Kotzebue, AK population, income and ZIP codes

Kotzebue city is a small town in Alaska, with 3,046 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #38 of 355 ranked by population — larger than 89% of them. The median age here is 31 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 Kotzebue city earn a median of $106,328 a year, 35.4% above the national figure of $78,538 and 31% above the $81,250 median for the 73 Alaska cities we cover. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 13.4% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Kotzebue city is valued at $264,500, 12.8% below the national figure and 13% below the $305,100 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,610 a month, 14.5% above the national figure, or roughly $19,320 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 18.2% 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 2.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 43.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

Median income runs above the national figure while poverty also runs above it — a split distribution, not a uniformly comfortable place. Averages hide that; the two numbers together do not.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. 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.