Boroughs and census areas in Alaska

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

How many of the 29 Alaskan boroughs and census areas can you name?
Can you tell the organized boroughs and the Unorganized Borough apart?
Bonus question: Do you also know the most populous city or town in each subdivision?

[Cokeland Saxton]

There are 19 organized boroughs in Alaska, 7 of which are consolidated city-boroughs:

Anchorage City-Borough - Anchorage (consolidated)
Matanuska-Sutsina Borough - Wasilla
Fairbanks North Star Borough - Fairbanks
Kenai Peninsula Borough - Kenai
Juneau City-Borough - Juneau (consolidated)
Kodiak Island Borough - Kodiak
Ketchikan Gateway Borough - Ketchikan
North Slope Borough - Barrow (known as Utqiagvik since 2016)
Sitka City-Borough - Sitka (consolidated)
Northwest Arctic Borough - Kotzebue
Petersburg Borough - Petersburg
Aleutians East Borough - Akutan
Haines City-Borough - Haines (consolidated
Wrangell City-Borough - Wrangell (consolidated)
Denali Borough - Healy
Lake and Peninsula Borough - Newhalen
Bristol Bay Borough - Naknek
Skagway City-Borough - Skagway (consolidated)
Yakutat City-Borough - Yakutat (consolidated)

There is also the Unorganized Borough, which is divided into 10 census areas for statistical purposes:

Bethel Census Area - Bethel
Valdez-Cordova Census Area - Valdez
Nome Census Area - Nome
Kusilvak Census Area - Hooper Bay
Southeast Fairbanks Census Area - Deltana
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area - Fort Yukon
Aleutians West Census Area - Unalaska
Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area - Craig
Dillingham Census Area - Dillingham
Hoonah-Angoon Census Area - Hoonah

In all, Alaska has 29 county-equivalents: 12 boroughs, 7 consolidated city-boroughs, and 10 census areas.

[muon2]

There's some debate among county aficionados as to what should be counted. Legally there is only the Unorganized Borough even if it is divided by the Census into statistical areas. There is no government for the UB since law enforcement comes to it from the state. So even though the Census Bureau treats the UB as 10 county-equivalents, they really aren't equivalent in a governmental sense like all other counties. So some county hunters try to visit all 10, and some just any part of the UB. One can even make an argument that any visit to AK counts for the UB since its only unified government is the state.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

There's some debate among county aficionados as to what should be counted. Legally there is only the Unorganized Borough even if it is divided by the Census into statistical areas. There is no government for the UB since law enforcement comes to it from the state. So even though the Census Bureau treats the UB as 10 county-equivalents, they really aren't equivalent in a governmental sense like all other counties. So some county hunters try to visit all 10, and some just any part of the UB. One can even make an argument that any visit to AK counts for the UB since its only unified government is the state.

If you ask all Atlas users to name all Alaskan boroughs and census areas, most would probably fail. The results for that task would be even worse than those for the same task regarding Texas.

It's moreover a pity that new boroughs are created time after time so that comparisons between past election results are hard to draw.

Speaking of county hunters: It must be incredibly hard and grueling and cost-intensive to campaign in Alaska. I assume most Alaskan politicians have never visited each borough/census area.

[muon2]

There's some debate among county aficionados as to what should be counted. Legally there is only the Unorganized Borough even if it is divided by the Census into statistical areas. There is no government for the UB since law enforcement comes to it from the state. So even though the Census Bureau treats the UB as 10 county-equivalents, they really aren't equivalent in a governmental sense like all other counties. So some county hunters try to visit all 10, and some just any part of the UB. One can even make an argument that any visit to AK counts for the UB since its only unified government is the state.

If you ask all Atlas users to name all Alaskan boroughs and census areas, most would probably fail. The results for that task would be even worse than those for the same task regarding Texas.

It's moreover a pity that new boroughs are created time after time so that comparisons between past election results are hard to draw.

Speaking of county hunters: It must be incredibly hard and grueling and cost-intensive to campaign in Alaska. I assume most Alaskan politicians have never visited each borough/census area.

To some extent VA is just as troubling to county counters. It's relatively common to create and dissolve independent cities. Independent cities are county equivalents, just like parts of the UB in AK.

[America Needs a 13-6 Progressive SCOTUS]

There's some debate among county aficionados as to what should be counted. Legally there is only the Unorganized Borough even if it is divided by the Census into statistical areas. There is no government for the UB since law enforcement comes to it from the state. So even though the Census Bureau treats the UB as 10 county-equivalents, they really aren't equivalent in a governmental sense like all other counties. So some county hunters try to visit all 10, and some just any part of the UB. One can even make an argument that any visit to AK counts for the UB since its only unified government is the state.

If you ask all Atlas users to name all Alaskan boroughs and census areas, most would probably fail. The results for that task would be even worse than those for the same task regarding Texas.

It's moreover a pity that new boroughs are created time after time so that comparisons between past election results are hard to draw.

Speaking of county hunters: It must be incredibly hard and grueling and cost-intensive to campaign in Alaska. I assume most Alaskan politicians have never visited each borough/census area.

