Talk:List of boroughs and census areas in Alaska

Untitled
Do we really need to add the creation dates to each listing? I recommend adding it to the individual pages, not this listing. —akghetto (talk) 12:00, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

How many?
Although plenty of resources say "The State of Alaska has 18 organized boroughs and 11 census areas within the Unorganized Borough" there are only 10 of those 11 census areas listed here. It seems that Petersburg is the difference, as it's been incorporated (if that's the right term) into a Burrough. (U.S. county) Rbemis (talk) 19:57, 23 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Petersburg Borough's boundaries are not the same as the former census area. The Census Bureau website has yet to reflect Petersburg's incorporation, so it is not known whether the leftover area will continue to be a separate census area or if it will be combined with another one.  --Lasunncty (talk) 01:24, 29 May 2013 (UTC)
 * I think I mentioned before somewhere that it could be a while if you rely upon the Census Bureau, though that's probably true more in terms of how cumbersome and user-unfriendly FactFinder is. The state Department of Labor does have the current boundaries on its website.  The borough's boundaries to the north and east of Petersburg include portions formerly in Hoonah-Angoon, including the Hobart Bay CDP.  To the south and west, the portion of the former census area falling outside the borough's boundaries, including the cities of Kake and Port Alexander, was included with Prince of Wales-Hyder. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions  10:13, 29 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Yep, that's completely right. I realize the main map has been updated to reflect these changes, but it seems that the ones in each column describing the boroughs and census areas haven't been changed. As such, could one of Rbemis or Lasunncty do it? Thanks. Supporter of the Campaign (talk) 17:05, 28 August 2017 (UTC)

Wikiproject help
Some helpful information on U.S. county lists can be found at WP:COUNTYLISTS. Tom pw (talk) (review) 16:21, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Map of Boroughs and census areas
The map is seriously flawed. It trys to show both boroughs and census areas on one map, without distinguishing between the two, and ends up misinforming the reader about both.CGX (talk) 20:28, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
 * How do you think the map should be then? Tom pw (talk) (review) 20:29, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Circular link
The link to "List of Alaska borough and census area name etymologies" is to this same article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.53.195.38 (talk) 16:37, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Former boroughs
The Greater Juneau Borough existed from September 30, 1963 to July 1, 1970 (when it was succeeded by the City and Borough of Juneau). I don't know if it counts as a separate borough or a former name, but it probably should be included in the article. --Joseph Hewes (talk) 07:20, 4 May 2012 (UTC)
 * And the Greater Sitka Borough existed from September 24, 1963 to December 2, 1971. --Joseph Hewes (talk) 20:41, 7 May 2012 (UTC)

Punctuation for joint names
Hello. There are four census areas (Hoonah–Angoon, Prince of Wales–Hyder, Valdez–Cordova, and Yukon–Koyukuk) as well as one borough (Matanuska–Susitna) which have joint names. However, the punctuation in this article, in the titles of their individual articles, and within the text of those articles is inconsistent. Some places it is a hyphen, some places it is an en-dash surrounded by spaces, and sometimes an en-dash without spaces. There should be some consistency. Which is correct? Does Matanuska–Susitna have a different rule than the census areas because it is a borough? I just think it looks sloppy as it is now. I will gladly help fix them if I knew the proper format. (For some of the inconsistent titles, that may require redirects.) Thank you. → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 19:58, 20 August 2012 (UTC)


 * According to what I read in the dash article, only Prince of Wales–Hyder has a reason to use the en dash. All the others should just be hyphens.  None of them should have the extra spaces.  --Lasunncty (talk) 07:53, 21 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Yes, you're right about that. I see they've been changed, but according to the Census Bureau and the Alaska Labor Department, the hyphens are used in all cases, and no exception exists for Prince of Wales-Hyder. The map and corresponding article entry should be fixed accordingly. Supporter of the Campaign (talk) 16:55, 28 August 2017 (UTC)

Class
What is the meaning of the "class" of the borough? Article mentions "first" and "second" class boroughs, but does not explain the difference. Vanjagenije (talk) 18:13, 28 May 2014 (UTC)
 * The best place to go for that information would be Title 29 of the Alaska Statues. There exists Administrative divisions of Alaska, but it doesn't provide a thorough explanation.  General law boroughs are divided into three classes.  Boroughs of the first and second class are required to provide education, land use planning (including zoning) and taxation for their areas.  Third class boroughs aren't required to provide education, yet if they do, there is no separate school board;  the borough assembly functions as an ex-officio school board.  There was only one third class borough, namely the Haines Borough between 1968 and 2002, when it reincorporated as a home rule borough in conjunction with the dissolution of the City of Haines.  The former Haines Borough did provide education, but that was mainly because the legislature desired to do away with the Haines-Port Chilkoot School District established under the territorial government.  Before I stray too far from the actual question, the main difference between first and second class boroughs lies in the means by which they acquire powers to provide additional services.  In a first class borough, all the assembly needs to do is to pass an ordinance.  In a second class borough, the assembly needs to pass an ordinance, then submit that ordinance to voters for ratification. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions  10:13, 29 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much, RadioKAOS. I think this information should be included into the article. Vanjagenije (talk) 19:04, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Borough and Census Area maps
The map at the top is accurate, but since the boundaries were shifted in 2013, the maps on this page in the 2 charts listing each of the boroughs and census areas is outdated and no longer correct. In particular, this border change affected at least Skagway, Hoonah-Angoon, Petersburg, and Prince of Wales-Hyder. Can someone correct these maps and re-upload them? I don't know how to do it, and I don't want to take them down, but no information is better than wrong information. Supporter of the Campaign (talk) 16:52, 28 August 2017 (UTC)

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 * I found updated links for all of these. There is another one — "Differences among Home Rule, First Class, Second Class and Third Class Boroughs" — that also seems to be dead, and I can't find an updated link for it.  --Lasunncty (talk) 08:59, 5 January 2018 (UTC)

Former Census Areas
Hi everyone. See how this article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_census-designated_places_in_Alaska) has a short section on former CDPs? Why shouldn't this article listing Boroughs and Census Areas have a section naming former Census Areas? This will be a useful reference if someone reads an older document that mentions a CA which no longer exists.

Here's what I got so far for former Census Area names :
 * Valdez-Cordova (02-261)
 * Petersburg (02-195, same as the successor borough)
 * Wrangell-Petersburg (02-280)
 * Prince of Wales-Outer Ketchikan (02-201)
 * Skagway-Hoonah-Angoon (02-232)
 * Skagway-Yakutat-Angoon (02-231)
 * Aleutian Islands (02-010)
 * Kobuk (02-140)
 * Wade Hampton (02-270) becomes Kusilvak (02-158) https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/article/governor-announces-new-name-alaska-census-area-named-confederate-officer/2015/07/02/

Mang (talk) 11:19, 3 April 2020 (UTC)


 * If we do this we should say what became of the former census area (as you did for Wade Hampton). Just listing the names alone is probably not that useful.  --Lasunncty (talk) 08:13, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

consolidated city-boroughs
Sources seem to vary in their definitions of consolidated city-boroughs in Alaska. Some (e.g. the Census Bureau) use the class of government, where only 4 are "unified home rule". Others (e.g. the National Association of Counties) use some other criteria and include up to 8 consolidated governments. Do we need to discuss the discrepancy in this article? We should at least be consistent to avoid confusion. --Lasunncty (talk) 08:57, 18 September 2023 (UTC)