Alaska Counties
Complete list of all 30 boroughs and census areas in Alaska with population, area, median income, and county seats — plus a free printable blank map.
Labeled outline map of Alaska boroughs and census areas. Download a printable version in SVG, PNG, or PDF.
All 30 Alaska boroughs and census areas
| County | County Seat | Population ▼ | Area | Median Income | Cities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anchorage | — | 276,042 | 1,705 mi² | $107,812 | 6 |
| Matanuska-Susitna | — | 113,116 | 24,608 mi² | $93,613 | 10 |
| Fairbanks North Star | — | 77,741 | 7,338 mi² | $90,600 | 7 |
| Kenai Peninsula | — | 60,413 | 16,075 mi² | $79,849 | 15 |
| Juneau | — | 31,778 | 0 mi² | $101,526 | 3 |
| Bethel | — | 31,304 | 40,570 mi² | $75,786 | 28 |
| Yukon-Koyukuk | — | 22,948 | 145,505 mi² | $73,279 | 31 |
| Ketchikan Gateway | — | 13,768 | 4,858 mi² | $92,885 | 2 |
| Kodiak Island | — | 12,771 | 6,550 mi² | $86,619 | 6 |
| North Slope | — | 10,582 | 88,695 mi² | $103,861 | 10 |
| Nome | — | 9,844 | 22,962 mi² | $81,247 | 14 |
| Sitka | — | 8,368 | 0 mi² | $101,727 | 1 |
| Kusilvak | — | 8,112 | 0 mi² | $51,379 | 12 |
| Northwest Arctic | — | 7,441 | 35,573 mi² | $84,429 | 11 |
| Southeast Fairbanks | — | 7,166 | 24,769 mi² | $75,385 | 8 |
How many boroughs and census areas does Alaska have?
Alaska is organized into 30 county-equivalents: 19 organized boroughs plus 11 census areas. Unlike most states, large portions of Alaska's land lie within the Unorganized Borough and have no county-level government — the 11 census areas are statistical regions used for the decennial count, not administrative jurisdictions.
The largest borough or census area by land area is Yukon-Koyukuk at 145,505 square miles, home to about 22,948 residents. The most populous is Anchorage with approximately 276,042 residents — a density of about 162 people per square mile.
At the other end of the scale, Yakutat has only about 527 residents.
Alaska’s capital is Juneau, while the largest city is Anchorage — a common pattern in the United States, where many states placed their capitals in smaller, more central towns rather than their largest commercial hubs.
Related resources
Download a printable outline of Alaska’s borough or census area boundaries from our blank map of Alaska page — available in SVG, PNG, and PDF.
Use the What County Am I In? tool to detect which Alaska borough or census area a GPS location or address falls in, or the Address to County Lookup for batch input.
For demographic radius analysis, the Find ZIP Codes in Radius and Population Within Radius tools let you draw a circle around any Alaska address and see every ZIP code and the total population inside.
Two SimpleMapLab studies cover Alaska specifically: the 100-mile radius around Juneau measures how much of the state lives within 100 miles of its capitol, and the loneliest town in Alaska ranks the state’s most isolated inhabited place. The county-counts blog post puts Alaska’s 30 boroughs and census areas in national context.
Frequently asked questions
Population and demographics are aggregated from ZIP-code-level US Census data via the SimpleMaps dataset. Boroughs and census areasboundaries are from the US Atlas TopoJSON build of the Census Bureau’s TIGER/Line shapefiles. Land area is from the Census Gazetteer. State counts follow the US Census Bureau’s definition of counties and county-equivalents (50 states + DC = 3,143). All sources are public domain.