding population held except in the most recent period when NIM became the major factor.

	Fort Smith MSA: Sources of Population Change 1990-2014 		Fort Smith MSA: Sources of Population Change (Adjusted) 1990-2014

		B-D	 NDM	 NIM						 B-D	 NDM	 NIM	
	90-'99	43.7%	50.6%	 5.7%					90-'99	 36.6%	50.6%	12.8%
	00-'09	56.8%	20.6%	22.6%					00-'09	 41.6%	20.6%	37.8%
	10-'14	81.9%	 neg.	18.1%					10-'14	 44.6%	 neg.	55.4%

1/ AR counties: Crawford and Sebastian: OK counties: Le Flore and Sequoyah.

Links:

MSA Factsheets by state, and alphabetically.

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