Smithers, British Columbia
Wikimedia Commons via Wikipedia

British Columbia · Civic arena

Smithers

Smithers drinking water hardness is 261 mg/L on OpenStats, plus City Score rankings and local readings.

Civic arena · hometown HUD

Smithers

Arena rank #343 of 172 · 22% XP

Direct
City Score XP

7/8 pillars on the board

22%#343

Smithers packs 7 of eight open-data pillars into its composite standing. Tap a rival below to see how the hometown stacks up head-to-head.

Smithers drinking water

Direct municipal reading

Hardness, pH, and lead from municipal reports on the OpenStats water atlas.

Hardness
261 mg/L
very hard
pH
7.9
Lead
0.5 μg/L

Full Smithers water quality report →What hardness means

Watershed to tap · system map

How Smithers's water works

Open full map

Source, treatment, and distribution path from OpenStats water atlas supply research — not invented plant names. Hardness and grade labels reflect published readings.

Interactive Archify map · OpenStats water dataFull water atlas page →

Local numbers for Smithers

Drinking water first, then permits, tax, internet, radon, and hazards for Smithers.

How Smithers scores

Smithers sits at City Score rank #343 with a standing of 22%, from 7 of 8 open-data pillars (tax, construction, connectivity, indoor air, water, seismic hazard, growth, safety). Missing pillars score at median standing so thin coverage cannot inflate the rank. The chart below shows how that standing moves year to year.

Latest owned placements: building permit value rank #252 of 343 (2025); indoor radon rank #31 of 343 at 261 Bq/m³ survey mean; residential mill rate rank #77 of 343 (11.98 mill rate). Full tables and method notes live on each study edition; atlas readings for the same slug open from the topic buttons.

#343
Arena rank (of 172)
22%
City Score
7
Pillars observed

Arena loadout

Topic XP bars

Arena rank #343 of 172

City Score

7/8 pillars · main XP bar

22%#343
Drinking water

Rank #31

9%
Building permits

Rank #252

27%
Internet

Rank #319

7%
Radon

Rank #31

9%
Hazards

No placement

Property tax

Rank #77

22%

Achievements

Direct municipal reading

Hometown notes

Archive

Earlier years: 2026 · 2025 · 2024 · 2023

Smithers in brief

Smithers is town in northwestern British Columbia, approximately halfway between Prince George and Prince Rupert.

Rail service turned a siding into a main street with grain elevators and hotels. Walk the older blocks and you can still spot seams between eras.

Agriculture, forestry, tourism, and public-sector jobs still mix on the local tax roll the way many British Columbia towns do. On OpenStats City Score, Smithers ranks 343 of 7. Municipal recreation, parks, trails, and utility pages remain the best live guide to how Smithers explains itself today.

Permits, mill rates, broadband, radon, hazards, and water quality may show measured values, regional estimates, or empty states until a verified source is linked. That is the same honest pattern OpenStats uses for smaller places already in the corpus, and it keeps Smithers comparable on the hometown board without inventing numbers. Seasonal recreation programming, winter maintenance, and summer festival calendars still fill the municipal news feed most years. Library branches, arena ice, and aquatics schedules are the practical anchors families check before planning a weekend in Smithers. Seasonal recreation programming, winter maintenance, and summer festival calendars still fill the municipal news feed most years. Library branches, arena ice, and aquatics schedules are the practical anchors families check before planning a weekend in Smithers.

Drawn from Municipality of Smithers, CBC British Columbia.

City Score over time

City Score from 2016–2025 across eight open-data pillars. Individual study placements are listed in the panels below.

0%25%50%75%100%2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
OpenStats City Score

Rankings for Smithers

Each study below is its own ranking. Where a study has more than one edition for this city, the chart shows standing across those years only.

Connectivity · OpenStats

OpenStats Broadband Download Speeds

OpenStats

Cities ranked by estimated best advertised download (Mbps). Anchored to the current ISED National Broadband Data vintage, then backcast along a national speed curve with city-specific fiber-arrival and 50/10 availability paths so relative ranks can change over the decade. Not a claim of audited historical hex maps for every year.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#319
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 121.3

Construction · OpenStats

OpenStats Building Permit Value

OpenStats

Cities ranked by calendar-year building permit value. Direct rows sum Statistics Canada Table 34-10-0292-01. Cities without a direct reading use population × provincial per-capita permit intensity (estimated), so every seed city has a year-varying construction signal.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#252
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 293302327

Composite · OpenStats

OpenStats City Score

OpenStats

Dimensional average of OpenStats open-data pillars for each panel year 2016–2025: tax, construction, connectivity, indoor air, water, seismic hazard, population growth, and crime severity. Each series is scored 0–1 within its edition; series in the same pillar are averaged, then all eight pillars are averaged with equal weight. Missing pillars score at median standing (0.5). Growth and CSI use StatCan annual tables; permits, mill rates, and broadband use live rows plus documented year-varying estimates where needed. Radon, water, and PGA may be survey/model vintages carried forward and are flagged when static for more than two years. External commercial livability lists are never inputs.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#343
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.216

Safety · OpenStats

OpenStats Crime Severity Index

OpenStats

Communities ranked by Statistics Canada Crime Severity Index (Table 35-10-0026-01). Rank 1 is highest CSI (worse). Values are CMA where a metro match exists, otherwise provincial CSI. Hometown pages label the grain.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#83
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 92.37

Water · OpenStats

OpenStats Drinking Water Hardness

OpenStats

Communities ranked by municipal drinking-water hardness (mg/L as CaCO₃). Hardness changes slowly; the atlas vintage is carried across panel years and flagged when static for more than two years.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#31
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 261

Health · OpenStats

OpenStats Highest Indoor Radon

OpenStats

Communities ranked by Health Canada survey mean indoor radon (Bq/m³). Rank 1 is the highest mean. Decade panel years without a new survey carry the CMA survey vintage forward; they are not annual retests.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#31
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 261

Growth · OpenStats

OpenStats Population Growth

OpenStats

Cities ranked by year-over-year population growth from Statistics Canada annual CSD estimates (Table 17-10-0155-01). Rank 1 is fastest growth. A few places without a clean CSD match use a provincial-path estimate anchored to seed population.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#298
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score -0.0017739932588256165

Property tax · OpenStats

OpenStats Residential Mill Rates

OpenStats

Municipalities ranked by residential mill rate. Rank 1 is the highest rate. Published municipal years are used when available; gaps are interpolated or follow the provincial median path so the tax pillar moves year to year for every city.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#77
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 11.975688149602208

Worth knowing in Smithers

Distinctive local notes and places, each linked to its source.

Places to see

Smithers downtown

Historic main street blocks, local shops, and civic buildings remain the walking-tour version of Smithers.

Follow Smithers by email

When Smithers moves in a ranking, posts new permit figures, or lands in a study, get a short note. A few sends a year, only when something changes.

No spam. Unsubscribe with one reply.

Related guides

More places in British Columbia

All British Columbia cities