The Anchorage Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, is an area consisting of the

Municipality of Anchorage A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...

and the

Matanuska-Susitna Borough Matanuska-Susitna Borough (often referred to as the Mat-Su Borough) is a borough located in the U.S. state of Alaska. Its borough seat is Palmer, and the largest community is the census-designated place of Knik-Fairview. As of the 2020 census ...

in the south central region of

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. As of the 2010 census, the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) had a population of 380,821. However, 2016 population estimates increase that number to more than 400,000. This is a census definition only, and many of the settlements considered within the metropolitan area are in fact quite distant from the city center and may be very small and isolated, for example Lake Louise is about from Anchorage proper and has fewer than 50 year-round residents.

Communities

;Place with more than 100,000 inhabitants *

Anchorage Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolita ...

(principal city) ;Place with 10,000 to 25,000 inhabitants * Knik-Fairview ;Places with 5,000 to 10,000 inhabitants * Gateway *

Lakes A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

* Meadow Lakes *

Palmer Palmer may refer to: People and fictional characters * Palmer (pilgrim), a medieval European pilgrim to the Holy Land * Palmer (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Palmer (surname), including a list of people and f ...

* Tanaina *

Wasilla Wasilla ( Dena'ina: ''Benteh'') is a city in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States, and the fourth-largest city in Alaska. It is located on the northern point of Cook Inlet in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley of the southcentral part ...

;Places with 2,500 to 5,000 inhabitants * Big Lake *

Butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

Fishhook A fish hook or fishhook, formerly also called an angle (from Old English ''angol'' and Proto-Germanic ''*angulaz''), is a hook used to catch fish either by piercing and embedding onto the inside of the fish mouth (angling) or, more rarely, by i ...

;Places with 1,000 to 2,500 inhabitants * Farm Loop *

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

* Lazy Mountain * Susitna North * Sutton-Alpine *

Willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

;Places with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants * Buffalo Soapstone *

Chase Chase or CHASE may refer to: Businesses * Chase Bank, a national American financial institution * Chase UK, a British retail bank * Chase Aircraft (1943–1954), a defunct American aircraft manufacturer * Chase Coaches, a defunct bus operator in ...

* Chickaloon * Eureka Roadhouse * Glacier View *

Knik River The Knik River ( Dena'ina: ''Skitnu''; Ahtna: ''Scitna’'') is a river in the U.S. state of Alaska. Its source is at Knik Glacier, from which it flows northwest and west and empties into the head of Cook Inlet's Knik Arm, near the mouth o ...

* Lake Louise * Petersville * Point MacKenzie * Skwentna * Susitna (including Alexander Creek) *

Talkeetna Talkeetna ( Dena'ina: ''K'dalkitnu'') is an unincorporated small village, incorporated by the United States Census Bureau within a larger same-named census-designated place (CDP), in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States. At the 2020 ...

* Trapper Creek

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2010, there were 380,821 people residing within the MSA. The racial makeup of the MSA was 75.08%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 4.88%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 6.95% Native American (a category that also includes

Alaska Native Alaska Natives (also known as Native Alaskans, Alaskan Indians, or Indigenous Alaskans) are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of Alaska that encompass a diverse arena of cultural and linguistic groups, including the I ...

s), 4.65% Asian, 0.78%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 1.94% from other races, and 5.72% from

two or more races Multiracial Americans, also known as mixed-race Americans, are Americans who have mixed ancestry of two or more races. The term may also include Americans of mixed-race ancestry who self-identify with just one group culturally and socially (cf. t ...

. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 5.10% of the population. The median income for a household in the MSA was $53,384, and the median income for a family was $60,311. Males had a median income of $43,287 versus $30,573 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the MSA was $23,196.

References

{{Coord, 61.1620, -149.2792, display=title Metropolitan areas of Alaska Geography of Anchorage, Alaska Geography of Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska

Communities

Demographics

See also

References