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Place dossier plate
SheetAK-BIG-LAKE-AK · Big Lake, AK 3,291 pop · income 58th 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 Big Lake
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Big Lake on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Elizabethtown · lowest
32,577
Elizabethtown · lowest
32,577 median HH income
21.2% of the leader · rank #1
Wyoming · near
76,286
Wyoming · near
76,286 median HH income
49.5% of the leader · rank #2
Vandalia · near
76,290
Vandalia · near
76,290 median HH income
49.5% of the leader · rank #3
Big Lake · this city
76,292
Big Lake · this city
76,292 median HH income
49.5% of the leader · rank #4
Blair · near
76,292
Blair · near
76,292 median HH income
49.5% of the leader · rank #5
Blue Ridge · near
76,296
Blue Ridge · near
76,296 median HH income
49.5% of the leader · rank #6
St. Paul · highest
154,022
St. Paul · highest
154,022 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 Big Lake 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: 3,291.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Big Lake places in the 58th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
58th
percentile, household income
63rd
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: Big Lake, AK
3,291 people live in Big Lake, Alaska - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Big Lake report a median income of $76,292 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.3%. Big Lake's housing stock carries a median value of $286,600, and the median resident age is 36.9 years. Educational attainment runs 19.6% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 58.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 2 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Alaska tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Alaska scores 102.4 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,467 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Alaska run around $271, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Workers in Big Lake report an average commute of 29.6 minutes, with 63.8% driving alone and 25.2% working from home. Natural-hazard exposure scores 35.2 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Big Lake'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 schools and households to 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 Big Lake, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Big Lake?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 19.6% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
How far does income reach against housing in Big Lake?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Big Lake?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 63.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 29.6 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Which cities make useful reference points for Big Lake?
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.
Within Alaska, the closest population matches are Goldstream (3,238 residents, $92,604 income); Petersburg (3,346 residents, $76,466 income); Eielson AFB (3,133 residents, $59,716 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are St. Paul, MO (3,292 residents); Muldrow, OK (3,292 residents); Frostproof, FL (3,289 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.
Above median income · poverty 6.3% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
102.4 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Alaska average
D
City profile score · Big Lake, AK
45/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
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 C
6.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income C
$76,292
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
19.6%
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).
Big Lake profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 57/100 (C) · 6.3%
Household income: 56/100 (C) · $76,292
Bachelor's+ share: 33/100 (F) · 19.6%
Cost of living: 29/100 (F) · 102.4 index
How does Big Lake compare to other US cities?
Big Lake measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income58% higher than other cities
Home value63% 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 Big Lake 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 Big Lake near the bottom of Alaska's cities
Among the 228 Alaska cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Big Lake ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Big Lake only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#79 of 215
63rd percentile in Alaska
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 228
0th percentile in Alaska
Median Home Value
#59 of 200
71st percentile in Alaska
Poverty Rate
#147 of 225
34th percentile in Alaska
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#97 of 228
57th 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
58th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Big Lake's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$286,60037th percentilemore affordable than 37% 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
Big Lake's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,904 of 15,516
More affordable than 36% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,848 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.8×, Big Lake sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,904 of 15,516 and #7,848 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$76,292Big Lake, AK median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Big Lake, 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 Big Lake, AK.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)19.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,291
Median Income
$76,292
Median Home Value
$286,600
Median Age
36.9
Poverty Rate
6.3%
Labor force participation
58.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
19.6%
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
29.6 minutes
Drive Alone
63.8%
Carpool
6.5%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.1%
Work from Home
25.2%
Other
3.4%
Based on 1,508 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 Big Lake. 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 Big Lake 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 Big Lake sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Big Lake 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, NCES CCD, 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.