Photo: Petty Officer 1st Class Shawn Eggert · Public domainHousehold incomes in Kotzebue top those of 84% of U.S. towns
The trip to work takes 6 minutes on average, where Alaska has 19 and the U.S. 26. Poverty touches 14.4% of residents; Alaska has 10.1%. For jobs and income Kotzebue is better than 28% of U.S. towns (C); for walkability it is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (A−).
Census ACS 2020–24, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Inside Kotzebue’s Jobs & income grade
Household income holds Kotzebue’s grade up ($110,357, 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, Kotzebue could be anywhere from C− to C+.
The daily trip from Kotzebue: about 6 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Kotzebue workers work from home, vs 10% across Alaska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,297 commuters (the 4% 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.
Kotzebue is easy on foot, hard by bus
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 46.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 9.9% across Alaska, on an EPA index of 7.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,355 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). 38.2% of Kotzebue households have no vehicle (Alaska 9.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Kotzebue’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Kotzebue is 3,462nd of 4,882 U.S. towns of 2,000 to 3,900
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,673 | Goldstream AK | 3,294 | $104K | 4.7% | 3.7% | — | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,683 | Mill Bay AK | 3,654 | $89K | 9.0% | 0.0% | — | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,750 | North Pole AK | 2,477 | $92K | 4.9% | 4.6% | — | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,460 | Jenks Township PA | 3,662 | $52K | 4.6% | 2.3% | 11% | C |
| 3,461 | Chimayo NM | 2,390 | $56K | 27.0% | 1.0% | 1% | C |
| 3,462 | Kotzebue AK | 2,876 | $110K | 14.4% | 6.2% | — | C |
| 3,463 | Elmendorf TX | 3,111 | $52K | 30.7% | 11.1% | 1% | C |
| 3,464 | Fraser Township MI | 2,946 | $62K | 13.1% | 5.2% | 6% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 4,882 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 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 Kotzebue, 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 Kotzebue: questions
What is the median household income in Kotzebue?
$110,357 (±$8,590) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $92,788 across Alaska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Kotzebue?
14.4%, against 10.1% across Alaska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Kotzebue?
6 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Alaska and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Is Kotzebue walkable?
Kotzebue is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.0 out of 20, and 47% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Kotzebue without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 38% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Kotzebue, from the people who make the trip.
More of Kotzebue
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.