The 10 Cities In Alaska With The Highest Divorce Rates For 2023


The cities in Alaska with the highest divorce rate are Kotzebue and Sand Point for 2023 based on Saturday Night Science.

Cities with highest divorce rate in Alaska research summary. We analyzed Alaska’s most recent Census data to determine the divorce rate for each city in Alaska based on the percentage of currently divorced residents. Here are the results of our analysis:

  • The city with the highest divorce rate in Alaska is Kotzebue based on the most recent Census data.

  • Kotzebue is 7.0% Divorced.

  • The city with the lowest divorce rate in Alaska is Kodiak.

  • Kodiak is 1.0% Divorced.

  • Alaska is 3.0% Divorced.


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


There are some 17,662 people living in Alaska over fifteen years of age who are divorced. You can compare that to the 28,339,199 Americans who are currently divorced in 2023.

Many people decide to run away – or split up – across the Last Frontier.

Isn’t the divorce rate in America close to 50%? Yes indeed. But we’re measuring something else; we are looking at counts and percentages of people over 15 years old who are currently divorced. That 50% statistic is for the percentage of people who have ever been divorced.

For today’s analysis, the focus will be on the number of currently divorced people.

So now that we have you biting your nails, rethinking your worldview, and pulling out your hair, let’s look at the places in Alaska with the highest rates of divorcees.

The 10 Cities In Alaska With The Highest Divorce Rates

  1. Kotzebue
  2. Sand Point
  3. Nome
  4. Ketchikan
  5. North Pole
  6. Kotlik
  7. Dillingham
  8. Wasilla
  9. Kenai
  10. Wrangell

Let’s quickly recap before we dive into the Saturday Night Science behind the data.

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 2017-2021 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:

The 10 Places With The Highest Divorce Rate In Alaska For 2023

Kotzebue, AK

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 3,199
Divorce Rate: 7.0%
Divorcees: 179
Median Income: $95,385
More on Kotzebue: Data | Crime | Real Estate

2. Sand Point

Sand Point, AK

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 1,164
Divorce Rate: 6.0%
Divorcees: 55
Median Income: $75,625
More on Sand Point: Real Estate

Nome, AK

Source: Wikipedia User ra64 from nome, usa | CC BY-SA 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 3,685
Divorce Rate: 6.0%
Divorcees: 176
Median Income: $91,375
More on Nome: Data | Crime | Real Estate

Ketchikan, AK

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY-SA 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 8,150
Divorce Rate: 6.0%
Divorcees: 391
Median Income: $68,125
More on Ketchikan: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

North Pole, AK

Source: Wikipedia User Dylan Avery | CC BY-SA 4.0
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 2,825
Divorce Rate: 5.0%
Divorcees: 113
Median Income: $83,524
More on North Pole: Data | Crime | Real Estate

6. Kotlik

Overall SnackAbility

3
/10

Population: 1,247
Divorce Rate: 5.0%
Divorcees: 49
Median Income: $47,833
More on Kotlik: Real Estate

Dillingham, AK

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 2,133
Divorce Rate: 5.0%
Divorcees: 85
Median Income: $82,604
More on Dillingham: Data | Crime | Real Estate

Wasilla, AK

Source: Wikipedia User Beeblebrox (talk). Beeblebrox | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 9,098
Divorce Rate: 4.0%
Divorcees: 291
Median Income: $62,292
More on Wasilla: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Kenai, AK

Source: Wikipedia User gilbert | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 7,452
Divorce Rate: 4.0%
Divorcees: 238
Median Income: $70,732
More on Kenai: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Wrangell, AK

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 2,162
Divorce Rate: 4.0%
Divorcees: 69
Median Income: $54,891
More on Wrangell: Data | Crime | Real Estate

How We Determined The Places In Alaska That Get Un-Hitched The Most

Since this is the 58th category of rankings we are compiling for the site, we had a pretty good idea of 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 2017-2021 American Community Survey table S1201 — Marital Status.

Pretty straightforward on that front — we just had to extract the following column of data:

  • Population 15 Years and Over -> Divorced

There are some interesting/fun/sad data 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 29 places in Alaska with a population of over 1,000.

We ranked each place 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 Kodiak, the city with the lowest divorce rate in Alaska.

We updated this article for 2023 and this is our fifth time ranking the cities in Alaska with the highest divorce rates.

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 that’s probably for the best. Getting out of a toxic relationship is much better than staying in 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 Sand Point, AK 6.0%
3 Nome, AK 6.0%
4 Ketchikan, AK 6.0%
5 North Pole, AK 5.0%
6 Kotlik, AK 5.0%
7 Dillingham, AK 5.0%
8 Wasilla, AK 4.0%
9 Kenai, AK 4.0%
10 Wrangell, AK 4.0%
11 Sitka, AK 4.0%
12 Craig, AK 4.0%
13 Palmer, AK 3.0%
14 Juneau, AK 3.0%
15 Emmonak, AK 3.0%
16 Seward, AK 3.0%
17 Cordova, AK 3.0%
18 Bethel, AK 3.0%
19 Anchorage, AK 3.0%
20 Homer, AK 3.0%
21 Houston, AK 3.0%
22 Valdez, AK 2.0%
23 Alakanuk, AK 2.0%
24 Fairbanks, AK 2.0%
25 King Cove, AK 2.0%
26 Soldotna, AK 1.0%
27 Unalaska, AK 1.0%
28 Delta Junction, AK 1.0%
29 Kodiak, AK 1.0%