Cities and census-designated places (by population)

Alaska has a total of 355 cities and census-designated places. The majority of these are located in the rural expanse of Alaska known as "The Bush" and are unconnected to the contiguous North American road network. The 100 largest cities and census-designated places in Alaska are listed below, in population order:

Key: @ - city # - census-designated place

Out of Alaska's 2010 Census population figure of 710,231, 20,429 people, or 2.88% of the population, do not live in an incorporated city or census-designated place. Approximately 3/4 of that figure are people who live in urban and suburban neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city limits of Ketchikan, Kodiak, Palmer and Wasilla, in areas where census-designated places have not been created by the Census Bureau. The remainder are scattered throughout Alaska, both within organized boroughs and in the Unorganized Borough.

Education

The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development administers many school districts in Alaska. In addition, the state operates a boarding school, Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka; and provides partial funding for other boarding schools, including Nenana Student Living Center in Nenana and The Galena Interior Learning Academy in Galena.^[83]

There are more than a dozen colleges and universities in Alaska. Accredited universities in Alaska include the University of Alaska Anchorage, University of Alaska Fairbanks,University of Alaska Southeast, and Alaska Pacific University.^[84] Alaska is the only state that has no institutions that are part of the NCAA Division I program.

The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development operates AVTEC, Alaska's Institute of Technology.^[85] Campuses in Seward and Anchorage offer 1 week to 11 month training programs in areas as diverse as Information Technology, Welding, Nursing, and Mechanics.

Alaska has had a problem with a "brain drain". Many of its young people, including most of the highest academic achievers, leave the state after high school graduation and do not return. The University of Alaska has attempted to combat this by offering partial four-year scholarships to the top 10% of Alaska high school graduates, via the Alaska Scholars Program.^[86]

Culture

Some of Alaska's popular annual events are the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race that starts in Anchorage and ends in Nome, World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks, the Alaska Hummingbird Festival in Ketchikan, the Sitka Whale Fest, and the Stikine River Garnet Fest in Wrangell. The Stikine River features the largest springtime concentration of American Bald Eagles in the world.

The Alaska Native Heritage Center celebrates the rich heritage of Alaska's 11 cultural groups. Their purpose is to enhance self-esteem among Native people and to encourage cross-cultural exchanges among all people. The Alaska Native Arts Foundation promotes and markets Native art from all regions and cultures in the State, both on the internet; at its gallery in Anchorage, 500 West Sixth Avenue, and at the Alaska House New York, 109 Mercer Street in SoHo.^[91]

State symbols

§ State Motto: North to the Future

§ Nicknames: "The Last Frontier" or "Land of the Midnight Sun" or "Seward's Icebox"

§ State bird: Willow Ptarmigan, adopted by the Territorial Legislature in 1955. It is a small (15–17 inches) Arctic grouse that lives among willows and on open tundra and muskeg. Plumage is brown in summer, changing to white in winter. The Willow Ptarmigan is common in much of Alaska.

§ State fish: King Salmon, adopted 1962.

§ State flower: wild/native Forget-me-not, adopted by the Territorial Legislature in 1917.^[93] It is a perennial that is found throughout Alaska, from Hyder to the Arctic Coast, and west to the Aleutians.

§ State fossil: Woolly Mammoth, adopted 1986.

§ State gem: Jade, adopted 1968.

§ State insect: Four-spot skimmer dragonfly, adopted 1995.

§ State land mammal: Moose, adopted 1998.

§ State marine mammal: Bowhead Whale, adopted 1983.

§ State mineral: Gold, adopted 1968.

§ State song: "Alaska's Flag"

§ State sport: Dog Mushing, adopted 1972.

§ State tree: Sitka Spruce, adopted 1962.

§ State dog: Alaskan Malamute, adopted 2010.^[94]

§ State soil: Tanana,^[95] adopted unknown.

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 533