Is being in an area of Alaska that’s growing quickly a good thing or a bad thing?
Depends on who you ask.
Some want bigger, more exciting cities like Anchorage and Fairbanks, while others want peace and quiet like in Kodiak and Homer, thank you very much.
But today, we’re going to put opinions aside and look at the cold, hard facts — since 2010, which cities in Alaska have grown the fastest.
After getting knee-deep in the Census’s American Community Survey using Saturday Night Science, we emerged with this set of cities in the Last Frontier that have people climbing over each other to get in.
Alaska lost a net 4,525 people to other states in the year ending July 2025 — 41st in the nation for domestic migration; the full moving statistics breakdown shows who’s coming and going.
29.8% growth since 2010 · 2,232 net new residents
Located in
Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska
Wasilla is a city in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, United States and the sixth-largest city in Alaska. It is located on the northern point of Cook Inlet in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley of the southcentral part of the state. The city’s population was 7,831 at the 2010 census. Estimates in 2013 put the population at roughly 8,621. Wasilla is the largest city in the borough and a part of the Anchorage metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 396,142 in 2013.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
18.3% growth since 2010 · 908 net new residents
Located in
Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska
Homer is a city located in Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is two hundred and eighteen miles southwest of Anchorage. According to the 2010 Census, the population is 5,003. Long known as The “Halibut Fishing Capital of the World.” Homer is also nicknamed “the end of the road,” and more recently, “the cosmic hamlet by the sea.”
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
9.1% growth since 2010 · 637 net new residents
Located in
Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska
Kenai is a city in the Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. The population was 7,100 as of the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
8.8% growth since 2010 · 506 net new residents
Located in
Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska
Palmer is a city in and the borough seat of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is part of the Anchorage Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city is 5,937.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
5.7% growth since 2010 · 341 net new residents
Located in
Bethel Census Area, Alaska
Bethel is a city located near the west coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, approximately 400 miles west of Anchorage, in the Bethel Census Area. Accessible only by air and river, Bethel is the main port on the Kuskokwim River and is an administrative and transportation hub for the 56 villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
2.9% growth since 2010 · 905 net new residents
Located in
Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska
Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers | Compare
2.6% growth since 2010 · 819 net new residents
Located in
Juneau City and Borough, Alaska
The City and Borough of Juneau, commonly known as Juneau, is the capital city of Alaska. It is a unified municipality located on the Gastineau Channel in the Alaskan panhandle, and it is the second largest city in the United States by area. Juneau has been the capital of Alaska since 1906, when the government of what was then the District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as dictated by the U.S. Congress in 1900. The municipality unified on July 1, 1970, when the city of Juneau merged with the city of Douglas and the surrounding Greater Juneau Borough to form the current municipality, which is larger by area than both Rhode Island and Delaware.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers | Compare
1.7% growth since 2010 · 4,709 net new residents
Located in
Anchorage Municipality, Alaska
Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the U.S. state of Alaska. With an estimated 298,192 residents in 2016, it is Alaska’s most populous city and contains more than 40 percent of the state’s total population; among the 50 states, only New York has a higher percentage of residents who live in its most populous city. All together, the Anchorage metropolitan area, which combines Anchorage with the neighboring Matanuska-Susitna Borough, had a population of 401,635 in 2016, which accounts for more than half of the state’s population.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers | Compare
1.1% growth since 2010 · 84 net new residents
Located in
Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska
Ketchikan is a city in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska, United States, the southeasternmost city in Alaska. With a population at the 2010 census of 8,050, it is the fifth-most populous city in the state, and tenth-most populous community when census-designated places are included.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
-5.9% growth since 2010 · -526 net new residents
Located in
Sitka City and Borough, Alaska
The City and Borough of Sitka, formerly Novo-Arkhangelsk, or New Archangel under Russian rule, is a unified city-borough located on Baranof Island and the southern half of Chichagof Island in the Alexander Archipelago of the Pacific Ocean, in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2010 census, the population was 8,881. In terms of land area, it is the largest city-borough in the U.S., with a land area of 2,870.3 square miles and a total area of 4,811.4 square miles ; however, it is the smallest of Alaska’s boroughs. Urban Sitka, the part that is usually thought of as the “city” of Sitka, is on the west side of Baranof Island.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Alaska’s statewide median.
On the map
Where Alaska’s growth is happening
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How We Measured The Fastest Growing Cities In the Last Frontier for 2026
To figure out which cities are growing the most, we used Saturday Night Science to look at the growth rates for cities since the beginning of the decade, according to the American Community Survey put out by the census every year. Specifically:
- Current Population
- Population in 2010
- Growth rate from 2010 to Current (the latest available data, which came out in Dec 2024)
We ranked all 11 Alaska cities with a population over 5,000 people from highest growth rate to lowest.
The city with the highest growth rate during this time was crowned the fastest-growing city in the Last Frontier.
And for those of you who are a little rusty with their statistics, you can calculate the growth rate by the following formula: [Current Population – Population 2010] / [Population 2010].
The data has been updated for 2026. This report is our eleventh time ranking the fastest growing cities in Alaska.
The full plate
Fastest Growing Places In Alaska For 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | Population 2010 | Growth | Absolute Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wasilla | 9,720 | 7,488 | 29.8% | 2,232 |
| 2 | Homer | 5,877 | 4,969 | 18.3% | 908 |
| 3 | Kenai | 7,641 | 7,004 | 9.1% | 637 |
| 4 | Palmer | 6,268 | 5,762 | 8.8% | 506 |
| 5 | Bethel | 6,312 | 5,971 | 5.7% | 341 |
| 6 | Fairbanks | 32,083 | 31,178 | 2.9% | 905 |
| 7 | Juneau | 31,794 | 30,975 | 2.6% | 819 |
| 8 | Anchorage | 288,976 | 284,267 | 1.7% | 4,709 |
| 9 | Ketchikan | 8,078 | 7,994 | 1.1% | 84 |
| 10 | Sitka | 8,368 | 8,894 | -5.9% | -526 |
| 11 | Kodiak | 5,447 | 6,023 | -9.6% | -576 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS, 2010-current. 11 Alaska cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
Summary: These Places Grew Up So Fast In Alaska, You Know?
So there you have it, the fastest growing cities in Alaska are led by Wasilla which has been growing at a blistering pace this decade relative to other cities and towns around the state.
The fastest-growing cities in Alaska are Wasilla, Homer, Kenai, Palmer, Bethel, Fairbanks, Juneau, Anchorage, Ketchikan, and Sitka.
It’ll be interesting to see if these places can keep growing at the same rate over the next couple of years. We’ll be here to let you know! Not sold on Alaska? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Fastest Growing Cities In Alaska FAQs
What is the fastest-growing city in Alaska?
Wasilla is the fastest-growing city in Alaska for 2026, based on population change since 2010. Homer and Kenai are growing nearly as fast.
What are the top 10 fastest-growing cities in Alaska?
The fastest-growing cities in Alaska are Wasilla, Homer, Kenai, Palmer, Bethel, Fairbanks, Juneau, Anchorage, Ketchikan, and Sitka. We ranked all 11 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
How do you measure growth?
Growth is the percent change in population from the 2010 Census to the latest American Community Survey estimates. No projections, no vibes — just how many more people actually live there now.
What is the slowest-growing city on the list?
Kodiak posts the smallest population change of the 11 Alaska cities we ranked. Slow growth is not automatically bad news, but the momentum is clearly elsewhere.
Do small towns count in this ranking?
Only places with more than 5,000 residents qualify, which keeps one new subdivision from turning a tiny town into a statistical rocket. 11 Alaska cities cleared that bar this year.
