DOI: 10.18739/a28k74z2b
title: Annual population, natural increase and net migration for rural Alaska communities 1990-2022

description: The dataset, provided both in comma-separated values (.csv) and the more informative Stata (.dta) format, contains place/year demographic data on more than 300 rural Alaska communities annually for 1990 to 2022 -- about 10,000 place/years. For each of the available place/years, the data include population estimates from the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development or (in Census years) from the US Census. For a subset consisting of 104 northern or western Alaska (Arctic/subarctic) towns and villages, the dataset also contains yearly estimates of natural increase (births minus deaths) and net migration (population minus last year's population plus natural increase). Natural increase was calculated from birth and death counts provided confidentially to researchers by the Alaska Health Analytics and Vital Records Section (HAVRS). By agreement with HAVRS, the community-level birth and death counts are not available for publication. Population, natural increase, and net migration estimates reflect mid-year values, or change over the past fiscal rather than calendar year. For example, the natural increase value for a community in 2020 is based on births and deaths of residents from July 1, 2019 to June 31, 2020. We emphasize that all values here are best estimates, based on records of the Alaska government organizations. The dataset contains 19 variables: placename Place name (string) placenum Place name (numeric) placefips Place FIPS code year Year borough Borough name boroughfips Borough FIPS code latitude Latitude (decimal, - denotes S) longitude Longitude (decimal, - denotes W) town Village {0:pop2020&lt;2,000} or town {1:pop2020&gt;2,000} village104 104 selected Arctic/rural communities {0,1} arctic43 43 Arctic communities {0,1}, Hamilton et al. 2016 north37 37 Northern Alaska communities {0,1), Hamilton et al. 2016 pop Population (2022 data) cpopP Change in population, percent natinc Natural increase: births-deaths natincP Natural increase, percent netmig Net migration estimate netmigP Net migration, percent nipop Population without migration Three of these variables flag particular subsets of communities. The first two subsets (43 or 37 places) were analyzed in earlier publications, so the flags might be useful for replications or comparisons. The third subset (104 places) is a newer, expanded group of Arctic/subarctic towns and villages for which natural increase and net migration estimates are now available. The flag variables are: If arctic43 = 1 Subset consisting of 43 Arctic towns and villages, previously studied in three published articles: 1. Hamilton, L.C. & A.M. Mitiguy. 2009. “Visualizing population dynamics of Alaska’s Arctic communities.” Arctic 62(4):393–398. https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic170 2. Hamilton, L.C., D.M. White, R.B. Lammers & G. Myerchin. 2012. “Population, climate and electricity use in the Arctic: Integrated analysis of Alaska community data.” Population and Environment 33(4):269–283. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-011-0145-1 3. Hamilton, L.C., K. Saito, P.A. Loring, R.B. Lammers & H.P. Huntington. 2016. “Climigration? Population and climate change in Arctic Alaska.” Population and Environment 38(2):115–133. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-016-0259-6 If north37 = 1 Subset consisting of 37 northern Alaska towns and villages, previously analyzed for comparison with Nunavut and Greenland in a paper on demographics of the Inuit Arctic: 4. Hamilton, L.C., J. Wirsing & K. Saito. 2018. “Demographic variation and change in the Inuit Arctic.” Environmental Research Letters 13:11507. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aae7ef If village104 = 1 Expanded group consisting of 104 communities, including all those in the arctic43 and north37 subsets. This group includes most rural Arctic/subarctic communities that had reasonably complete, continuous data, and 2018 populations of at least 100 people. These data were developed by updating older work and drawing in 61 additional towns or villages, as part of the NSF-supported Arctic Village Dynamics project (OPP-1822424).