Alaska counties by area

Understanding Alaska’s county areas

The land-area range runs from Skagway Municipality at 442.9 mi² to Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area at 145,767.5 mi². The largest has 329.1 times the land area of the smallest and accounts for 25.5% of the combined county land in Alaska. Compare with every state’s largest county.

The median county-equivalent land area is 7,486.4 mi², above the national median of 604.5 mi². The median describes the middle of the county size distribution; it does not describe how people or development are distributed. A state with a few very large counties can have a much smaller median than its largest entry suggests.

Where water changes the picture

Lake and Peninsula Borough has the most assigned water area, at 9,913.9 mi². Aleutians West Census Area has the highest water share, with water making up 68.9% of its total area. Water area and water percentage answer different questions: the first measures an amount, while the second measures the mix of land and water.

Across all 30 entries, water accounts for 14.2% of the combined total area. This is calculated from the summed land and water measurements, rather than averaging county percentages, which would give each small and large county equal weight.

Where people live

An estimated 737,270 people lived in Alaska on July 1, 2025 (+0.5% since 2020), or 0.2% of the national total in this dataset. Anchorage Municipality is the most populous county equivalent, with 287,155 residents — 38.9% of the state. The largest by land, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, has 5,028.

Across the state there are 1.3 people per square mile of land. County densities range from 168 in Anchorage Municipality to 0.034 in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area; the median county equivalent has 0.73. Switch the map above to density to see where the state’s population concentrates.

Compare the largest and smallest county equivalents in Alaska to see land, water, and total area on the same scale.

These calculations use the 2026 Census county records listed below. County-equivalent boundaries vary between states; area alone does not measure population, density, or usable land. See coverage and calculation rules.