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Place dossier plate
SheetAK-HOLY-CROSS-AK · Holy Cross, AK 229 pop · income 1st 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 Holy Cross
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Holy Cross on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Pennington Gap · lowest
22,857
Pennington Gap · lowest
22,857 median HH income
16.3% of the leader · rank #1
East Cleveland · near
22,883
East Cleveland · near
22,883 median HH income
16.3% of the leader · rank #2
Holy Cross · this city
22,917
Holy Cross · this city
22,917 median HH income
16.3% of the leader · rank #3
Brooksville · near
22,917
Brooksville · near
22,917 median HH income
16.3% of the leader · rank #4
Twin Lakes · near
22,917
Twin Lakes · near
22,917 median HH income
16.3% of the leader · rank #5
Pembroke · near
22,940
Pembroke · near
22,940 median HH income
16.3% of the leader · rank #6
Cooper Landing · highest
140,500
Cooper Landing · highest
140,500 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 Holy Cross 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: 229.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Holy Cross lands in the 1st percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
1st
percentile, household income
1st
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: Holy Cross, AK
229 people live in Holy Cross, Alaska - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Holy Cross brings in $22,917 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 2.6%. Home values in Holy Cross run a median of $55,600, and the median resident age is 35.5 years. Educational attainment runs 0.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 53.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 1 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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,467 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Alaska's average monthly utility costs around $271 (state average). 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 Holy Cross'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 population change to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to housing and income to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Holy Cross, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Population change
Is Holy Cross growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -10 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -5.6% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What does the journey to work look like in Holy Cross?
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.
Working from home is the largest reported mode at 36.2%. 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 Holy Cross?
Within Alaska, the closest population matches are Cooper Landing (231 residents, $140,500 income); Kenny Lake (232 residents, $40,982 income); Upper Kalskag (232 residents, $49,167 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Orange Grove Mobile Manor, AZ (229 residents); Norwood, GA (229 residents); Cave-In-Rock, IL (229 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Holy Cross?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.6%, 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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Holy Cross?
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 0.0% 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.
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.
Matched public schools
1
Bachelor's degree+
0.0%
Poverty estimate
2.6%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
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-
2.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
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.
Household income F
$22,917
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
0.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Holy Cross profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 81/100 (A-) · 2.6%
Cost of living: 29/100 (F) · 102.4 index
Household income: 0/100 (F) · $22,917
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 0.0%
How does Holy Cross compare to other US cities?
Holy Cross measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income1% higher than other cities
Home value1% 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 Holy Cross 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 Holy Cross near the bottom of Alaska's cities
Among the 228 Alaska cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Holy Cross ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Holy Cross only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#214 of 215
0th percentile in Alaska
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 228
0th percentile in Alaska
Median Home Value
#187 of 200
7th percentile in Alaska
Poverty Rate
#180 of 225
20th percentile in Alaska
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#217 of 228
0th 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
1st percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Holy Cross's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$55,600Among the most affordablemore affordable than 99% 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
Holy Cross's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#3,629 of 15,516
More affordable than 77% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,298 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.4×, Holy Cross sits in the affordable band:
national rank #3,629 of 15,516 and #3,298 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$22,917Holy Cross, AK median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Holy Cross, 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 Holy Cross, AK.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)0.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
229
Median Income
$22,917
Median Home Value
$55,600
Median Age
35.5
Poverty Rate
2.6%
Labor force participation
53.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
0.0%
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Holy Cross's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
177 residents
2021
175 residents
2022
172 residents
2023
171 residents
2024
170 residents
2025
167 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
6.4%
Carpool
5.3%
Public Transit
1.1%
Walk
24.5%
Work from Home
36.2%
Other
26.5%
Based on 94 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 Holy Cross. 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 Holy Cross 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 Holy Cross sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Holy Cross 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.