List of boroughs and census areas in Alaska

Map of Alaskan boroughs and census areas

The U.S. state of Alaska is not in counties, as 48 other states are (Louisiana has parishes instead). It is in boroughs. Many of the more densely populated parts of the state are in Alaska's eighteen organized boroughs, which are somewhat similar to counties in other states. Unlike in the other 49 states, the organized boroughs do not cover all land of the state. The area not part of any organized borough is called the unorganized borough.

For the 1970 census, the US and state made the unorganized borough into 11 census areas. Each is roughly the same as an election district. However, these areas are solely for 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.

Six consolidated city-county governments exist—Juneau City and Borough, City and Borough of Haines, Sitka City and Borough, Yakutat City and Borough, Wrangell City and Borough, and 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, used by the United States Census Bureau to uniquely identify states and counties, is provided with each entry. Alaska's code is 02, which when combined with any county code would be written as 02XXX. The FIPS code for each county links to census data for that county.

List of boroughs

Borough	FIPS code	Borough seat	Class	Established	Origin	Meaning of name	Population	Area	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")	7003274400000000000♠2,744	7003698800000000000♠6,988 sq mi (7004180990000000000♠18,099 km2)
Anchorage	020	(Consolidated city-borough)	Unified Home Rule	1975	-	Derived from the presence of a safe place to anchor and unload supplies for construction of the Alaska Railroad circa 1913, thereby creating a community.	7005260283000000000♠260,283	7003169700000000000♠1,697 sq mi (7003439500000000000♠4,395 km2)
Bristol Bay Borough	060	Naknek	Second	1962	-	Named in 1778 by Capt. James Cook for George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol.	7003125800000000000♠1,258	7002505000000000000♠505 sq mi (7003130800000000000♠1,308 km2)
Denali Borough	068	Healy	Home Rule	1990	-	From Denali, the tallest North American mountain, which means "great one" in the Dena'ina language	7003189300000000000♠1,893	7004127500000000000♠12,750 sq mi (7004330220000000000♠33,022 km2)
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	7004828400000000000♠82,840	7003736600000000000♠7,366 sq mi (7004190780000000000♠19,078 km2)
Haines Borough	100	(Consolidated city-borough)	Home Rule	1968 (Consolidated 2002)	-	After Haines, which was itself named for Mrs F.E. Haines, the key fundraiser for the construction of a Presbyterian mission in the town.	7003239200000000000♠2,392	7003234400000000000♠2,344 sq mi (7003607100000000000♠6,071 km2)
Juneau	110	(Consolidated city-borough)	Unified Home Rule	1970	The City of Juneau merged with the City of Douglas and the surrounding borough to form the municipality	Joseph "Joe" Juneau, prospector and co-founder of the city.	7004307110000000000♠30,711	7003271600000000000♠2,716 sq mi (7003703400000000000♠7,034 km2)
Kenai Peninsula Borough	122	Soldotna	Second	1964	-	The Kenai Peninsula, whose named may be derived from Kenayskaya, the Russian name for Cook Inlet.	7004496910000000000♠49,691	7004160130000000000♠16,013 sq mi (7004414730000000000♠41,473 km2)
Ketchikan Gateway Borough	130	Ketchikan	Second	1963	-	The borough seat of Ketchikan and the borough's gateway location on the Alaska-Canadian border.	7004140770000000000♠14,077	7003484000000000000♠4,840 sq mi (7004125360000000000♠12,536 km2)
Kodiak Island Borough	150	Kodiak	Second	1963	-	Named after Kodiak Island, which may itself be named for the Koniag people	7004139130000000000♠13,913	7003656000000000000♠6,560 sq mi (7004169900000000000♠16,990 km2)
Lake and Peninsula Borough	164	King Salmon	Home Rule	1989	-	The borough's many large lakes, and the Alaska Peninsula	7003182300000000000♠1,823	7004237820000000000♠23,782 sq mi (7004615950000000000♠61,595 km2)
Matanuska-Susitna Borough	170	Palmer	Second	1964	-	Named for the valley that the Matanuska and Susitna Rivers form.	7004593220000000000♠59,322	7004246820000000000♠24,682 sq mi (7004639260000000000♠63,926 km2)
North Slope Borough	185	Barrow	Home Rule	1972	-	The Alaska North Slope along the Brooks Range.	7003738500000000000♠7,385	7004888170000000000♠88,817 sq mi (7005230035000000000♠230,035 km2)
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.	7003720800000000000♠7,208	7004358980000000000♠35,898 sq mi (7004929750000000000♠92,975 km2)
Petersburg Borough	195	Petersburg	Home Rule	2013	Incorporated after voters approved borough formation in December 2012.	Named for Norwegian immigrant Peter Buschmann, founder of the former city of Petersburg.	7003381500000000000♠3,815	7003382900000000000♠3,829 sq mi (7003991700000000000♠9,917 km2)
Sitka	220	(Consolidated city-borough)	Unified Home Rule	1971	-	Derived from Tlingit word Shee At'iká, meaning "People on the outside of Shee (Baranof Island)."	7003883500000000000♠8,835	7003287400000000000♠2,874 sq mi (7003744400000000000♠7,444 km2)
Skagway	230	-	First	2007	-	Derived from Tlingit word Shgagwèi, meaning "a windy place with white caps on the water."	7002862000000000000♠862	7002452000000000000♠452 sq mi (7003117100000000000♠1,171 km2)
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 administered by the state of Alaska.	7004784860000000000♠78,486	7005323440000000000♠323,440 sq mi (7005837706000000000♠837,706 km2)
Wrangell	-	(Consolidated city-borough)	Unified Home Rule	2008	formerly part of Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area	Ferdinand von Wrangel, Russian administrator of Alaska, 1840-49.	7003244800000000000♠2,448	7003257000000000000♠2,570 sq mi (7003665600000000000♠6,656 km2)
Yakutat City and Borough	282	(Consolidated city-borough)	Home Rule	1992	-	Yakutat Bay and the Yakutat Alaska Native people	7002808000000000000♠808	7003765000000000000♠7,650 sq mi (7004198130000000000♠19,813 km2)

