Alaskan women are choosing to have fewer or no children and that ultimately translates to fewer fathers in the Last Frontier as well. To be clear, it’s a trend seen not just in Alaska, but across the United States.
According to statistics from the Alaska Department of Health, there were 9,410 births in Alaska in 2021, when the population was 732,673.
Compare that to 1990, when there were 11,902 births in the state, when the population of Alaska was 553,120.
Juneau has the lowest fertility rate in the state now, at 50.2 per 1,000. It’s a dramatic drop from 1990, when its fertility rate was 78.4 per 1,000.
Juneau’s population is currently declining at a rate of -0.82% annually. Population there has decreased by -3.21% since the most since the most recent census, which recorded a population of 32,202 in 2020, according to WorldPopulationReview.com.
Juneau’s low fertility rate is followed by Anchorage, where the fertility rates is 57.7 per 1,000, compared to 80.7 in 1990.
In 1990, Anchorage saw 4,895 births in a population of 226,000. Fast forward to 2021, and it was down to 3,578 births, even though there was a bigger population of 288,121.
Forty-six percent of children in Alaska live in an intact family, meaning they are growing up with their birth parents. On the low end of the intactness scale is Washington, D.C., at 19% of children in intact families and at the high end is Utah, at 57%.
According to the U.S. Census, more than 72 million of the 121 million adult men in the U.S. are fathers. About 75% of fathers are married, nearly 13% of dads are divorced, and 8% have never been married. There are 29 million grandfathers in America, 2 million single fathers raising children, and 24 million fathers living in relationships with females, raising children younger than 18.
The growing trend of DINK families — double income, no kids — was documented by the U.S. Census,w which shows a 7% increase in childless homes from 2012. Now, 43% of homes have no kids, and a study published by Pew Research Center in 2021 shows that 44% of those surveyed in the non-parent ages of 18-49 state they never want children, which is 7% greater than the same survey taken in 2018.
New data from the Census Bureau show the percentage of childless households will be 50% if the trend continues.
Other 2021 facts about Alaska families from the Alaska Department of Health:
4,635 – Number of marriages in Alaska
2,286 – Number of separations in Alaska
377,526 (51%) – Males in Alaska
356,797 (49%) – Females in Alaska
71 – Oldest father of a newborn in Alaska
15 – Youngest father of a newborn in Alaska
31.5 Average age for new fathers in Alaska
