Alaska Boroughs Selection List If you know the town, but not the borough,  click here. Census areas are listed in the last half of this page and are also up for adoption. Alaska is unique among the states. It's extremely large, much of the state is sparsely populated, and much of the state has not been divided into local governing units in the manner of counties. Instead of local divisions of government established as counties, Alaska is divided into a group of boroughs and geographical census areas. Each borough has a borough seat which serves a purpose similar to the county seat in other U.S. states. However, most of the land area of the state is not under any borough-level government. The United States Census Bureau has divided the remainder of Alaska into census areas for statistical purposes.  The following areas have completely merged the City and Borough into a single entity:   City and Borough of Juneau   City and Borough of Sitka   City and Borough of Yakutat  Click on the borough name to access its page. Borough Date Formed Parent Territory Borough Seat Contact Aleutians East 23Oct1987 Part of Aleutian Islands C.A. Sand Point Adopt Me! Anchorage 01Jan1964   Anchorage Adopt Me! Bristol Bay 1962   Naknek Adopt Me! Denali 07Dec1990 Yukon-Koyukuk C.A. & Southeast Fairbanks C.A. Healy Adopt Me! Fairbanks North Star 1964   Fairbanks Adopt Me! Haines 29Aug1968 Annexed 420 miles to the south + merged with Fort Chilkoot Haines Adopt Me! Juneau 1970   Juneau Dennis & Cathy Danielson Kenai Peninsula 1964   Soldotna Adopt Me! Ketchikan Gateway 1963   Ketchikan Adopt Me! Kodiak Island 1963   Kodiak Adopt Me! Lake and Peninsula 24Apr1989 Dillingham Census Area King Salmon Adopt Me! Matanuska-Susitna 1964   Anchorage Adopt Me! North Slope 1972   Barrow Pending Northwest Arctic 02Jun1986 Kobuk C.A. & North Slope Borough Kotzebue Adopt Me! Sitka 1971   Sitka Adopt Me! Yakutat 22Sep1992 Skagway-Yakutat-Angoon C.A. Yakutat Adopt Me!   IMPORTANT:  Changes to County Equivalent Entities in Alaska The boundaries of the Alaska county-level entities changed significantly during the 1970s. The county equivalent entities in Alaska changed from Census Divisions in 1970 to Boroughs and Census Areas in 1980. New entities created in Alaska were: Dillingham Census Area, North Slope Borough, and Valdez-Cordova Census Area. Discontinued county equivalent entities in Alaska Angoon Division Barrow Division Cordova-McCarthy Division Kenai-Cook Inlet Division  Kuskokwim Division Outer Ketchikan Division Prince of Wales Division Skagway-Yakutat Division Upper Yukon Division Valdez-Chitina-Whittier Division   Census Areas Selection List If you know the town, but not the district, click here.   A census area is similar to a borough in the U.S. state of Alaska, with the following exceptions: Its name and boundaries are defined by the United States Census Bureau, not by the State of Alaska. It contains no area-wide government; therefore, it does not contain a capital (borough seat) city.   Click on the emboldened census area name to access its page Census Area Created Parent Contact Aleutians West 23Oct1987 Aleutian Islands Adopt Me! Bethel     Adopt Me! Dillingham     Adopt Me! Kobuk     (absorbed into the Northwest Arctic Borough 2 June 1986) Nome     Everett Carr Prince of Wales Outer Ketchikan     Adopt Me! Skagway-Hoonah-Angoon 22Sep1992 remainder of former Skagway-Yakutat-Angoon C.A. Adopt Me! Southeast Fairbanks     Adopt Me! Valdez Cordova     Adopt Me! Wade Hampton     Adopt Me! Wrangell Petersburg     Adopt Me! Yukon-Koyukuk     Adopt Me!     This page was last updated: Monday, 19 July 2008 13:16:07 MT