List of boroughs and census areas in Alaska

Boroughs and census areas of Alaska
Borough ?   City-borough ?   Census areas of the Unorganized Borough
Location	State of Alaska
Number	19 organized boroughs 11 census areas
Populations	(Organized boroughs) : 687 ( Yakutat ) ? 286,075 ( Anchorage ) (Census areas) : 2,262 ( Hoonah-Angoon ) ? 18,224 ( Bethel )
Areas	(Organized boroughs) : 434 square miles (1,120 km 2 ) ( Skagway ) ? 88,824 square miles (230,050 km 2 ) ( North Slope ) (Census areas) : 4,393 square miles (11,380 km 2 ) ( Aleutians West ) ? 145,576 square miles (377,040 km 2 ) ( Yukon-Koyukuk )
Government	Borough government
Subdivisions	Communities, consolidated city-borough

The U.S. state of Alaska is divided into 19 organized boroughs and 1 unorganized borough . Alaska and the state of Louisiana are the only states that do not call their first-order administrative subdivisions counties (Louisiana uses parishes instead). ^[1] Delegates to the Alaska Constitutional Convention wanted to avoid the traditional county system and adopted their own unique model with different classes of boroughs varying in powers and duties. ^[2]

Many of the most densely populated regions of the state are part of Alaska's boroughs, which function similarly to counties in other states. There are four different classifications of organized boroughs: "Unified Home Rule" or "Non-unified Home Rule" (may exercise all legislative powers not prohibited by law or charter); "First Class" (may exercise any power not prohibited by law on a non-area wide basis by adopting ordinances); and "Second Class" (must gain voter approval for authority to exercise many non-area wide powers). ^[3]

However, unlike county-equivalents in the other 49 states, the organized boroughs do not cover the entire land area of the state. The area not part of any organized borough is referred to as the Unorganized Borough . The U.S. Census Bureau , in cooperation with the state, divides the Unorganized Borough into 11 census areas , each roughly corresponding to an election district, thus totaling 30 county equivalents. However, these areas exist solely for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government of their own. Boroughs and census areas are both treated as county-level equivalents by the Census Bureau.

Some areas in the Unorganized Borough receive limited public services directly from the Alaska state government, usually law enforcement from the Alaska State Troopers and educational funding.

Seven consolidated city-borough governments exist— Juneau City and Borough , Skagway Municipality , Sitka City and Borough , Yakutat City and Borough , Wrangell City and Borough , Haines Borough , as well as the state's largest city, Anchorage . Though its legal name is the Municipality of Anchorage, it is considered a consolidated city-borough under state law.

The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 55-2,3,4 codes, which are used by the United States Census Bureau to uniquely identify states and counties, is provided with each entry. ^[4] Alaska's code is 02, so each code is of the format 02XXX. The FIPS code for each county equivalent links to census data for that county equivalent. There are 30 divisions in Alaska.

List of boroughs [ edit ]

