Fairbanks North Star Borough area

Population and density of Fairbanks North Star Borough

The Census Bureau estimates that 93,972 people lived in Fairbanks North Star Borough on July 1, 2025. That ranks #660 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #3 of 30 in Alaska. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 95,665, the population has declined by 1,693 (−1.8%), compared with +0.5% for Alaska as a whole.

With 7,334.7 square miles of land, that is 13 people per square mile (4.9 per km²), placing Fairbanks North Star Borough #2,551 nationally for density and #2 in Alaska. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Alaska median is 0.73. Put another way, there are about 50 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 Fairbanks North Star Borough

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Fairbanks North Star Borough. Together they are home to 33,945 people (36.1%); the other 60,027 (63.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Fairbanks city, with 31,468 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, North Pole city grew fastest since then (+10.5%).

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

Metropolitan area

Fairbanks North Star Borough is a central county of the Fairbanks-College, AK Metropolitan Statistical Area. Fairbanks North Star Borough is the area’s only county equivalent, so the metro area has the same 7,334.7 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #23 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #375 by population.

ZIP codes

11 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Fairbanks North Star Borough; 9 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

9970199702997039970599707997099971299714997259976099775

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Fairbanks North Star Borough

Fairbanks North Star Borough shares a land border with 3 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Fairbanks North Star Borough. The largest neighbor is Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (145,767.5 mi²) and the smallest is Denali Borough (12,641.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Fairbanks North Star Borough forms a block of 190,582.7 mi² of land, of which it holds 3.8%.

How big is Fairbanks North Star Borough compared with U.S. states?

Fairbanks North Star Borough has more land than 4 of the 50 states. It is about 1.1 times the land area of Hawaii (6,422.6 mi²), while New Jersey, the next larger state, has 1 times as much land (7,355 mi²). Alaska’s county land could hold about 78 areas the size of Fairbanks North Star Borough.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 85.6 miles (137.8 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 Fairbanks North Star Borough?

Fairbanks North Star Borough has more land than 3,181 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 Fairbanks North Star Borough at #46 nationally by total area, 5 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 1.3%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 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 Fairbanks North Star Borough 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.