Kivalina, AK population, income and ZIP codes

Kivalina city is a very small community in Alaska, with 813 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #87 of 355 ranked by population — larger than 75% of them. The median age here is 20.7 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Kivalina city earn a median of $70,278 a year, 10.5% below the national figure of $78,538 and 14% below the $81,250 median for the 73 Alaska cities we cover. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 22.1% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in Kivalina city is valued at $119,600, 60.6% below the national figure and 61% below the $305,100 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,028 a month, 26.9% below the national figure, or roughly $12,336 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 17.6% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 1.7×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so purchase prices are unusually low against local pay, the pattern in places where supply is plentiful and wage growth has been flat. 79.2% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

A median age of 20.7 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address. With 813 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare Kivalina city against its county rather than against national figures.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.