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Place dossier plate
SheetAK-SITKA-AK · Sitka, AK 8,393 pop · income 78th pct · 2 tracts
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 Sitka
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sitka on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Atmore · lowest
33,104
Atmore · lowest
33,104 median HH income
25.0% of the leader · rank #1
Belle Rose · near
101,184
Belle Rose · near
101,184 median HH income
76.5% of the leader · rank #2
Mount Vista · near
101,189
Mount Vista · near
101,189 median HH income
76.5% of the leader · rank #3
Hanscom AFB · near
101,194
Hanscom AFB · near
101,194 median HH income
76.5% of the leader · rank #4
Caldwell · near
101,196
Caldwell · near
101,196 median HH income
76.5% of the leader · rank #5
Sitka · this city
101,207
Sitka · this city
101,207 median HH income
76.5% of the leader · rank #6
Wading River · highest
132,213
Wading River · highest
132,213 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Sitka on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. 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: 8,393.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Sitka - the verdict
Nationally, Sitka sits in the 78th percentile for household income and the 71st percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
78th
percentile, household income
81st
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
71st
percentile, safety
📝 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: Sitka, AK
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 8,393 residents in Sitka, a small town within Alaska. Households in Sitka report a median income of $101,207 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 7.0%. Sitka's housing stock carries a median value of $442,100, and the median resident age is 39.6 years. About 34.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 61.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Sitka reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 830.7 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 43.3°F with 102.1 inches of precipitation per year.
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). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,467 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Alaska run around $271, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Sitka workers runs 11.3 minutes, with 61.5% driving alone and 7.9% 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 Sitka'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 work and mobility to housing and income to population change to climate and hazard context to reported crime to schools and households to within-city variation to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Sitka, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Sitka?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 61.5%. The reported mean trip to work is 11.3 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Sitka?
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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
Which cities make useful reference points for Sitka?
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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within Alaska, the closest population matches are Ketchikan (8,151 residents, $76,835 income); Kalifornsky (8,136 residents, $91,081 income); Meadow Lakes (8,994 residents, $81,250 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Wading River, NY (8,393 residents); Winnemucca, NV (8,391 residents); Atmore, AL (8,389 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.
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.
Population change
Is Sitka growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -111 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.3% 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.
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.
2020 estimate
8,430
2025 estimate
8,319
Period change
-1.3%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 43.3°F, with 102.1 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Alaska is 35.2 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
35.2
Annual precipitation
102.1 in
Mean temperature
43.3°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Sitka?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 830.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 64% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
Total reported rate
830.7
Violent rate
180.6
Property rate
650.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
The NCES join finds 7 public schools within the city match. 34.4% 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.
Poverty estimate
7.0%
Bachelor's degree+
34.4%
Matched public schools
7
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.
Household income B+
$101,207
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B-
34.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate C-
7.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C-
181 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Sitka profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 77/100 (B+) · $101,207
Bachelor's+ share: 66/100 (B-) · 34.4%
Poverty rate: 53/100 (C-) · 7.0%
Violent crime: 51/100 (C-) · 181 /100k
Cost of living: 29/100 (F) · 102.4 index
Where Sitka sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Sitka's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Sitka highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Sitka, AK (this city): home $442,100, crime 831/100k
Winnemucca, NV : home $290,500, crime 2,020/100k
Atmore, AL : home $128,900, crime 4,955/100k
Gilberts, IL : home $330,100, crime 247/100k
Lock Haven, PA : home $127,500, crime 1,817/100k
Crete, IL : home $209,100, crime 1,075/100k
Ketchikan, AK : home $340,300, crime 2,398/100k
Kenai, AK : home $249,400, crime 1,095/100k
Wasilla, AK : home $325,000, crime 2,871/100k
How does Sitka compare to other US cities?
Here's how Sitka stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income78% higher than other cities
Home value81% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
Safety71% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Alaska, Sitka ranks #9 of 23 Alaska cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Sitka 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 Sitka near the bottom of Alaska's cities
Among the 228 Alaska cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sitka ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sitka only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#25 of 215
88th percentile in Alaska
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 228
0th percentile in Alaska
Median Home Value
#8 of 200
96th percentile in Alaska
Poverty Rate
#140 of 225
38th percentile in Alaska
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#34 of 228
85th 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
78th percentile nationally for median household income · 71st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Sitka's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Sitka's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Sitka's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$442,10019th percentilemore affordable than 19% 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
Sitka's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,694 of 15,516
More affordable than 25% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,996 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.4×, Sitka sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,694 of 15,516 and #8,996 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
$101,207Sitka, AK median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sitka, 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 Sitka, AK.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)34.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)61.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
8,393
Median Income
$101,207
Median Home Value
$442,100
Median Age
39.6
Poverty Rate
7.0%
Labor force participation
61.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
34.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
830.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
180.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
650.1
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
43.3°F
Annual Precipitation
102.1"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
7
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Sitka's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
8,430 residents
2021
8,381 residents
2022
8,360 residents
2023
8,308 residents
2024
8,384 residents
2025
8,319 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
11.3 minutes
Drive Alone
61.5%
Carpool
10.4%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
14.9%
Work from Home
7.9%
Other
5.0%
Based on 4,543 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 Sitka. 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 Sitka 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 Sitka sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sitka 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, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.