Alaska

Alaska is the largest and least densely populated state in the United States: about two-thirds of the state's 683,000 residents live in urban areas. The population of Alaska is unusually young compared to the United States as a whole: 26.7 percent of Alaskans are age 18 or younger, ranking fourth among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Total fertility rate (an estimate of the number of children born to each woman) in 2003 was over 2.2, among the highest in the United States.

Poverty is a serious problem that impacts the quality of life of Alaskans. In 2007, 16.9 percent of Alaska's population lived below the poverty level: only five states had higher percentages of people living in poverty. Of Alaska families with children under 18 years of age, 11.2 percent of the families live in poverty; for families with children under 5 years of age, the figure is 10.9 percent. Female-headed households have a much higher rate of poverty: 28.6 percent of such families with children age 18 or younger live below the poverty line, as do 32 percent of female-headed families with children under 5 years of age. This is despite a higher-than-average rate of persons in the labor force: 71.4 percent of Alaskans over age 16 are in the labor force (66 percent of women) as opposed to 64.7 percent in the United States as a whole. In many Alaskan families with children, all parents are employed: 59.4 percent of families with children under age 6 and 70.3 percent of families with children ages 6 to 17 fit this description. Educational levels are also low: just 21.4 percent of Alaskans age 25 and over held at least a bachelor's degree in 2007, ranking the state 44th in the United States.

In 2006, about 5,300 marriages were conducted in Alaska, for a rate of 7.8 per 1,000 residents, which is slightly above the U.S. average of 7.5 per [Page 42]1,000 residents; in the same year, approximately 3,000 divorces were finalized for a rate of 4.4 per 1,000 population, well above the U.S. average of 3.6 per 1,000. The marriage rate is higher for women in Alaska than for men, a reverse of the situation in the United States as a whole: 48.9 percent of men in Alaska age 15 or older are married, with 52 percent for women (in the United States as a whole, 52.6 percent of men over age 15 are married, with 48.5 percent for women).