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Apr 7, 2024 · Unlike most US states divided into counties, Alaska carves its vast territory into boroughs. Similar to counties, but like many things in the last frontier, they do things a tad differently. While most of the areas serve as local governments with a focus on public services and infrastructure, Alaska’s boroughs reflect the state’s rugged ...
Mar 3, 2022 · Today, there are 19 boroughs in Alaska, plus what’s known as an unorganized borough — a behemoth swath of land stretching from far Southwest to far Southeast Alaska that contains only a small...
- Morgan Krakow
- Alaska’s Boroughs and Census Areas
- Interactive Map of Alaska Boroughs
- The Largest Alaskan Boroughs by Population
- Largest Census Areas in Alaska by Population
- The Smallest Boroughs in Alaska by Population
- Notable Alaskan Boroughs and Census Areas
The Constitution of Alaska, ratified in 1956, states that the state “shall be organized into boroughs, organized or unorganized.” Alaska is the only state in the US that uses boroughs for its largest administrative division. There are19 organized boroughs in Alaska andone Unorganized Borough, the latter of which comprises 11 census areas. The Unorg...
Click on any of the counties on the map to see its population, economic data, time zone, and zip code (the data will appear below the map). Data is sourced from the US Census 2021.
Municipality of Anchorage
The municipality of Anchorage is a consolidated city-borough, meaning the border of the city and the borough are coterminous. The city of Anchorage was incorporated in 1920, and it merged with the Greater Anchorage Area Borough in 1975 to form the city-borough that exists today. Anchorage is the largest city-borough in Alaska by a large margin. It’s got more than twice as many residents as the next largest borough with 292,545 people, and it’s the largest city in the state, though it isn’t th...
Matanuska-Susitna Borough
The second-most populous borough in Alaska is the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, with a population of 106,807. Often shortened to Mat-Su Borough, it gets its name from the Matanuska and Susitna rivers, which exist entirely within the borough and empty into the Cook Inlet at the borough’s southern border. Along with the Municipality of Anchorage, the Mat-Su Borough is part of the Anchorage Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is home to more than half of the state’s population. The borough seat is...
Fairbanks North Star Borough
With a total land area that’s slightly smaller than the state of New Jersey, Fairbanks North Star Borough had a population of 97,149 in 2021, making it the third most populous borough in Alaska. It is located in Interior Alaska in the central-eastern part of the state. The borough seat is the city of Fairbanks, which gets its name from Charles Fairbanks, a former US senator and vice president. Fairbanks is the second-largest city in Alaska and the largest in its Interior region. Home to the U...
All of Alaska’s census areas are technically a part of the state’s Unorganized Borough, which comprises the land not claimed by any organized borough. There are 11 census areas, and we’ll look at the three most populous below.
Yakutat City and Borough
Yakutat is a consolidated city-borough in southeastern Alaska, covering part of the Alaskan Panhandle. It is the smallest county-equivalent in Alaska by population, though in area it is six times larger than the state of Rhode Island. The former City of Yukatat, now a census-designated place, is the largest population center in the area. The name of this borough in the Tlingit language is Yaakwdáat, which translates to “the place where canoes rest.” Eyak and Tlingit peoples were residing in t...
Bristol Bay Borough
Bristol Bay Borough is the second smallest borough in Alaska in terms of population and total area. The small borough consists of a rectangle of land surrounding Naknek, the borough seat, and King Salmon. Although King Salmon is located in Bristol Bay Borough, it is the borough seat of neighboring Lake and Peninsula Borough. The borough borders Kvichak Bay and includes the Naknek River which connects the bay to Naknek Lake. The borough also includes part of the Katmai National Park and Preser...
Sitka City and Borough
The name Sitka is derived from a Tlingit contraction meaning “People on the Outside of Baranof Island.” The unified city-borough is located in southeastern Alaska, on the western part of Baranof Island. It was under Russian rule from 1799 until the Alaska Purchase of 1867and functioned as the capital of Russian America. Sitka became the first capital of Alaska after the transfer from Russia to the United States. Today, Sitka is a popular location for travelers interested in checking out the i...
Aleutians West Census Area
The Aleutians West Census Area covers most of the Aleutian Islands, a chain of islands that extends into the northern Pacific Ocean. The archipelago divides the Bering Sea to the north from the Pacific Ocean to the South. Most of the islands are part of Alaska, 15 are volcanic, and a minority belong to the Russian state of Kamchatka Krai. There is no borough seat in this census area, but the largest city is Unalaska, located on Unalaska Island. After Bethel, this is the largest city in Alaska...
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Oct 25, 2023 · GISGeography Last Updated: October 25, 2023. Download. About the map. In terms of administrative boundaries, Alaska is completely unique because it doesn’t have counties. Instead, it consists of boroughs, census areas, cities, and municipalities.
Today’s Alaska boroughs did not always exist in the present form. They went through many different changes in the space of a few short years. Territory of Alaska Boroughs The Territory of Alaska was organized on August 24, 1912. The territory was previously the Department of Alaska, 1868-1884; and the District of Alaska, 1884-1912. The […]
A: Alaska is not divided into counties but rather into organized and the so-called unorganized borough. Organized boroughs are similar to counties, however, and each of the such units are supervised by a small assembly.
Alaska Counties. Unlike most states in the U.S., Alaska is not divided into counties; instead, it is divided into boroughs. Alaska is divided into 1 Unorganized Borough and 19 organized boroughs. The region not part of any organized borough is called the Unorganized borough. The “Unorganized Borough” covers over half of Alaska’s area ...
