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Place dossier plate
SheetAK-PORT-LIONS-AK · Port Lions, AK 151 pop · income 21st 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 Port Lions
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Port Lions on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Tollette · lowest
40,833
Tollette · lowest
40,833 median HH income
36.4% of the leader · rank #1
Elephant Head · near
51,103
Elephant Head · near
51,103 median HH income
45.5% of the leader · rank #2
Rome · near
51,106
Rome · near
51,106 median HH income
45.5% of the leader · rank #3
Port Lions · this city
51,111
Port Lions · this city
51,111 median HH income
45.5% of the leader · rank #4
Roebuck · near
51,111
Roebuck · near
51,111 median HH income
45.5% of the leader · rank #5
Hartley · near
51,118
Hartley · near
51,118 median HH income
45.5% of the leader · rank #6
Cold Bay · highest
112,273
Cold Bay · highest
112,273 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 Port Lions 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: 151.
Port Lions ranks in the 21st percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
21st
percentile, household income
39th
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: Port Lions, AK
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 151 residents in Port Lions, a small town within Alaska. Port Lions households earn a median of $51,111 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 17.9%. Port Lions's housing stock carries a median value of $189,100, and the median resident age is 56.4 years. Educational attainment runs 0.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 51.5% 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: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Alaska at 102.4 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,467 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Alaska run around $271, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Port Lions workers runs 7.9 minutes, with 47.1% driving alone and 4.3% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 35.2 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Port Lions'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 housing and income to schools and households 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 Port Lions, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for 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. Population change
Is Port Lions 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 -9 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -5.3% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Port Lions?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 17.9%, 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 education layer cover for Port Lions?
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 0.9% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Port Lions?
Within Alaska, the closest population matches are Cold Bay (153 residents, $112,273 income); Kaktovik (153 residents, $88,750 income); Dry Creek (147 residents). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Tollette, AR (151 residents); La Clede, IL (151 residents); Metcalf, IL (151 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Port Lions?
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 47.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 7.9 minutes.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
4.3%
Drive alone
47.1%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 70 workers age 16+.
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.
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
$51,111
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
17.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
0.9%
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).
Port Lions profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 29/100 (F) · 102.4 index
Household income: 22/100 (F) · $51,111
Poverty rate: 17/100 (F) · 17.9%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 0.9%
How does Port Lions compare to other US cities?
Here's how Port Lions stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income21% higher than other cities
Home value39% 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 Port Lions 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 Port Lions near the bottom of Alaska's cities
Among the 228 Alaska cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Port Lions ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Port Lions only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#163 of 215
24th percentile in Alaska
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 228
0th percentile in Alaska
Median Home Value
#111 of 200
45th percentile in Alaska
Poverty Rate
#71 of 225
68th percentile in Alaska
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#214 of 228
5th 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
21st percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Port Lions's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$189,100Among the most affordablemore affordable than 61% 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
Port Lions's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,715 of 15,516
More affordable than 37% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,730 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.7×, Port Lions sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,715 of 15,516 and #7,730 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
$51,111Port Lions, AK median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Port Lions, 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 Port Lions, AK.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)0.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)17.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)51.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
151
Median Income
$51,111
Median Home Value
$189,100
Median Age
56.4
Poverty Rate
17.9%
Labor force participation
51.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
0.9%
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
Port Lions's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
171 residents
2021
168 residents
2022
166 residents
2023
165 residents
2024
163 residents
2025
162 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
7.9 minutes
Drive Alone
47.1%
Carpool
15.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
8.6%
Work from Home
4.3%
Other
24.3%
Based on 70 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 Port Lions. 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 Port Lions 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 Port Lions sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Port Lions 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.