Photo: awmcphee · CC0Household incomes in Fort Smith top those of 96% of Canadian towns
Of Fort Smith’s residents aged 15 to 64, 76% were employed when the 2021 census was taken, and the middle of Canadian towns sits at 73%. Workers in Fort Smith spend 10.8 minutes on the way to work on average, and 2.3% need an hour or more. Unemployment in Fort Smith stood at 7.4% on census day 2021; the middle of Canadian towns is 9.9%.
Work in Fort Smith: the figures worth knowing
Less unemployment than most towns
The census counted 7.4% unemployed in 2021, against 9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns. Unemployment ↓
Higher incomes than most towns
Household income at the median was $118,200 in 2020, before tax; Canadian towns have $85,900 at the middle. Household income ↓
More jobs than the typical town
With 1,040 jobs based in Fort Smith and 955 working residents, the ratio compares with 0.8 in the middle of Canadian towns. The daily tide ↓
Shorter trips than most towns
The average trip to work is 10.8 minutes (26 in the middle of Canadian towns), and 2.3% last an hour or longer. The trip to work ↓
Written from the data on this page: Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census, its commuting tables, Employment Insurance and the Labour Force Survey.
Jobs & income in Fort Smith: graded A+
Better than almost every Canadian town on three measures together.
Its strongest measure is trip times; its weakest, the share of 15-to-64s in work.
Graded against Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more; less unemployment and a shorter commute count in its favour.
How the grade works
Census 2021 measures, weighed equally against every Canadian town and neighbourhood of 2,500 people or more: the share of residents aged 15 to 64 in work, median household income (2020), the unemployment rate and the average commute. Each becomes a percentile; their average sets the letter.
Work for 76% of 15-to-64s in Fort Smith
A larger share in work than in 53% of Canadian towns.
The participation rate, everyone 15 and over working or looking for work, was 68%. Counting retirees, 63% of everyone aged 15 and over was working. Statistics Canada counted on 11 May 2021, with much of the country under pandemic rules: more people were out of work or at home than usual.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: people in work of any age over residents aged 15 to 64, and the census unemployment rate (15 and over); the 25-to-54 rate is Statistics Canada’s own (98-10-0485). The Labour Force Survey and business counts are context, not grade inputs.
Fort Smith households: $118,200 a year at the median
These are 2020 incomes, before tax, and they include pandemic benefits such as CERB, which lifted many lower incomes that year.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: median total income of households in 2020, before tax (a neighbourhood’s estimated from its dissemination areas’ income groups).
Each working day, Fort Smith’s workforce swells by 8%
Fort Smith takes in some 3 workers for every resident it sends out.
People with no fixed workplace are in neither count.
The length of the trip to work in Fort Smith
A quarter-hour or less for 88% of commuters, against 36% in the middle of Canadian towns. Statistics Canada’s own average, timed exactly rather than by band, is 9.4 minutes.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: commuting duration in five bands; our average uses each band’s middle (75 minutes for an hour or more), so it runs about two minutes above Statistics Canada’s own.
124 people come into Fort Smith to work, most from Lutselk'e and Hay River
- Region 6, Unorganized20
- Yellowknife10
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (98-10-0459): commuting flows between municipalities (census subdivisions), rounded to 5; linked names have their own pages.
Without a car, 14% of Fort Smith’s commuters get to work
On foot: 12% of commuters, well above the 3.4% in the middle of Canadian towns. Fewer drive than in the middle of Canadian towns: 81% against 89%. Home was the workplace for 4.9%, under the 21% in the middle of Canadian towns. Transit barely figures here, against 3.5% in the middle of Canadian towns.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: main mode of commuting; average durations by mode from table 98-10-0458 (whole municipalities only).
In the Region 5 census division, 12% fewer people receive EI than in 2019
Fort Smith shares its EI beneficiaries numbers with the rest of the Region 5 census division.
That works out to around 3.6 beneficiaries per 100 people aged 15 to 64 across the division. Compared with a year earlier, the count in August 2026 rose by 15%. In January 2021 it reached 450, the most in the series and 1.9 times the 2019 average.
Statistics Canada, Employment Insurance beneficiaries by census division (14-10-0323): all income benefits, not seasonally adjusted. EI counts are context, not part of any grade.
People receiving Employment Insurance each month, as a share of the 2019 average (100).
Walking in Fort Smith earns A−
Better than 84% of Canadian towns on two measures together.
OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); active commuting from the 2021 Census.
What this data can and can’t tell you
What each figure measures for Fort Smith, where it comes from, and what it leaves out.
- In work. Everyone with a job, whatever their age, divided by the residents aged 15 to 64 at the 2021 Census: below the municipality the census doesn’t split work by age, and this is the one rate every town and neighbourhood can be given.
- Unemployment. The census-week jobless rate for residents 15 and over. Its base is the labour force, those employed plus those actively looking.
- Household income. Before-tax total income of the middle household for 2020, from the census. Neighbourhood medians are worked out from bracket counts, since Statistics Canada publishes none of their own.
- Trip times. Built from banded answers: each commuter’s usual one-way trip counts as the midpoint of the band they chose, and the result tends to sit slightly higher than Statistics Canada’s average.
- Where people commute. Statistics Canada’s place-of-work table counts people with a usual place of work by the municipality they live in and the one they work in. Jobs here are people whose usual workplace is in the municipality, wherever they live.
- Employment Insurance. Monthly EI recipients across the census division: a pulse of the local job market rather than a measure of who is out of work.
- Which towns we compare. Medians over towns and neighbourhoods of at least 2,500 residents. Whole cities would swamp them and reserves sit outside the rankings, so neither is in.
Questions about work in Fort Smith
What is the unemployment rate in Fort Smith?
The 2021 census found 7.4% of those working or looking without a job; the middle of Canadian towns is 9.9%.
What is the average household income in Fort Smith?
The median household in Fort Smith had $118,200 before tax in 2020, against $85,900 in the middle of Canadian towns.
How do people in Fort Smith get to work?
Driving takes 81% of commuters to work, 12% walk and 1.4% cycle, and on census day 4.9% of those in work were at home.
How long is the commute from Fort Smith?
About 10.8 minutes on average, with 88% under a quarter-hour and 2.3% at an hour or longer.
Where do people in Fort Smith work?
Most stay: 96% work in Fort Smith. The rest go first to Region 6, Unorganized (20) and Yellowknife (10).
How many jobs are there in Fort Smith?
Some 1,040 people worked in Fort Smith at the 2021 census: 1.1 jobs per working resident with a fixed workplace. Statistics Canada counted 65 businesses with employees in June 2026.
Sources: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population (Census Profile) · Statistics Canada, tables 98-10-0458 and 98-10-0459 (commuting) · Statistics Canada, table 14-10-0323 (EI beneficiaries) · Statistics Canada, Canadian Business Counts (33-10-1176) · grades: TownRatings. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).