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If you're married, the thought of divorce has probably popped into your mind at least once.
Come on, admit it.
And if you're not married, let me tell you that there's gonna be a point at 2 a.m. when you have a crying baby and haven't slept in two months that it's gonna run through your head to run.
Far.
Away.
But, don't just take my word for it, take the word of the some 17,687 people living in Alaska over fifteen years of age who are divorced. Or compare that to the 28,339,199 dAmericans who are already divorced in 2022.
A lot of people make the decision to run away - or simply split up - across the Last Frontier.
Isn't the divorce rate in America close to 50%? Yes indeed. But that's not quite what we're measuring; we are looking at counts and percentages of people over 15 years old who are currently divorced.
You typically calculate that 50% statistic as percent of marriages.
But we are just going to focus on the actual number of divorced people today -- what better way to measure marital misery than the straight count of people in Alaska it affects?
So now that we have you biting your nails, rethinking your world view, and pulling out your hair, let's take a look at the places in Alaska with highest rates of divorcees.
Let's quickly recap before we dive into the methodology and a closer look at the top ten places in AK.
What is the city in Alaska with the highest divorce rate? That would be Kotzebue, with 7.0% of people over 15 years of age being divorced, per the most recent census data.
What is the overall Alaska divorce rate? According to the 2016-2020 Community Survey, the overall divorce rate in Alaska is 3.0%, which compares to the US divorce rate of 10.9%.
Alrighty, on to how we calculated the places with the highest divorce rates in Alaska.
For more Alaska reading, check out:
/10
Population: 3,283
Divorce Rate: 7.0%
Divorcees: 183
Median Income: $87,000
More on Kotzebue: | Crime Report
/10
Population: 3,869
Divorce Rate: 6.0%
Divorcees: 185
Median Income: $85,268
More on Nome: | Crime Report
/10
Population: 8,230
Divorce Rate: 6.0%
Divorcees: 395
Median Income: $65,809
More on Ketchikan: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 2,969
Divorce Rate: 5.0%
Divorcees: 118
Median Income: $81,491
More on North Pole: | Crime Report
Population: 1,252
Divorce Rate: 5.0%
Divorcees: 50
Median Income: $47,844
More on Kotlik:
/10
Population: 2,510
Divorce Rate: 4.0%
Divorcees: 80
Median Income: $58,438
More on Wrangell: | Crime Report
/10
Population: 10,469
Divorce Rate: 4.0%
Divorcees: 335
Median Income: $62,667
More on Wasilla: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 8,569
Divorce Rate: 4.0%
Divorcees: 274
Median Income: $81,708
More on Sitka: Cost Of Living | Crime Report
/10
Population: 1,186
Divorce Rate: 4.0%
Divorcees: 37
Median Income: $85,833
More on Sand Point:
/10
Population: 2,065
Divorce Rate: 4.0%
Divorcees: 66
Median Income: $75,461
More on Dillingham: | Crime Report
How We Determined The Places In Alaska That Get Un-Hitched The Most
Since that this is the 58th category of rankings we are compiling for the site, we had a pretty good idea where to find data on marriage and divorce in America the U.S. Census Bureau. Because who likes tracking misery more than the U.S. government?
Specifically, we looked at the 2016-2020 American Community Survey specifically table S1201 -- Marital Status.
Pretty straight forward on that front -- we just had to extract the following column of data:
- Population 15 Years and Over -> Divorced
There's some kinda interesting/fun/sad data in there like .1% of female Americans aged 15-19 are divorced, but 0% of males (That's probably a rounding issue, but still).
But the national data is for another day, today the analysis focuses on the 30 places in Alaska with a population of over 1,000.
We ranked each of these places by the percentage of divorcees over 15 years of age from highest to lowest. We crowned the divorce capital of Alaska the place with the highest incidence of divorcees, Kotzebue.
And if you're trying to avoid divorce, check out Valdez, the city with the lowest divorce rate in Alaska.
Getting Some Closure In Alaska After Untying The Know
Besides just coming up with what we thought would be a great new blog/book title, "Untying the Knot In Alaska: Life After Divorce", we now have a sense of what places in the Last Frontier don't pay much attention to the whole "'til death do we part" phrase.
Try to keep in mind that the reason cities rank where they do in Alaska could be because of the age, education, and income distribution, as all of those things impact the rate of divorce.
And, in all honestly, that's probably for the best. It's much better to get out of a toxic relationship than stay it.
Just make sure you have your running shoes ready to go.
For more Alaska reading, check out:
Detailed List Of The Cities With The Highest Divorce Rates In Alaska
Rank | City | Divorce Rate |
---|---|---|
1 | Kotzebue, AK | 7.0% |
2 | Nome, AK | 6.0% |
3 | Ketchikan, AK | 6.0% |
4 | North Pole, AK | 5.0% |
5 | Kotlik, AK | 5.0% |
6 | Wrangell, AK | 4.0% |
7 | Wasilla, AK | 4.0% |
8 | Sitka, AK | 4.0% |
9 | Sand Point, AK | 4.0% |
10 | Dillingham, AK | 4.0% |
11 | Craig, AK | 4.0% |
12 | Bethel, AK | 4.0% |
13 | Homer, AK | 3.0% |
14 | Seward, AK | 3.0% |
15 | Palmer, AK | 3.0% |
16 | Kenai, AK | 3.0% |
17 | Kodiak, AK | 3.0% |
18 | Cordova, AK | 3.0% |
19 | Mountain Village, AK | 3.0% |
20 | Anchorage, AK | 3.0% |
21 | Emmonak, AK | 3.0% |
22 | Juneau, AK | 3.0% |
23 | Soldotna, AK | 2.0% |
24 | Alakanuk, AK | 2.0% |
25 | Fairbanks, AK | 2.0% |
26 | Houston, AK | 2.0% |
27 | King Cove, AK | 2.0% |
28 | Delta Junction, AK | 1.0% |
29 | Unalaska, AK | 1.0% |
30 | Valdez, AK | 1.0% |