Alaska Borough Map

Most populous boroughs

Alaska had 733,391 residents in the 2020 Census. The five most populous boroughs:

1. Anchorage Municipality: 291,247 (39.7% of the state)
2. Matanuska-Susitna Borough: 107,081 (14.6% of the state)
3. Fairbanks North Star Borough: 95,655 (13.0% of the state)
4. Kenai Peninsula Borough: 58,799 (8.0% of the state)
5. Juneau City and Borough: 32,255 (4.4% of the state)

Together these five hold 79.8% of the state’s population. The least populous is Yakutat City and Borough, with 662 residents.

Largest and smallest boroughs

By land area, the largest are Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (145,575.5 sq mi), North Slope Borough (88,823.6 sq mi) and Bethel Census Area (40,627.1 sq mi). The smallest is Skagway Municipality, with 433.9 sq mi of land, followed by Bristol Bay Borough (482.0 sq mi). The average borough or census area covers 19,034.1 sq mi of land.

Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area alone covers 25.5% of Alaska’s land.

Boroughs and census areas

Alaska uses boroughs instead of counties. The 19 organized boroughs are regional governments; some, such as Anchorage, Juneau and Sitka, are consolidated city-boroughs in which one government serves both the city and the borough.

Land outside the organized boroughs forms the Unorganized Borough, which has no borough government; the state provides regional services there. For statistics, the Census Bureau divides it into 11 census areas. Census areas have no government and no seat, so the seat column shows a dash for them. Together they cover 56.0% of Alaska’s land but hold 10.5% of its people.

In 2019 the Valdez-Cordova Census Area was split into Chugach Census Area and Copper River Census Area. The table lists both, as the 2020 Census does, but the map boundaries still show the former Valdez-Cordova Census Area as one shape, so the maps have 29 shapes for 30 rows. Kusilvak Census Area was called Wade Hampton Census Area until 2015.