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Place dossier plate
SheetAK-UNALASKA-AK · Unalaska, AK 4,430 pop · income 85th pct · 1 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 Unalaska
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Unalaska on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Devine · lowest
45,703
Devine · lowest
45,703 median HH income
40.0% of the leader · rank #1
Leland · near
114,250
Leland · near
114,250 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #2
Piney Point · near
114,271
Piney Point · near
114,271 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #3
Unalaska · this city
114,286
Unalaska · this city
114,286 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #4
Jenkintown · near
114,306
Jenkintown · near
114,306 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #5
Burleigh · near
114,340
Burleigh · near
114,340 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
Skaneateles · highest
114,355
Skaneateles · highest
114,355 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 Unalaska 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: 4,430.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Unalaska - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Unalaska places in the 85th percentile for household income and the 96th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
85th
percentile, household income
81st
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
96th
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: Unalaska, AK
Unalaska is a small town in Alaska, home to 4,430 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Unalaska report a median income of $114,286 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.4%. Home values in Unalaska run a median of $448,700, and the median resident age is 38.7 years. Educational attainment runs 18.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 82.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 0 residential building permits were authorized in Unalaska (No Permits), down 100% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Unalaska reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 214.1 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Alaska tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 102.4 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. 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. Workers in Unalaska report an average commute of 6.3 minutes, with 51.2% driving alone and 7.5% working from home. 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 Unalaska'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 within-city variation to comparison shortlist to reported crime to housing and income to work and mobility to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Unalaska, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Unalaska?
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. 18.3% 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.
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 Unalaska?
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 Soldotna (4,448 residents, $62,984 income); Nikiski (4,656 residents, $63,023 income); Utqiaġvik (4,850 residents, $89,038 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Wayland, MI (4,430 residents); Devine, TX (4,430 residents); Lebanon, IL (4,431 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Unalaska?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 214.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 91% 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.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Unalaska?
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 3.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.9×
Home value
$448,700
Household income
$114,286
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Unalaska?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 51.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 6.3 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.
Drive alone
51.2%
Work from home
7.5%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 3,039 workers age 16+.
Is Unalaska growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +52 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
2020 estimate
4,254
2025 estimate
4,306
Period change
+1.2%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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 A-
$114,286
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B+
3.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime B-
119 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
18.3%
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.
Unalaska profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 83/100 (A-) · $114,286
Poverty rate: 76/100 (B+) · 3.4%
Violent crime: 66/100 (B-) · 119 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 29/100 (F) · 18.3%
Cost of living: 29/100 (F) · 102.4 index
Where Unalaska sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Unalaska'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 - Unalaska highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Unalaska, AK (this city): home $448,700, crime 214/100k
Devine, TX : home $145,600, crime 1,608/100k
Lebanon, IL : home $146,600, crime 309/100k
La Verkin, UT : home $366,500, crime 2,059/100k
Newport, NC : home $245,300, crime 1,742/100k
Soldotna, AK : home $277,300, crime 1,225/100k
Valdez, AK : home $312,400, crime 466/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Unalaska compare to other US cities?
Unalaska measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income85% higher than other cities
Home value81% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
Safety96% 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, Unalaska ranks #2 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 Unalaska 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 Unalaska near the bottom of Alaska's cities
Among the 228 Alaska cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Unalaska ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Unalaska only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#9 of 215
96th percentile in Alaska
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 228
0th percentile in Alaska
Median Home Value
#7 of 200
97th percentile in Alaska
Poverty Rate
#174 of 225
23rd percentile in Alaska
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#105 of 228
54th 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
85th percentile nationally for median household income · 96th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Unalaska's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Unalaska'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 Unalaska's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$448,70019th 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
Unalaska's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,480 of 15,516
More affordable than 32% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,223 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.9×, Unalaska sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,480 of 15,516 and #8,223 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
$114,286Unalaska, AK median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Unalaska, 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 Unalaska, AK.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)18.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)82.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,430
Median Income
$114,286
Median Home Value
$448,700
Median Age
38.7
Poverty Rate
3.4%
Labor force participation
82.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
18.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
214.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
118.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
95.1
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.
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Unalaska's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,254 residents
2021
4,204 residents
2022
4,151 residents
2023
4,212 residents
2024
4,263 residents
2025
4,306 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
4
4
0
$0.4M
2020
5
1
4
$1.0M
2021
4
2
2
$1.0M
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Permit volume decreased 100% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
6.3 minutes
Drive Alone
51.2%
Carpool
9.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
29.4%
Work from Home
7.5%
Other
2.1%
Based on 3,039 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 Unalaska. 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 Unalaska 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 Unalaska sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Unalaska 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, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, 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.