There’s no denying it: there are plenty of places in Alaska that are downright beautiful and full of excitement.
Unfortunately, not all towns and cities in Last Frontier are so lucky.
Just like in all U.S. States, there are definitely some boring places within Alaska’s’ borders. You know the places where everyone has an AARP card and the most exciting thing they do all day is post a picture of their grandchild on Facebook.
Like Valdez, for instance. In our latest analysis, we found that this city was the most boring city in all of Alaska according to Saturday Night Science. But don’t feel bad if you’re a resident of Valdez. There are plenty of other boring, lackluster places in Alaska as well.
Here they are. Try not to jump out of your seat with excitement.
38.4 median age · 14.0% married households · #7 oldest in Alaska
Valdez is a city in Valdez-Cordova Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to the 2010 US Census, the population of the city is 3,976. The city was named in 1790 after the Spanish Navy Minister Antonio Valds y Fernndez Bazn. A former Gold Rush town, it is located at the head of a fjord on the eastern side of Prince William Sound. The port did not flourish until after the road link to Fairbanks was constructed in 1899. It suffered huge damage during the 1964 Alaska earthquake, and is located near the site of the disastrous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill. Today it is one of the most important ports in Alaska, a commercial fishing port as well as a freight terminal.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
48.1 median age · 10.0% married households · #1 oldest in Alaska
The City and Borough of Wrangell is a borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2010 census the population was 2,369. Incorporated as a Unified Home Rule Borough on May 30, 2008, Wrangell was previously a city in the Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area.
The primary industry of the city is fishing, and it is a tourist destination. The former large wood processing factory in Wrangell closed down some time ago.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
40.0 median age · 12.0% married households · #4 oldest in Alaska
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
40.4 median age · 1.0% married households · #2 oldest in Alaska
Unalaska is the largest city of the Aleutian Islands. The city is in the Aleutians West Census Area, a regional component of the Unorganized Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Unalaska is located on Unalaska Island and neighboring Amaknak Island in the Aleutian Islands off mainland Alaska. The population was 4,376 at the 2010 census, which is 79% of the entire Aleutians West Census Area. Unalaska is the second largest city in the Unorganized Borough, behind Bethel.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
39.7 median age · 10.0% married households · #6 oldest in Alaska
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
35.5 median age · 20.0% married households · #11 oldest in Alaska
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
37.7 median age · 9.0% married households · #9 oldest in Alaska
Seward is a city in Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2014 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 2,528. It was named after William H. Seward, United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. In 1867, he fought for the U.S. purchase of Alaska which he finally negotiated to acquire from Russia.
Mile 0 of the historic Iditarod Trail is at Seward. In the early 1900s the trail was blazed in order to transport people and goods to and from the port of Seward to interior Alaska.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
32.4 median age · 26.0% married households · #16 oldest in Alaska
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
31.0 median age · 19.0% married households · #18 oldest in Alaska
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
31.4 median age · 20.0% married households · #17 oldest in Alaska
Nome is a city in the Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska. The city is located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. In 2014 the population was estimated at 3,788, a rise from the 3,598 recorded in the 2010 Census. Nome was incorporated on April 9, 1901, and was once the most-populous city in Alaska. Nome lies within the region of the Bering Straits Native Corporation, which is headquartered in Nome.
The city of Nome claims to be home to the world’s largest gold pan, although this claim has been disputed by the Canadian city of Quesnel, British Columbia.
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 the quiet settles in Alaska
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the boring cities in the Last Frontier
You would present the following case to your friends if you were argueing with them at a bar about the most boring place to live in Alaska. And that’s why we call it Saturday Night Science.
Because our data speaks more truth than feelings.
To figure out how boring a place is, we factored in things we generally think make people exciting, and then we figure out which cities have the least number of those exciting people.
We used the U.S. American Community Census data to gather the information presented here. Some of the things people tend to think of as making a city’s population boring include:
- % of Population Over 25 (higher is more boring)
- % of Married Household (higher is more boring)
- Average Age (higher is more boring)
- % of Households With Kids (higher is more boring)
- Population density (lower is more boring)
Then, our algorithm generates a ranking for each place in these categories. After crunching the numbers, all of the cities ranked from most boring to most exciting.
For this ranking, we used every Alaska city with at least 2,000 residents. This keeps us from prejudicing our rankings by including very small pockets of retired people.
Grab your rocker and hold on.
We updated this article for 2026, and it’s our eleventh time ranking the most boring cities in Alaska.
The full plate
Detailed List Of The Most Boring Cities In Alaska For 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Boring Score | Population | Average Age | % Married | % Kids |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valdez | 7.00 | 3,847 | 38.4 | 14.0% | 31.2% |
| 2 | Wrangell | 7.10 | 2,088 | 48.1 | 10.0% | 21.7% |
| 3 | Juneau | 7.50 | 31,794 | 40.0 | 12.0% | 22.5% |
| 4 | Unalaska | 7.60 | 4,556 | 40.4 | 1.0% | 31.9% |
| 5 | Sitka | 7.90 | 8,368 | 39.7 | 10.0% | 28.3% |
| 6 | Dillingham | 8.10 | 2,109 | 35.5 | 20.0% | 38.1% |
| 7 | Seward | 9.10 | 2,794 | 37.7 | 9.0% | 37.0% |
| 8 | Bethel | 9.40 | 6,312 | 32.4 | 26.0% | 38.7% |
| 9 | Kotzebue | 10.00 | 2,984 | 31.0 | 19.0% | 44.1% |
| 10 | Nome | 10.30 | 3,653 | 31.4 | 20.0% | 39.2% |
| 11 | Kenai | 10.60 | 7,641 | 34.4 | 12.0% | 34.8% |
| 12 | Kodiak | 10.90 | 5,447 | 40.2 | 9.0% | 38.9% |
| 13 | Cordova | 11.10 | 2,453 | 37.8 | 10.0% | 17.4% |
| 14 | Soldotna | 12.20 | 4,485 | 33.1 | 12.0% | 29.4% |
| 15 | Homer | 12.20 | 5,877 | 40.0 | 8.0% | 21.4% |
| 16 | Ketchikan | 12.20 | 8,078 | 37.4 | 12.0% | 26.2% |
| 17 | Wasilla | 12.20 | 9,720 | 34.8 | 12.0% | 28.1% |
| 18 | North Pole | 13.90 | 2,370 | 28.2 | 10.0% | 43.0% |
| 19 | Palmer | 14.20 | 6,268 | 32.9 | 11.0% | 30.3% |
| 20 | Fairbanks | 16.50 | 32,083 | 29.0 | 8.0% | 31.3% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 20 cities with more than 2,000 residents.
Summary
There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep
On a ranking like this, there are usually no winners, but since Alaska isn’t necessarily the most boring state in the United States, the cities on this ranking can at least take solace that there are, in fact, more boring cities in the country.
The most boring cities in Alaska are Valdez, Wrangell, Juneau, Unalaska, Sitka, Dillingham, Seward, Bethel, Kotzebue, and Nome.
If you’re also curious enough, here are the most exciting places in Alaska, according to science.
