Alaska continues to lose population for third straight year

Alaska continues to lose population, the third straight year of declines.

Alaska's population fell by 3,048 from July 2018 to July 2019, according to numbers from the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

The department says that over 8,000 people left over the past year due to out-migration, presumably due to an economic recession, which began in 2015 as a result of lower oil prices. Those losses were partially offset by births, but the department says that the birth rate in Alaska is trending down, while the death rate is up.

The department says that age demographics are also changing, trending towards older residents. Alaska’s under-18 and 18-to-64-year-old populations each declined by more than 1% while the 65-and-older group grew by just under 5%.

Geographically, the area seeing the biggest decline was Anchorage, which lost 2,643 people, while Fairbanks lost 954. The Mat-Su Borough, meanwhile, gained 1,024 residents.

Alaska's population peaked in July 2016 at 739,649, but now stands at 731,007.