Borough	FIPS code [5]	Borough seat [6]	Class [7] [8] [9]	Est. [6]	Origin	Etymology	Density	Population [10]	Area [11]	Map
Aleutians East Borough	013	Sand Point	Second	1987	-	Its location in the east Aleutian Islands , which are themselves of uncertain linguistic origin; possibly derived from Chukchi word aliat ("island")	0.50	3,461	6,985  sq mi ( 18,091  km 2 )
Anchorage	020	( Consolidated city-borough )	Unified Home Rule	1964/1975	Anchorage Borough formed in 1964, merged with city in 1975 to form unified city-borough	Derived from the presence of a safe place to anchor and unload supplies for construction of the Alaska Railroad c.  1913 , thereby creating a community.	167.59	286,075	1,707  sq mi ( 4,421  km 2 )
Bristol Bay Borough	060	Naknek	Second	1962	-	Named in 1778 by Capt. James Cook for George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol .	1.75	844	482  sq mi ( 1,248  km 2 )
Denali Borough	068	Healy	Home Rule	1990	-	From Denali , the tallest North American mountain, which means "great one" in the Dena'ina language	0.13	1,584	12,641  sq mi ( 32,740  km 2 )
Fairbanks North Star Borough	090	Fairbanks	Second	1964	-	Named for its borough seat of Fairbanks , named in turn for Charles Fairbanks (1852?1918), U.S. Senator from Indiana and vice president under Theodore Roosevelt, and for Polaris , the North Star	12.93	94,840	7,335  sq mi ( 18,998  km 2 )
Haines Borough	100	( Consolidated city-borough )	Home Rule	1968 (Consolidated 2002)	-	After Haines , which was itself named for Mrs. Francina E. Haines (1819?1870), the key fundraiser for the construction of a Presbyterian mission in the town.	0.88	2,070	2,343  sq mi ( 6,068  km 2 )
Juneau	110	( Consolidated city-borough )	Unified Home Rule	1970	The cities of Juneau and Douglas merged with the surrounding borough to form the municipality	Joseph "Joe" Juneau (1836-1899), prospector and co-founder of the city.	11.67	31,555	2,704  sq mi ( 7,003  km 2 )
Kenai Peninsula Borough	122	Soldotna	Second	1964	-	The Kenai Peninsula , whose name may be derived from Kenayskaya , the Russian name for Cook Inlet .	3.82	61,223	16,017  sq mi ( 41,484  km 2 )
Ketchikan Gateway Borough	130	Ketchikan	Second	1963	-	The borough seat of Ketchikan and the borough's gateway location on the Alaska - Canada border.	2.83	13,738	4,857  sq mi ( 12,580  km 2 )
Kodiak Island Borough	150	Kodiak	Second	1963	-	Named after Kodiak Island , which may itself be named for the Koniag people	1.88	12,565	6,689  sq mi ( 17,324  km 2 )
Lake and Peninsula Borough	164	King Salmon	Home Rule	1989	-	The borough's many large lakes , and the Alaska Peninsula	0.06	1,331	23,832  sq mi ( 61,725  km 2 )
Matanuska-Susitna Borough	170	Palmer	Second	1964	-	Named for the valley that the Matanuska and Susitna Rivers form.	4.66	115,239	24,707  sq mi ( 63,991  km 2 )
North Slope Borough	185	Utqia?vik	Home Rule	1972	-	The Alaska North Slope along the Brooks Range .	0.12	10,603	88,824  sq mi ( 230,053  km 2 )
Northwest Arctic Borough	188	Kotzebue	Home Rule	1986	In 1986, residents of Kotzebue and 10 other area villages voted to form the Northwest Arctic Borough (with boundaries coincident with those of NANA ), to be economically based on taxing the Red Dog mine, then under development.	Its geographic location and position above the Arctic Circle .	0.21	7,361	35,663  sq mi ( 92,367  km 2 )
Petersburg Borough	195	Petersburg	Home Rule	2013	Incorporated after voters approved borough formation in December 2012.	Named for Norwegian immigrant Peter Buschmann (1849-1903), founder of the former city of Petersburg.	1.18	3,427	2,901  sq mi ( 7,514  km 2 )
Sitka	220	( Consolidated city-borough )	Unified Home Rule	1971	-	Derived from Tlingit word Shee At'ika , meaning "People on the outside of Shee ( Baranof Island )."	2.89	8,282	2,870  sq mi ( 7,433  km 2 )
Skagway	230	( Consolidated city-borough )	First	2007	-	Derived from Tlingit word Shgagwei , meaning "a windy place with white caps on the water."	2.52	1,095	434  sq mi ( 1,124  km 2 )
Unorganized Borough	-	-	-	1961	The Borough Act of 1961 created The Unorganized Borough including all of Alaska not within a Unified, Home rule, First class or Second class borough.	A legal entity in Alaska, covering those parts of Alaska not within an incorporated borough; it is directly administered by the State of Alaska. [12]	0.24	75,362	319,852  sq mi ( 828,413  km 2 )
Wrangell	275	( Consolidated city-borough )	Unified Home Rule	2008	Formerly part of Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area	Ferdinand von Wrangel , Russian administrator of Alaska, 1840-49.	0.81	2,064	2,556  sq mi ( 6,620  km 2 )
Yakutat	282	( Consolidated city-borough )	Home Rule	1992	-	Yakutat Bay and the Yakutat Alaska Native people	0.09	687	7,623  sq mi ( 19,743  km 2 )

