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- 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.
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Apr 7, 2024 · Generally, counties have more power than boroughs, which can be incorporated (having their own government) or unincorporated (run by the state or county). Alaska is the only state that has boroughs instead of Counties, although Louisiana has parishes instead of counties. America’s special children.
Mar 3, 2022 · Question: Why does Alaska have boroughs rather than counties? Several options for what to call what are now boroughs were batted around during Alaska’s Constitutional Convention in the...
- Morgan Krakow
The census area has a total area of 36,562 km² (14,117 mi²). 11,388 km² (4,397 mi²) of it is land and 25,174 km² (9,720 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 68.85% water. The people refer to themselves as Ungangan, and have been called “Aleut.”. The Aleut language is related most closely to Eskimo languages. Bristol Bay Borough.
- 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...
Section 3 of Article X of the Constitution of Alaska divides the state, at the first level, into organized and unorganized boroughs. These boroughs are functionally equivalent to counties found in most other states. Areas of Alaska which are not within the boundaries of an organized borough are, by default, part of a single unorganized borough.
Instead of local divisions of government established as counties, Alaska is divided into a group of boroughs and geographical census areas. Each borough has a borough seat which serves a purpose similar to the county seat in other U.S. states.
Jul 31, 2020 · 1621. 1870. 2247. 1900. 2713. 1920. 3041. The first county was established in 1634, over 100 years before the first Census was taken (and long before America gained independence). It was created in James City, Virginia—an interesting location, considering Virginia now has the highest concentration of independent cities.
