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Place dossier plate
SheetAK-PRUDHOE-BAY-AK · Prudhoe Bay, AK 1,971 pop
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.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Prudhoe Bay 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: 1,971.
1,971 people call Prudhoe Bay, Alaska home. Source: Census ACS.
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: Prudhoe Bay, AK
Alaska's Prudhoe Bay is a small town, with 1,971 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The median resident age is 40.3 years. Educational attainment runs 19.5% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 97.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
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). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,467 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Alaska's average monthly utility costs around $271 (state average). Commute times here average 22.0 minutes, with 7.1% driving alone and 3.9% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 Prudhoe Bay'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 comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Prudhoe Bay, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, matched public-school count; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Prudhoe Bay?
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 Kodiak Station (1,941 residents, $102,069 income); Deltana (2,064 residents, $95,927 income); Dillingham (2,084 residents, $99,097 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Century, FL (1,972 residents); Albany, KY (1,972 residents); Stone Ridge, NY (1,970 residents). These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
What does the journey to work look like in Prudhoe Bay?
Walking is the largest reported mode at 53.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 22.0 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. 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.
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.
Bachelor's+ share F
19.5%
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.
Household income N/A
N/A
No ACS median household income on file for this place.
Poverty rate N/A
N/A
No ACS poverty rate on file for this place.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
How does Prudhoe Bay compare to other US cities?
Here's how Prudhoe Bay stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
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 Prudhoe Bay 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 Prudhoe Bay near the bottom of Alaska's cities
Among the 228 Alaska cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Prudhoe Bay ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Prudhoe Bay only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 228
0th percentile in Alaska
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#98 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.
Income distribution context
Median household income is not available for Prudhoe Bay in the current Census ACS release (common for very small places).
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)19.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Labor force participation (adults 16+)97.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,971
Median Income
N/A
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
40.3
Poverty Rate
N/A
Labor force participation
97.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
19.5%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
22.0 minutes
Drive Alone
7.1%
Carpool
15.8%
Public Transit
1.7%
Walk
53.0%
Work from Home
3.9%
Other
18.5%
Based on 1,926 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 Prudhoe Bay. 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 Prudhoe Bay 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 Prudhoe Bay sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Prudhoe Bay 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.