Demography of Alaska

[Spark]

Where are most of the population centers in the state?

[BuckeyeNut]

There's really only Anchorage, which is home to ~40% of the state. The Anchorage metro is close to 55% with ~400k, and then the second and third largest cities only have ~30k each.

[cinyc]

Anchorage, its suburban/exurban Mat-Su Valley and Fairbanks-North Star Borough are the main population centers in the state.  The municipality of Anchorage has a population of about 300,000, and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and Fairbanks-North Star Borough each have a population around 100,000.
 
The next largest city is the state capital of Juneau, but it only has about 32,000 people.  The Kenai Peninsula Borough south of Anchorage actually has more people than the City and Borough of Juneau (about 55,000), but its population is split among a number of towns.

[RINO Tom]

To add a political spin on things, I remember a topic a few years ago on states where the rural areas vote to the left of the large metro areas, and the only examples I remembered were New Hampshire, South Carolina, Arizona, Minnesota (only when counting the TC suburbs in isolation), Wisconsin (only when counting the MKE suburbs in isolation) and Alaska (and, IIRC, at the time Arkansas).  Is that still largely true for Alaska (that Anchorage and its suburbs are more Republican than the rural areas of the state)?

[Bakersfield Uber Alles]

To add a political spin on things, I remember a topic a few years ago on states where the rural areas vote to the left of the large metro areas, and the only examples I remembered were New Hampshire, South Carolina, Arizona, Minnesota (only when counting the TC suburbs in isolation), Wisconsin (only when counting the MKE suburbs in isolation) and Alaska (and, IIRC, at the time Arkansas).  Is that still largely true for Alaska (that Anchorage and its suburbs are more Republican than the rural areas of the state)?

It seems to be evening out to some extent. There's still large swaths of rural Alaska that vote D. Alaska was one of four or so states (plus DC) where Hillary won by area.

[Mr. Smith]

Hawaii is more conservative within Honolulu than out, with the exception of Laie.

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

I think it will eventually turn blue when there is more migration to the state and the cities become larger since the rural boroughs that already vote democrat are mostly populated by Alaska natives. It seems like it will flip in a 2020 Democratic landslide or in an evenly split election later in the decade. It will be the next Hawaii for the Democrats.

[Nyvin]

I think Climate Change is a bigger concern there then elsewhere also.

[TJ in Oregon]

I think Climate Change is a bigger concern there then elsewhere also.

But so is petroleum production. So it's complicated.

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

California also has a large oil industry, and immigration turned the state solidly Democrat.

[NOVA Green]

I think Climate Change is a bigger concern there then elsewhere also.

But so is petroleum production. So it's complicated.

Well that's definitely a major item in Alaska, but not necessarily because of actual employment related to the Petroleum Industry.

Only 4% of the "workforce" of Alaska, is directly involved in the Petroleum industry, with a peak of 14.1k workers in 2015.

Of these "Alaskan Workers" 36.4% were out of state workers, and not Alaskan residents.....

http://labor.alaska.gov/trends/feb17.pdf

https://www.adn.com/business-economy/2017/02/07/nonresidents-in-oil-and-gas-industry-rose-slightly-in-2015-for-6th-year-straight/

In fact, one could make a compelling argument that there are more Alaskans working in the Fishing, Forestry, and Fish Canneries than employed in the Petro sector, not to even mention the large and vast tourism sector that caters to an "Alaskan Brand" of unprecedented raw wilderness and rugged landscapes not despoiled by..... (Fill in blanks)

Where I think your reference to the impact of the Petro Industry in Alaskan elections really hits home, is the way in which profits from the Petro Industry are distributed to every resident of Alaska that meets whatever statutory requirements are involved....

So, when I was in my Mid '20s one of friends from college. who was from Juneau, told me how he would get a check every year for some $3k.... the program of distribution of oil revenues still continues in Alaska, and we're not even talking about funding that goes towards Government Jobs in Alaska, which is still the largest employer in the State....

Imagine if Texas were to distribute checks to every resident of the State based upon Oil Revenues?

Anyways---- the profits from the oil industry in the form of checks in the mail to all residents of Alaska is a very different scene than in any other state in the Union, and has likely created an "ownership society" model, even among Alaskans that aren't big fans of the Petro Industry, which employs very few people, of whom a solid chunk are out of state residents.

[The Govanah Jake]

Anchorage is really the only big one followed by Fairbanks and Juneau.