Study: Migration from rural Alaska to cities increasing
Published Wednesday, May 14, 2008
ANCHORAGE — More rural Alaskans are moving to the city.
A new University of Alaska Anchorage study shows that the migration has accelerated in the last two years.
The study by the Institute of Social and Economic Research says the annual net population loss from rural Alaska has more than doubled since 2006. The reasons are not obvious, but the study shows that young women are leading the way.
The study says the birth rate in rural Alaska has declined as well, with some villages that used to be growing, now shrinking.
Other villages, however, are continuing to grow. But the study says the overall trend is toward a shrinking, with people moving to the cities in search of jobs and education, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
The study uses state demographic data to show a net out-migration of 2,700 people annually for the past two years from rural areas of the state, compared with 1,200 annually in the three previous years. Its authors say it is too soon to know whether the change is ongoing or a statistical blip.
Young women of childbearing age are especially disappearing from some villages. The ISER study points to 41 small villages that had zero or one woman in the 20-29 age bracket at the time of the 2000 census.
The study notes that men often have a subsistence role in villages that is seen as more fulfilling. It also notes that hunting and fishing success depend on place-specific knowledge that does not easily transport to a new life.
Villages may be losing population faster than those numbers indicate, because they don’t account for migration within rural regions, to hub communities in the Bush.
State population data point to particular zones where population decline stands out, including Bristol Bay, rural Kodiak and the middle portions of the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers.
“There’s a real graying of our communities,” said Rep. Bryce Edgemon, D-Dillingham. Some eastern Bristol Bay villages have shrunk to a few long-established households, he said, “people who would never leave for any reason.”
The ISER study was prepared for the state-federal Denali Commission, which released it this week.
The report says the recent spike in oil prices is a big challenge to rural residents.
But fuel costs do not appear to be a deciding factor for those who move to the cities, according to available data. People responding to surveys did not cite “fuel costs” as a primary reason for leaving, the study says.
“The people who are hardest hit by high fuel costs may be least able to afford to move,” the study says.
Some rural leaders said this week they do think fuel costs have played a bigger role in people’s decisions.
“There’s not many people in the villages who have jobs that can pay for $5-plus per gallon heating oil,” said Myron Naneng, president of the Bethel-based Association of Village Council Presidents.
“There’s a direct link to people moving away for economic reasons,” said Rep. Mary Nelson, D-Bethel. “It’s hard to have an economy without affordable energy.”
The high cost of fuel is also choking subsistence, where it can cost $500 for a fishing trip in a skiff and make berry-picking by ATV too expensive, said Dale Smith, a former Mekoryuk resident who now works on rural energy issues for the First Alaskans Institute.
Community Discussion
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The migration out of rural Alaska is the direct impact of failure of the State of Alaska to recognize the extreme hardships that have been cause by corporate greed and a bloated bureaucracy's indifference to the health and welfare it's citizens. While the State's piggy bank is over-flowing with cash; the investment into the necessary infrastructure, creation and retention of jobs and the sustainability of the private sector economy has substantially declined.
Fairbanks and Interior Alaska on the road system will be the next to experience the mass migration out of their communities as people find that they can no longer afford to live in this region. The collapse of rural Alaska's economy will be felt first in the urban centers of commerce, with businesses that cater to rural Alaska, as fewer customers will need rural bush air service, restaurants, hotel rooms, goods and supplies sent to rural Alaskan customers. Add this to the impact of the decline of tourism industry cause by the recession and energy crunch. And compound it with the rapidly raising energy and fuel cost, as well as the increased cost for food and most every other necessity that local residents must budget for now.
I live in "rural" Alaska. I see, firsthand, the hardships that all people living here endure. I pay $9.42 for a gallon of milk, which is sometimes lumpy and has gone bad. I pay $3.71 for way outdated frozen-thawed-frozen bread. One gallon of frozen-thawed-frozen ice cream sets me back $16.11. Gasoline is currently at $4.64 but headed up to over $5.00 per gallon by August. Water is hauled to my house where I have a 900 gallon water tank and a 1000 gallon sewer tank. To get the water tank filled, and the sewer tank evacuated, each week, I pay $264.81 per month but it is going up to $335.73 in two months. My electric bill is never lower than $180 and I have paid $900 for it one month last winter. It costs almost $1500 to fill my 300 gallon fuel oil tank for my heat. With costs like this, I can easily see why people are leaving rural areas en masse. I am trying to stick it out 5 to 9 more years and then I can retire. But, with prices always rising, I imagine I'll end up having to move out of rural Alaska long before I am able to retire.
I thought "true Alaskans" lived off the land? Seems some of you got it too good if you have running water, flush toilets, and electricity. What would your elders say?
uafnanook2001,
What is the job market like where you are from? I can sympathize with you, though.
I had a problem with affording where I lived (NOT in Alaska). For milk I had a cow, my bread was homemade, vegetables came from a garden I raised, the cow also provided ice cream, cheese, and butter. I also had a fruit orchard and raised other meat sources, such as rabbits, chickens (which also provided eggs), turkeys and ducks. Water came from a natural mountain spring that dried up during the summer heat, requiring us to haul water for us, our livestock, and other needs. Hunting and fishing and preserving all the excess food we could, helped a lot. An outhouse was of great benefit during a shortage of water. Heat came soley from a wood stove.
I know some of this isn't practical here in Alaska but because of the rising cost of EVERYTHING, my hubby and I are considering going back some of our old ways. It's not an easy life but at least you know where your next meal is coming from.
UAFNANOOK2001, You are oviously living to support your local merchant. You sure are a nice guy! But you have some weird medical problen to be taking in 900 gallons of water a week and putting out 1000 gallons in the same time period. I'd be a shame for you to shrivel up and blow away to a premature southern retirement.
on a side note, Fred Meyer here in the city also sells the frozen-thawed-frozen bread. Sometimes when I grab a loaf, I see water droplets.
To Blue5011: The "village safe water act" sees to it that every Alaskan home in the rural areas of the state has running water and flush toilets. In the recent past, when these "luxuries" weren't available, diseases ran rampant. When I lived in Quinhagak, I did have a honeybucket. When I lived in Fairbanks, too, while attending UAF in 1999-2001, I rented a cabin and it had an outhouse. I certainly don't take them for granted now. The elders are in the same boat as I am only worse. They have no money for boat gas, snowgo gas, bullets, etc. They try to live off the land but now-a-days, it isn't easy since they have to travel hundreds of miles to hunt or go up or down river to fish.
To Countrygirl: Thanks for your comments. There are tons of jobs here that are open. They can't find any qualified appllicants. Of course, the COLA doesn't even come close to the pay, though, but salaries seem high when you see them, if you don't know.
To Mike: Loved your comments! Yes, I work to stay here - can't get ahead at all. By local law, your sewer tank must be larger than your water tank so that it should never overflow.
To Honeyhi: Thank you! Good to know that ol' frozen-thawed-frozen stuff gets to places on the road system, too. :-)
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