Aleutians West Census Area area

Population and density of Aleutians West Census Area

The Census Bureau estimates that 5,240 people lived in Aleutians West Census Area on July 1, 2025. That ranks #2,879 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #17 of 30 in Alaska. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 5,232, the population has grown by 8 (+0.2%), compared with +0.5% for Alaska as a whole.

With 4,387.3 square miles of land, that is 1.2 people per square mile (0.46 per km²), placing Aleutians West Census Area #3,129 nationally for density and #11 in Alaska. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Alaska median is 0.73. Put another way, there are about 536 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Aleutians West Census Area

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in Aleutians West Census Area. Together they are home to 4,957 people (94.6%); the other 283 (5.4%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Unalaska city, with 4,306 residents in the county.

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Aleutians West Census Area. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Aleutians West Census Area is not part of any metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area in the Office of Management and Budget’s July 2023 delineation; 1,306 other county equivalents are also outside one. These areas are built around an urban core of at least 10,000 people plus the counties tied to it by commuting, so counties outside them are generally rural.

ZIP codes

7 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Aleutians West Census Area, and each lies mostly inside the county.

99546995479959199638996609968599692

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Aleutians West Census Area

Aleutians West Census Area has no land border with another county equivalent in the Census cartographic boundaries: open water separates it from every other county equivalent. Its nearest entries in the national land ranking are listed below, and the Alaska directory lists every county equivalent in the state.

How big is Aleutians West Census Area compared with U.S. states?

Aleutians West Census Area has more land than 2 of the 50 states. It is about 2.3 times the land area of Delaware (1,948.6 mi²), while Connecticut, the next larger state, has 1.1 times as much land (4,842.5 mi²). Alaska’s county land could hold about 130 areas the size of Aleutians West Census Area.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 66.2 miles (106.6 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Aleutians West Census Area?

Aleutians West Census Area has more land than 3,117 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Aleutians West Census Area at #19 nationally by total area, 86 places closer to the top than its land rank. The water assigned to this geography moves it ahead of some county equivalents with more land.

Its water share is 68.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 67.8 percentage points higher. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Aleutians West Census Area in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.