Census areas in the Unorganized Borough

Map of Alaska highlighting the Unorganized Borough

The Unorganized Borough is part of the U.S. state of Alaska not in any of its 18 organized boroughs. It is over half of Alaska's area, 970,500 km² (374,712 mi²), an area larger than any other US state. As of the 2000 census 13% of Alaskans (81,803 people) live here.

Unique among the United States, Alaska is not entirely subdivided into organized county equivalents. In 1970, the United States Census Bureau divided the unorganized borough into 11 census areas to facilitate census taking in the large unorganized area.

Census area	FIPS code	Largest town (as of 2000)	Meaning of name	Population	Area	Map
Aleutians West Census Area	016	Unalaska	Location in the western Aleutian Islands.	7003546500000000000♠5,465	7003439700000000000♠4,397 sq mi (7004113880000000000♠11,388 km2)
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").	7004160060000000000♠16,006	7004406330000000000♠40,633 sq mi (7005105239000000000♠105,239 km2)
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.	7003492200000000000♠4,922	7004186750000000000♠18,675 sq mi (7004483680000000000♠48,368 km2)
Hoonah–Angoon Census Area	105	Hoonah	The cities of Hoonah and Angoon	7003257400000000000♠2,574	7003744400000000000♠7,444 sq mi (7004192800000000000♠19,280 km2)
Kusilvak Census Area	158	Hooper Bay	Kusilvak Mountains (Known as Wade Hampton prior to 2015)	7003745900000000000♠7,459	7004171940000000000♠17,194 sq mi (7004445320000000000♠44,532 km2)
Nome Census Area	180	Nome	City of Nome, the largest settlement in the census area.	7003919600000000000♠9,196	7004230010000000000♠23,001 sq mi (7004595720000000000♠59,572 km2)
Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area	201	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)	7003611500000000000♠6,115	7003376000000000000♠3,760 sq mi (7003973800000000000♠9,738 km2)
Southeast Fairbanks Census Area	240	Deltana	Its location, southeast of Fairbanks	7003617400000000000♠6,174	7004248140000000000♠24,814 sq mi (7004642680000000000♠64,268 km2)
Valdez-Cordova Census Area	261	Valdez	Cities of Valdez and Cordova	7004101950000000000♠10,195	7004343190000000000♠34,319 sq mi (7004888860000000000♠88,886 km2)
Petersburg Census Area	280	Petersburg	The city of Petersburg, the largest settlement in the census area (Known as Wrangell-Petersburg prior to the incorporation of Wrangell City-Borough in 2008)	7003426000000000000♠4,260	7003330100000000000♠3,301 sq mi (7003855000000000000♠8,550 km2)
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	290	Galena	Yukon River ("great river" in Gwich’in), which flows through the census area; and the city of Koyukuk	7003655100000000000♠6,551	7005145900000000000♠145,900 sq mi (7005377879000000000♠377,879 km2)

Notes

^ A: Because census areas in the Unorganized Borough have their own FIPS codes, this code listed and linked is for the entire State of Alaska.

References

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

General References

• Division of Community and Regional Affairs, Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development
• Local Government On-Line, Division of Community and Regional Affairs, Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development
• "Alaska Statutes, Title 29, Chapter 04. Classification of Municipalities". Local Government On-Line, Division of Community and Regional Affairs, Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. 2006. Retrieved July 16, 2008.
• "Municipal Government Structure in Alaska". Local Government On-Line, Division of Community and Regional Affairs, Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. September 15, 2003. Retrieved July 16, 2008.
• "Differences among Home Rule, First Class, Second Class and Third Class Boroughs" (PDF). Local Boundary Commission, Division of Community and Regional Affairs, Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. February 25, 1994. Retrieved July 16, 2008.
• "Alaska Boroughs - "Official" sites". Official Borough Websites. CountyState.Info. Retrieved September 13, 2007.