Photo: Craig Talbert · CC BY 2.0Household incomes in Bear Creek are higher than in 73% of U.S. towns
A typical one-way commute lasts 12 minutes (Alaska 19, U.S. 26). Poverty touches 3.1% of residents; Alaska has 10.1%. Bear Creek grades B for jobs and income and C+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The four measures behind Bear Creek’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Bear Creek is better than 58% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Bear Creek’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (6.7%) is left out: Bear Creek’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, Bear Creek could be anywhere from C to B+.
How long Bear Creek spends getting to work: about 12 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bear Creek workers work from home, vs 10% across Alaska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 636 commuters (the 6% 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.
In Bear Creek, most people drive to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bear Creek is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 9.9% across Alaska, on an EPA index of 3.5.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 678 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). 3.3% of Bear Creek households have no vehicle (Alaska 9.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bear Creek’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Bear Creek is 1,715th among 5,760 U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,210 | Prudhoe Bay AK | 1,664 | — | 6.3% | 1.2% | — | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,713 | Sunrise Township MN | 2,160 | $111K | 5.7% | 5.1% | 1% | B |
| 1,714 | Loyalhanna Township PA | 2,041 | $76K | 7.8% | 4.8% | 8% | B |
| 1,715 | Bear Creek AK | 1,732 | $96K | 3.1% | 6.7% | — | B |
| 1,716 | Sam Rayburn TX | 1,366 | $83K | 0.9% | 6.9% | 2% | B |
| 1,717 | Eyota MN | 2,013 | $83K | 9.1% | 2.2% | 4% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,932 | Kodiak Station AK | 1,823 | $84K | 3.2% | 0.0% | — | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,054 | Diamond Ridge AK | 1,329 | $88K | 3.9% | 2.3% | — | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | 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 Bear Creek, 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 Bear Creek: questions
What is the median household income in Bear Creek?
$95,774 (±$18,859) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $92,788 across Alaska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bear Creek?
3.1%, against 10.1% across Alaska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bear Creek?
12 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Alaska and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Is Bear Creek walkable?
Bear Creek is more walkable than 42% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 3.5 out of 20, and 7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bear Creek without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bear Creek, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bear Creek
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.