Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided · Public domainWork and commuting in Metlakatla
The two grades for Metlakatla are C− for jobs and income and A− for walkability. Commuters spend 6 minutes getting to work on average, where Alaska has 19 and the U.S. 26. Measured by household income, Metlakatla is behind 55% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Inside Metlakatla’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Metlakatla is better than 17% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Metlakatla’s grade up ($72,279, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (near the bottom of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (7.6%) is left out: Metlakatla’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Metlakatla could be anywhere from D− to B−.
From Metlakatla, about 6 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Metlakatla workers work from home, vs 10% across Alaska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 549 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Metlakatla
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Metlakatla is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 11.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 9.9% across Alaska, on an EPA index of 7.1.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 585 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). 13.4% of Metlakatla households have no vehicle (Alaska 9.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Metlakatla’s commuters take a bus or train.
Metlakatla next to U.S. towns of 900 to 1,700: 3,519th of 4,866 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 887 | Prudhoe Bay AK | 1,664 | — | 6.3% | 1.2% | — | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,559 | Diamond Ridge AK | 1,329 | $88K | 3.9% | 2.3% | — | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,690 | Sutton-Alpine AK | 1,598 | $75K | 3.2% | 9.0% | — | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,517 | Adams Township IL | 1,591 | $67K | 26.7% | 6.3% | 3% | C− |
| 3,518 | Woodhull NY | 1,635 | $60K | 10.2% | 8.1% | 3% | C− |
| 3,519 | Metlakatla AK | 1,235 | $72K | 13.5% | 7.6% | — | C− |
| 3,520 | Whitewater CA | 1,181 | $78K | 23.4% | 18.5% | 3% | C− |
| 3,521 | Aragon GA | 1,523 | $68K | 25.4% | 14.4% | 1% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,866 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 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 Metlakatla, 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 Metlakatla: questions
What is the median household income in Metlakatla?
$72,279 (±$14,247) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $92,788 across Alaska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Metlakatla?
13.5%, against 10.1% across Alaska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Metlakatla?
6 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Alaska and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Is Metlakatla walkable?
Metlakatla is more walkable than 79% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 7.1 out of 20, and 11% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Metlakatla without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Metlakatla, from the people who make the trip.
More of Metlakatla
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.