Alaska Boroughs
Alaska County map
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Alaska Boroughs

Alaska is divided into nineteen organized boroughs and one "Unorganized Borough." 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. The newest borough is Petersburg incorporated after voters approved borough formation in December 2012. Alaska and Louisiana are the only states that do not call their first-order administrative subdivisions counties (Louisiana uses parishes instead)
 

Alaska Boroughs: History and Information

Find a brief history of Alaska Boroughs

Brief history of Alaska Boroughs: Flags of Our NationAlaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait. Alaska is the 4th least populous and the least densely populated of the 50 United States. Approximately half of Alaska's 722,718 residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. Alaska was purchased from Russia on March 30, 1867. The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized (or incorporated) territory on May 11, 1912, and the 49th state of the US on January 3, 1959. Alaska is the largest state in the United States in land area at 586,412 square miles, over twice the size of Texas, the next largest state. Alaska capital city is Juneau.

In Alaska, the county level governments are called boroughs. Not all areas in Alaska are part of a borough. These unorganized areas are divided into Census Areas for statistical purposes which are the statistical equivalent of a county in Alaska. Census areas are delineated cooperatively by the State of Alaska Department of Labor and the Census Bureau for statistical purposes in the portion of Alaska not within an organized borough.

Alaska is divided into 19 organized boroughs and one "Unorganized Borough." 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.  Alaska and Louisiana are the only states that do not call their first-order administrative subdivisions counties (Louisiana uses parishes instead).
History of Alaska Boroughs
County 2000
Population
Square
Miles
Borough Seat Created
Aleutians East Borough 2,697 6,985 Sand Point 1987
Anchorage Borough 260,283 1,698 Anchorage 1975
Bristol Bay Borough 1,258 519 Naknek 1962
City & Borough of Juneau 30,711 2,594 Juneau 1970
City & Borough of Sitka 8,835 2,882 Sitka 1971
City & Borough of Yakutat 808 7,650 Yakutat 1992
City and Borough of Wrangell 78,149 2,570   Wrangell 2008
Denali Borough 1,893 12,750 Healy 1990
Fairbanks North Star Borough 82,840 7,362 Fairbanks 1964
Haines Borough 2,392 2,357 Haines 1968
Kenai Peninsula Borough 49,691 16,079 Soldotna 1964
Ketchikan Gateway Borough 14,070 1,220 Ketchikan 1963
Kodiak Island Borough 13,913 6,463 Kodiak 1963
Lake And Peninsula Borough 1,823 23,632 King Salmon 1989
Matanuska-Susitna Borough 59,322 24,694 Palmer 1964
Municipality of Skagway 920 464 Skagway 2007
North Slope Borough 7,385 87,860 Barrow 1972
Northwest Arctic Borough 7,208 35,862 Kotzebue 1986
Petersburg Borough  2,824 119.2 Petersburg 2013
Unorganized Borough 81,803 323,440 NA 1961


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