St. Alexander Nevsky Chapel · Photo: Etaohc · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Akutan are lower than in 98% of U.S. towns
Below the poverty line: 20.2% of residents, next to 10.1% across Alaska. Jobs and income earn Akutan D−; getting around on foot earns it B. Home is the office for 21% of workers, where Alaska as a whole has 10%.
Census ACS 2020–24, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Akutan
On income, poverty and job access, Akutan is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Akutan’s grade.
Unemployment (4.9%) is left out: Akutan’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Akutan could be anywhere from D− to D.
Time on the road from Akutan: about 6 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 1.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Akutan workers work from home, vs 10% across Alaska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 459 commuters (the 21% who work from home are left out). Across Alaska: 72% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Most of Akutan commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Akutan is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 92.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 9.9% across Alaska, on an EPA index of 4.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 578 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 85.9% of Akutan households have no vehicle (Alaska 9.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Akutan’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,100, and where Akutan sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,166 | Prudhoe Bay AK | 1,664 | — | 6.3% | 1.2% | — | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,652 | Bear Creek AK | 1,732 | $96K | 3.1% | 6.7% | — | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,871 | Kodiak Station AK | 1,823 | $84K | 3.2% | 0.0% | — | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,678 | Northumberland NH | 2,096 | $40K | 23.1% | 1.8% | 17% | D− |
| 5,679 | Georgiana AL | 1,274 | $24K | 24.1% | 9.0% | 6% | D− |
| 5,680 | Akutan AK | 1,591 | $36K | 20.2% | 4.9% | — | D− |
| 5,681 | Miami AZ | 1,514 | $41K | 26.4% | 17.3% | 5% | D− |
| 5,682 | Glenwood AR | 2,016 | $34K | 38.8% | 1.0% | 28% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,794 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Akutan, the top three, the last and three more from Alaska.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Akutan: questions
What is the median household income in Akutan?
$35,833 (±$20,139) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $92,788 across Alaska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Akutan?
20.2%, against 10.1% across Alaska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Akutan?
6 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Alaska and 26 nationally. 21% of workers work from home.
Is Akutan walkable?
Akutan is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 4.5 out of 20, and 93% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Akutan without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 86% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Akutan, from the people who make the trip.
More of Akutan
Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.