Tok is a very small town located in the state of Alaska. With a population of 1,243 people and just one neighborhood, Tok is the 47th largest community in Alaska.
Tok is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Tok is a town of professionals, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Tok who work in teaching (13.46%), office and administrative support (10.63%), and management occupations (9.97%).
And if you like science, one thing you'll find is that Tok has lots of scientists living in town - whether they be life scientists, physical scientists (like astronomers), or social scientists (like geographers!). So, if you're scientific-minded, you might like it here too.
A relatively large number of people in Tok telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 11.73% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
It is a fairly quiet town because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) Tok has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. Tok has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Tok than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Tok may be for you.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Tok spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 13.19 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the town are less than they would otherwise be.
Being a small town, Tok does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.
In terms of college education, Tok is nearly on par with the US average for all cities of 21.84%: 20.51% of adults 25 and older in Tok have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree.
The per capita income in Tok in 2022 was $29,888, which is low income relative to Alaska, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $119,552 for a family of four. However, Tok contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Tok is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Tok home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Tok residents report their race to be White, followed by Native American. Important ancestries of people in Tok include German, English, Irish, Italian, and Scots-Irish.
The most common language spoken in Tok is English. Other important languages spoken here include Italian and Native American languages.
Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in Tok, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Unpopulated, and rural, the neighborhood is one of the least crowded neighborhoods in all of America. If you like open space, no traffic, and lots of room, this neighborhood may be just what you are looking for. According to NeighborhoodScout's leading research, this neighborhood is less densely populated than 99.7% of the neighborhoods in America.
In addition, vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 34.4% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 96.8% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.
The government often provides some of the more stable jobs in the economy. From local, to state, to federal government workers, the government can also be a major employer. What NeighborhoodScout's analysis revealed, is that the neighborhood in particular stands out when compared nationally for the proportion of its working residents who are employed by the government. At 20.9% of its workforce, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of government workers than 99.2% of U.S. neighborhoods.
Whether walking, biking, riding, or driving, the length of one's commute is an important factor for one's quality of life. The neighborhood stands out for its commute length, according to NeighborhoodScout's analysis. Residents of the neighborhood have the pleasure of having one of the shortest commutes to work of any neighborhood in America. 74.9% of the residents have a commute time from home to work (one way) of less than fifteen minutes. This is a higher proportion of residents enjoying a short trip to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 99.2% of U.S. neighborhoods. Less time commuting means more time for other things in life.
More people in choose to walk to work each day (10.9%) than almost any neighborhood in America. If you are attracted to the idea of being able to walk to work, this neighborhood could be a good choice.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Native American and Scots-Irish ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 21.5% of this neighborhood's residents have Native American ancestry and 3.9% have Scots-Irish ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 6.9% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Native American languages at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.7% of the neighborhoods in America.
How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in Tok are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 76.2% of U.S. neighborhoods. With 15.1% of the children here below the federal poverty line, this neighborhood has a higher rate of childhood poverty than 61.6% of U.S. neighborhoods.
What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.
In the neighborhood, 36.1% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is manufacturing and laborer occupations, with 26.3% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (25.2%), and 20.9% in government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions.
The languages spoken by people in this neighborhood are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 89.0% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Native American languages and Polish.
Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.
In the neighborhood in Tok, AK, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Native American (21.5%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (16.0%), and residents who report English roots (12.3%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (9.2%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (5.1%), among others.
How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend under 15 minutes commuting one-way to work (74.9% of working residents), one of the shortest commutes across America.
Here most residents (60.1%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (13.3%) and 10.9% of residents also hop out the door and walk to work for their daily commute. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.