To some extent VA is just as troubling to county counters. It's relatively common to create and dissolve independent cities. Independent cities are county equivalents, just like parts of the UB in AK.

I think no new jurisdictions were created in Virginia in a while at this point, but 2 independent cities were recently dissolved:

Clifton Forge (Allegheny County), before 2004.
Bedford City (Bedford County), before 2016.

[muon2]

There's some debate among county aficionados as to what should be counted. Legally there is only the Unorganized Borough even if it is divided by the Census into statistical areas. There is no government for the UB since law enforcement comes to it from the state. So even though the Census Bureau treats the UB as 10 county-equivalents, they really aren't equivalent in a governmental sense like all other counties. So some county hunters try to visit all 10, and some just any part of the UB. One can even make an argument that any visit to AK counts for the UB since its only unified government is the state.

If you ask all Atlas users to name all Alaskan boroughs and census areas, most would probably fail. The results for that task would be even worse than those for the same task regarding Texas.

It's moreover a pity that new boroughs are created time after time so that comparisons between past election results are hard to draw.

Speaking of county hunters: It must be incredibly hard and grueling and cost-intensive to campaign in Alaska. I assume most Alaskan politicians have never visited each borough/census area.

To some extent VA is just as troubling to county counters. It's relatively common to create and dissolve independent cities. Independent cities are county equivalents, just like parts of the UB in AK.

I think no new jurisdictions were created in Virginia in a while at this point, but 2 independent cities were recently dissolved:

Clifton Forge (Allegheny County), before 2004.
Bedford City (Bedford County), before 2016.

Yes, both AK and VA changed most recently in 2013. Petersburg borough was created and Bedford city reverted to a town in Bedford county as it was before 1968. The last wave of creation in VA was in 1975 IIRC.

[Cokeland Saxton]

There's some debate among county aficionados as to what should be counted. Legally there is only the Unorganized Borough even if it is divided by the Census into statistical areas. There is no government for the UB since law enforcement comes to it from the state. So even though the Census Bureau treats the UB as 10 county-equivalents, they really aren't equivalent in a governmental sense like all other counties. So some county hunters try to visit all 10, and some just any part of the UB. One can even make an argument that any visit to AK counts for the UB since its only unified government is the state.

If you ask all Atlas users to name all Alaskan boroughs and census areas, most would probably fail. The results for that task would be even worse than those for the same task regarding Texas.

It's moreover a pity that new boroughs are created time after time so that comparisons between past election results are hard to draw.

Speaking of county hunters: It must be incredibly hard and grueling and cost-intensive to campaign in Alaska. I assume most Alaskan politicians have never visited each borough/census area.

To some extent VA is just as troubling to county counters. It's relatively common to create and dissolve independent cities. Independent cities are county equivalents, just like parts of the UB in AK.

I think no new jurisdictions were created in Virginia in a while at this point, but 2 independent cities were recently dissolved:

Clifton Forge (Allegheny County), before 2004.
Bedford City (Bedford County), before 2016.

Yes, both AK and VA changed most recently in 2013. Petersburg borough was created and Bedford city reverted to a town in Bedford county as it was before 1968. The last wave of creation in VA was in 1975 IIRC.

Not to mention that Wade Hampton Census Area changed its name to Kusilvak Census Area in 2015.

[jimrtex]

There's some debate among county aficionados as to what should be counted. Legally there is only the Unorganized Borough even if it is divided by the Census into statistical areas. There is no government for the UB since law enforcement comes to it from the state. So even though the Census Bureau treats the UB as 10 county-equivalents, they really aren't equivalent in a governmental sense like all other counties. So some county hunters try to visit all 10, and some just any part of the UB. One can even make an argument that any visit to AK counts for the UB since its only unified government is the state.

The Alaska Constitution provides that the state be divided into boroughs, which were conceived as being somewhat more regional in scope than counties, but could reasonably be considered primary divisions of the state. Boroughs would be either organized or unorganized. This is not too dissimilar to states like Iowa and Texas where boxes were drawn on the map, and then when they were settled the government was organized. Organized boroughs would have their own assembly, while the legislature would provide government for the unorganized boroughs (plural).

In 1961, the entire state was placed in an Unorganized Borough. Since then the organized boroughs have been carved out of it. The link below shows "model boroughs". Alaska has a Local Boundary Commission that must approve any incorporation, annexations, etc. - though I think the legislature can override them. They didn't have the authority to impose the model boroughs, though the legislature could.

Organized boroughs are required to provide education. But that is also true for first class and home rule cities. Towns that are large enough for a school (perhaps 150 is enough to have a class for each grade) may already have their own schools. Rural areas might fear that a local organized government won't provide schools. The state funds schools in the unorganized borough outside of first class and home rule cities. Elected Rural Education boards provide local direction.

So there is resistance to creation of unorganized boroughs out of concern that someone might try to organized them. The Northwest Arctic Borough was established because it could tax the Red Dog Mine. The North Slope Borough is based on taxing Prudhoe Bay. Other potential boroughs may not have an obvious tax revenue source.

I think to be safe you should visit all the organized boroughs, and the model boroughs as well. You know you want to go to Utqiaġvik.

Borough Government in Alaska (PDF) Somewhat Dated (2000)