Anchorage Area Information

Home to about 275,000 Alaskans, the Municipality of Anchorage is by far the state's most populated area. It's about the same size as Bakersfield, CA, St. Petersburg, FL or Lexington, KY.  The "Muni" is 1,697 square miles in size.  That's about 153 people per sq. mile compared with 915 per sq. mile in Lexington or 2,184 people for each square mile in Bakersfield.  Although much of the land area is uninhabited mountainous terrain, it's considered densely populated for Alaska.

The City of Anchorage makes up most of the populated area of the Municipality of Anchorage.  Homesites in and around the City of Anchorage tend to be more compact than residential building lots in the rest of Alaska.  Eagle River is about 10 minutes north of Anchorage followed by Chugiak and Peters Creek. All are in the Municiplalty of Anchorage which is similar to a county in the lower 48 states.  

Anchorage sits in a geographic "bowl" surrounded by mountains and ocean.  If you click on the "Satellite" or "Hybrid" buttons on the map above, you'll see what I mean.  This geographic restriction has resulted in a shortage of buildable land as Anchorage has grown over the years.  For a while Eagle River provided some relief for much-needed land but they now have a land shortage similar to Anchorage's.

Aside from the differences in climate and the fact that you're probably within five miles of a wild bear almost anywhere in the city, living in Anchorage is not much different than living in the lower 48.  Which means that Anchorage is different than most anywhere else in Alaska.  

We also have as many moose per square mile as just about anywhere in Alaska. There are about 1,900 in the Municipality of Anchorage with 300 resident year-round in the Anchorage bowl.  In the winter the Anchorage bowl moose population increases from 300 as many as 1,000 animals. 

Anchorage is sometimes described as being, "the closest city to Alaska."  That statement takes on real meaning when you step out of a floatplane in the Alaskan Wilderness after a 15-minute ride and see a brown bear munching on a salmon!  You might even see one in the Anchorage Bowl.  There are about 250 black bears and around 60 brown bears living in and around Anchorage.