Photo: Joseph from Cabin On The Road, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0Valdez has higher unemployment (10.1%) than 94% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 4% of workers (Alaska 10%). Jobs and income earn Valdez C+; getting around on foot earns it B. Measured by household income, Valdez is ahead of 76% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Why Valdez gets the Jobs & income grade it does
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Valdez is better than 36% of U.S. towns, #28 of 41 in Alaska. Household income holds Valdez’s grade up ($99,271, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 3% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Valdez could be anywhere from C− to B.
About 11 minutes each way for Valdez’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Valdez workers work from home, vs 10% across Alaska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,957 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.
In Valdez, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Valdez is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns, #20 of 41 in Alaska. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 11.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 9.9% across Alaska, on an EPA index of 4.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,028 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). 4.5% of Valdez households have no vehicle (Alaska 9.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Valdez’s commuters take a bus or train.
Valdez next to U.S. towns of 2,600 to 5,000: 2,860th of 4,318 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 862 | Farmers Loop AK | 4,954 | $110K | 1.8% | 2.8% | — | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,612 | Goldstream AK | 3,294 | $104K | 4.7% | 3.7% | — | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,624 | Mill Bay AK | 3,654 | $89K | 9.0% | 0.0% | — | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,858 | Shelby NY | 4,792 | $66K | 12.5% | 4.2% | 14% | C+ |
| 2,859 | Silver Springs FL | 2,712 | $32K | 29.8% | 0.0% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,860 | Valdez AK | 3,681 | $99K | 5.8% | 10.1% | — | C+ |
| 2,861 | Mangonia Park FL | 2,667 | $61K | 13.9% | 7.5% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,862 | Oakwood Township IL | 3,048 | $57K | 15.4% | 3.2% | 8% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,318 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Valdez, 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 Valdez: questions
What is the median household income in Valdez?
$99,271 (±$17,603) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $92,788 across Alaska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Valdez?
5.8%, against 10.1% across Alaska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Valdez?
11 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Alaska and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Is Valdez walkable?
Valdez is more walkable than 58% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 4.8 out of 20, and 11% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Valdez without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Valdez, from the people who make the trip.
More of Valdez
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.