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The Richest Cities In Alaska, Based On The Latest Census Data
Recently, a series of studies have been analyzing and identifying the richest cities in states across the country. Some of the most recent studies have included the wealthiest cities in Indiana, Montana, Oregon, Washington state, among others. It was decided to keep going with this Pacific Northwest trajectory and analyze Alaska next.
This study analyzed 111 cities in Alaska with complete data from the Census Bureau, in terms of their median household income, mean (average) household income, median home value, and median property taxes paid per year, to come up with a list of the 15 richest cities in the state. Read on to find out what the richest city in Alaska is, plus the top 15 wealthiest cities in the state overall.
In order to compile this list of the richest cities in Alaska, important financial data from the Census Bureau's 2023 American Community Survey was sourced. With these chosen data points, a four-factor scoring system was constructed:
You should be aware of a few oddities that the Census Bureau does with its data. For certain factors, the Census sets upper limits on the numbers, so there's no exact value for certain factors. Take for example median household income: The Census Bureau has an upper limit of '$250,000+', and will list exact values only for figures below that. For median home value, the upper limit is '$2,000,000+'. For median property taxes paid, the upper limit is '$10,000+'. For these reasons, the mean household income (which is the same as average household income) dataset is crucial because the Census Bureau has exact figures for it. All four of these metrics were scored, added up, and then ranked by the cities' combined scores.
Another aspect of the Census to point out, and is particularly relevant to Alaska, is the Census-designated place — CDP. The Census, more or less, treats CDPs as cities — their terminology is 'place' — and so will this list of the richest cities in Alaska. But if you see cities on this list that you see as, say, neighborhoods, you're not wrong; they just happen to be treated as cities by the Census Bureau.
You'll find a table detailing the top 15 richest cities in Alaska and their respective dollar figures for each metric, below:
The No. 1 richest city in Alaska in this ranking is Gateway, a CDP a little under 40 miles northeast of Anchorage. There's a little over 2,000 households in this suburb. More than 30% of households in this town earn $200,000 or more. The average household income in Gateway is the highest in the state, at $166,988. The median household income is $137,150 is the third highest. The median home value, as reported by the Census Bureau, is $436,200, which is among the top five. The property taxes paid, with the median being $4,993, is the highest in the state.
The No. 2 richest city in Alaska is Chena Ridge, a suburb of Fairbanks, west of the city. Chena Ridge is a census-designated place and actually contains the ghost town of Chena, which used to be as important as Fairbanks back in the early 1900s. This town is of comparable size to the No. 1 richest city on this list, containing just under 2,300 total households. Chena Ridge's median household income is the highest in the state, at $140,722. The mean household income is $158,967. The occupational breakdown for Chena Ridge makes sense for a high-income town, with Management Occupations accounting for a fifth of the workforce, according to Data USA. The median home value here is $411,600, with corresponding property taxes being amongst the highest, with a median paid of $4,757.
The third richest city in Alaska is Cooper Landing, which is due south of Anchorage, situated on Kenai Lake. This town doesn't have a large population. There are only 114 total households in Cooper Landing. The median household income here is just under the median income of Chena Ridge, at $140,500 versus $140,500. The average household income in Cooper Landing is actually less than the median, which is unusual, at $134,467. The median home value reported by the Census is $404,500. The median property taxes paid here is comparatively cheap among the richest cities, costing $3,313 per household a year.