Census areas in the Unorganized Borough [ edit ]

The Unorganized Borough is the portion of the U.S. state of Alaska not contained in any of its 19 organized boroughs . While referred to as the "Unorganized Borough", it is not a borough itself. It encompasses over half of Alaska's area, 970,500 km ² . If the unorganized Borough were a state in itself, it would be the largest state in the United States of America, larger than the rest of Alaska and larger than Texas or California. (374,712 mi ² ). As of the 2023 Census estimate, 10% of Alaskans (75,362 people) reside in it.

Currently unique among the United States , Alaska is not entirely subdivided into organized county equivalents. For the 1980 census, the United States Census Bureau divided the unorganized borough into 12 census areas to facilitate census taking in the vast unorganized area. As new boroughs incorporate, these areas have been altered or eliminated to accommodate, ^[13] such that there are currently 11 census areas:

Census area	FIPS code [5]	Largest town (as of 2000)	Etymology	Density	Population [10]	Area [11]	Map
Aleutians West Census Area	016	Unalaska	Location in the western Aleutian Islands .	1.17	5,160	4,393  sq mi ( 11,378  km 2 )
Bethel Census Area	050	Bethel	City of Bethel , the largest settlement in the census area, which is itself named for the Biblical term Bethel ("house of God").	0.45	18,224	40,627  sq mi ( 105,223  km 2 )
Chugach Census Area	063	Valdez	The Chugach people (Part of Valdez?Cordova Census Area prior to January 02, 2019) [14] [15]	0.71	6,769	9,530  sq mi ( 24,683  km 2 )
Copper River Census Area	066	Glennallen	The Copper River (Part of Valdez?Cordova Census Area prior to January 02, 2019) [14] [15]	0.11	2,674	24,692  sq mi ( 63,952  km 2 )
Dillingham Census Area	070	Dillingham	The city of Dillingham , the largest settlement in the area, which was itself named after United States Senator Paul Dillingham (1843?1923), who had toured Alaska extensively with his Senate subcommittee in 1903.	0.25	4,607	18,334  sq mi ( 47,485  km 2 )
Hoonah?Angoon Census Area	105	Hoonah	The cities of Hoonah and Angoon	0.35	2,262	6,555  sq mi ( 16,977  km 2 )
Kusilvak Census Area	158	Hooper Bay	Kusilvak Mountains (Known as Wade Hampton prior to 2015)	0.47	8,001	17,077  sq mi ( 44,229  km 2 )
Nome Census Area	180	Nome	City of Nome , the largest settlement in the census area.	0.43	9,763	22,969  sq mi ( 59,489  km 2 )
Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area	198	Craig	Prince of Wales Island and the town of Hyder (Known as Prince of Wales-Outer Ketchikan prior to the expansion of Ketchikan Gateway Borough in 2008)	1.08	5,696	5,268  sq mi ( 13,644  km 2 )
Southeast Fairbanks Census Area	240	Deltana	Its location, southeast of Fairbanks	0.29	7,077	24,831  sq mi ( 64,312  km 2 )
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	290	Fort Yukon	Yukon River ("great river" in Gwich’in ), which flows through the census area; and the city of Koyukuk	0.04	5,129	145,576  sq mi ( 377,040  km 2 )

See also [ edit ]

• List of cities in Alaska
• List of census-designated places in Alaska
• List of United States counties and county equivalents

References [ edit ]

• Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development - maps and profiles of boroughs and census areas, including those that have changed since the 2000 census

Other sources [ edit ]