Alaska: Boroughs & Census Areas

Alaska has no counties. Local government runs through 19 organized boroughs plus one enormous Unorganized Borough, which the Census Bureau divides into 11 census areas — 30 county equivalents in Alaska, United States. The state had a population of 733,391 at the 2020 census and covers 570,641 square miles (1,477,953 km2) of land centred near 64°00′N 150°00′W, making it larger than Texas, California and Montana combined.

Juneau is the borough seat of the City and Borough of Juneau and Alaska’s capital; its postal code is 99801. Anchorage, a unified municipality, holds about four in ten Alaskans. Nearly the whole state runs on Alaska Time; only the Aleutian Islands west of 169°30′W use Hawaii-Aleutian Time. Alaska’s FIPS code is 02, and each borough or census area carries its own three-digit suffix.

Boroughs & Census Areas in Alaska

The table lists all 30 county equivalents: 19 organized boroughs first, then the 11 census areas of the Unorganized Borough, each sorted by 2020 census population. Municipality and City-borough mark unified city-borough governments; census areas are statistical units with no government or seat of their own. This site has full profiles for Anchorage Borough, Juneau Borough and Sitka Borough.

A few entries trip people up. The Chugach and Copper River census areas only date from January 2019, when the old Valdez-Cordova Census Area was split in two. Kusilvak Census Area was called Wade Hampton until 2015, and North Slope’s seat Utqiaġvik was Barrow until 2016 — older lists still use both former names. King Salmon, the administrative seat of the Lake and Peninsula Borough, physically sits across the boundary inside Bristol Bay Borough.

The Unorganized Borough

Everything outside the 19 organized boroughs falls into the Unorganized Borough: about 323,440 square miles, nearly half of Alaska’s land, with 77,157 residents at the 2020 count — barely a tenth of the state’s population. It has no borough government at all. The state legislature acts as its assembly, the state runs services directly, and schools are handled by Regional Educational Attendance Areas. The 11 census areas exist purely so the Census Bureau can publish statistics; they levy no taxes and elect no officials. Their largest communities are real towns, though: Bethel (Bethel Census Area), Nome, Unalaska with its port of Dutch Harbor (Aleutians West) and Valdez (Chugach).

Geography

The county equivalents vary wildly in size. Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area covers roughly 145,500 square miles of interior river country — the largest county equivalent in the United States, close to Montana in area, with about one resident per 27 square miles. The North Slope Borough, the largest organized borough at nearly 89,000 square miles of land, spans the entire Arctic coast. At the other end, Skagway and Bristol Bay are among the smallest by area and population alike. Denali, North America’s highest peak at 20,310 feet, stands inside Denali Borough; the Aleutians East Borough and Aleutians West Census Area string out along the 1,200-mile Aleutian chain toward Asia. Southeast Alaska’s boroughs — Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan Gateway, Petersburg, Wrangell, Haines, Skagway and Yakutat — occupy a rain-forest panhandle of islands and fjords where most communities have no road connection to anywhere.

Demographics

Alaska averages about 1.3 people per square mile, the lowest density of any US state. Distribution is extremely lopsided: Anchorage alone counted 291,247 people in 2020, and with neighbouring Matanuska-Susitna and Fairbanks North Star the three most populous boroughs hold roughly two-thirds of all Alaskans. Alaska Natives — Iñupiat, Yup’ik, Athabascan, Tlingit, Haida, Alutiiq and Aleut peoples — form the majority in much of rural Alaska. Kusilvak Census Area is about 92 percent Alaska Native, mostly Yup’ik, and routinely records the youngest median age of any county equivalent in the country, while the North Slope Borough is majority Iñupiat. Yakutat, with 662 residents spread over an area bigger than Connecticut, is the least populous borough.

Economy & Local Life

Each region leans on a different resource. The North Slope Borough taxes the Prudhoe Bay oil field, giving a small Arctic population one of the strongest municipal tax bases in America; the Trans-Alaska Pipeline carries that crude 800 miles south to tidewater at Valdez in the Chugach Census Area. Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians West Census Area has ranked as the top US fishing port by volume for decades, and Bristol Bay hosts the world’s largest sockeye salmon run each summer. Southeast Alaska lives on cruise tourism, fishing and government work in the capital. Anchorage anchors transport, health care, banking and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, while Fairbanks North Star hosts Fort Wainwright, Eielson Air Force Base and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The state’s signature event is the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race each March, run about 1,000 miles from Anchorage to Nome.

History

The United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, and it became the 49th state on 3 January 1959. Its constitution deliberately rejected the county model as too rigid for a territory this size, so the legislature created boroughs by statute in 1961. Bristol Bay Borough organized first, in 1962, and the Mandatory Borough Act of 1963 forced the populated regions around Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Sitka, Kenai and the Matanuska-Susitna valley to incorporate by 1964. Borough-forming has continued ever since: Yakutat organized in 1992, Wrangell in 2008 and Petersburg in 2013, each carved out of the Unorganized Borough. The census-area map keeps shifting too — Wade Hampton became Kusilvak in 2015 and Valdez-Cordova split into Chugach and Copper River in 2019.

Getting Around

No road network ties the 30 units together. The Parks, Glenn, Richardson, Seward and Sterling highways connect Anchorage, the Mat-Su valley, Fairbanks, the Kenai Peninsula and Valdez, and the gravel Dalton Highway runs north to the Prudhoe Bay oil field. Everything else moves by air or water.

• Anchorage to Fairbanks — about 360 miles north by the Parks Highway
• Anchorage to Homer — about 220 miles south on the Kenai Peninsula
• Anchorage to Valdez — about 300 miles east via the Glenn and Richardson highways
• Juneau — no road access; reach it by air or Alaska Marine Highway ferry

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is the main gateway and a global air-cargo hub; Fairbanks and Juneau have the next-busiest airports. The Alaska Railroad links Seward, Anchorage, Denali and Fairbanks, and the Alaska Marine Highway ferries serve coastal towns from Bellingham, Washington to the Aleutians. Scores of villages depend entirely on small bush planes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Alaska have counties?
No. Alaska uses 19 organized boroughs and 11 census areas within the Unorganized Borough — 30 county equivalents in federal statistics.

What is the difference between a borough and a census area?
A borough is a real government with an assembly, taxes and services. A census area is only a statistical label the Census Bureau applies to part of the Unorganized Borough.

What is the largest borough in Alaska?
By population, Anchorage with 291,247 people in 2020. By area, the North Slope Borough among organized boroughs, and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area — about 145,500 square miles — among all county equivalents.

What is the smallest borough in Alaska?
The City and Borough of Yakutat, with 662 residents at the 2020 census. Bristol Bay Borough is next at 844.

What is the capital of Alaska?
Juneau, seat of the City and Borough of Juneau. It is the only US state capital with no road connection to the rest of its state’s highway system.

How many people live in Alaska?
733,391 at the 2020 census, spread thinner than in any other state — about 1.3 people per square mile.

What replaced the Valdez-Cordova Census Area?
It was divided into the Chugach Census Area (Valdez, Cordova, Whittier) and the Copper River Census Area (Glennallen, Copper Center) in January 2019.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Alaska.