Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetAK-BADGER-AK · Badger, AK 19,033 pop · income 77th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Badger
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Badger on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Sheridan · lowest
61,598
Sheridan · lowest
61,598 median HH income
59.9% of the leader · rank #1
Badger · this city
98,042
Badger · this city
98,042 median HH income
95.4% of the leader · rank #2
Indian Harbou… · near
98,046
Indian Harbou… · near
98,046 median HH income
95.4% of the leader · rank #3
North Bend · near
98,047
North Bend · near
98,047 median HH income
95.4% of the leader · rank #4
Jimmerson Lake · near
98,060
Jimmerson Lake · near
98,060 median HH income
95.4% of the leader · rank #5
San Leandro · near
98,063
San Leandro · near
98,063 median HH income
95.4% of the leader · rank #6
North Lakes · highest
102,785
North Lakes · highest
102,785 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Badger on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 19,033.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Badger lands in the 77th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
77th
percentile, household income
64th
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Badger, AK
19,033 people live in Badger, Alaska - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Badger report a median income of $98,042 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 1.9%. Badger's housing stock carries a median value of $291,600, and the median resident age is 34.3 years. About 25.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 56.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Alaska tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 102.4 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,467 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $271 across Alaska, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 35.2 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Badger's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from housing and income to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Badger, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Badger?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
What does the journey to work look like in Badger?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 83.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Which cities make useful reference points for Badger?
Within Alaska, the closest population matches are Knik-Fairview (18,921 residents, $95,000 income); College (11,730 residents, $76,831 income); North Lakes (10,583 residents, $102,785 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Sheridan, WY (19,035 residents); Sylvania, OH (19,038 residents); Gautier, MS (19,026 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Poverty rate A
1.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income B+
$98,042
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share C-
25.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Cost of living F
102.4 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Badger profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 86/100 (A) · 1.9%
Household income: 76/100 (B+) · $98,042
Bachelor's+ share: 51/100 (C-) · 25.9%
Cost of living: 29/100 (F) · 102.4 index
How does Badger compare to other US cities?
Here's how Badger stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income77% higher than other cities
Home value64% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Badger against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Alaska only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Alaska-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Badger near the bottom of Alaska's cities
Among the 228 Alaska cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Badger ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Badger only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#31 of 215
86th percentile in Alaska
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 228
0th percentile in Alaska
Median Home Value
#55 of 200
73rd percentile in Alaska
Poverty Rate
#186 of 225
17th percentile in Alaska
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#63 of 228
72nd percentile in Alaska
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Alaska only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
77th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Badger's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$291,60036th percentilemore affordable than 36% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Badger's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,557 of 15,516
More affordable than 58% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#864 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.0×, Badger sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,557 of 15,516 and #864 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$98,042Badger, AK median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Badger, AK median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Badger, AK.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)25.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)56.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
19,033
Median Income
$98,042
Median Home Value
$291,600
Median Age
34.3
Poverty Rate
1.9%
Labor force participation
56.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
25.9%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
83.0%
Carpool
9.4%
Public Transit
0.4%
Walk
0.1%
Work from Home
4.8%
Other
2.3%
Based on 9,464 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Alaska statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $271
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Alaska at $271 (electricity about $131 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Alaska statewide averages, not a meter reading for Badger. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Alaska's BEA cost-of-living index is 102.4 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Badger is $1,467/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Alaska statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 35.2 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Alaska statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Badger sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Badger compares to similar-size Alaska cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.