Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, photographer not specified or unknown · Public domainUnemployment in Bethel (8.3%) is higher than in 89% of U.S. towns
Measured by household income, Bethel is ahead of 87% of U.S. towns. For jobs and income Bethel is better than 28% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (B). The trip to work takes 10 minutes on average, where Alaska has 19 and the U.S. 26.
Census ACS 2020–24, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Income, poverty and work: Bethel’s grade explained
Household income holds Bethel’s grade up ($117,255, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bethel could be anywhere from C− to B−.
Bethel’s commute takes about 10 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bethel workers work from home, vs 10% across Alaska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,680 commuters (the 9% 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 Bethel commutes by car
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 21.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 9.9% across Alaska, on an EPA index of 4.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,930 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). 30.5% of Bethel households have no vehicle (Alaska 9.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Bethel’s commuters take a bus or train.
Bethel next to U.S. towns of 4,600 to 8,900: 2,504th of 3,283 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 580 | Steele Creek AK | 5,928 | $121K | 3.3% | 0.5% | — | A |
| … | |||||||
| 829 | Farmers Loop AK | 4,954 | $110K | 1.8% | 2.8% | — | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,113 | Gateway AK | 6,845 | $138K | 4.5% | 3.8% | — | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,502 | Mira Monte CA | 6,888 | $73K | 16.3% | 6.0% | 4% | C |
| 2,503 | Larose LA | 5,515 | $81K | 12.0% | 7.4% | 9% | C |
| 2,504 | Bethel AK | 6,626 | $117K | 11.6% | 8.3% | — | C |
| 2,505 | Carlinville IL | 5,465 | $58K | 20.5% | 2.4% | 32% | C |
| 2,506 | Delphos OH | 7,096 | $61K | 12.2% | 5.6% | 16% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,283 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | 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 Bethel, 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 Bethel: questions
What is the median household income in Bethel?
$117,255 (±$8,488) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $92,788 across Alaska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bethel?
11.6%, against 10.1% across Alaska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bethel?
10 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Alaska and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Is Bethel walkable?
Bethel is more walkable than 55% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 4.0 out of 20, and 22% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bethel without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 30% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bethel, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bethel
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.