Alaska County Distress Index
Financial distress scores for all 30 counties in Alaska, scored 0–100 across five domains. A county's score is the share of U.S. counties it is more distressed than; the average Alaska county scores 32.9. 1 county scores high, very high, or extreme.
Data: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Urban Institute, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts | Scores as of Aug 2026
Alaska Snapshot
Alaska County Map
Northwest Arctic Borough is the most distressed of Alaska's 30 counties
County Distress Index score for Alaska's 30 counties, from green (least distressed, 0–29) to red (most distressed, 80–100). Data from 2024 to Aug 2026.
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County Distress Index score · data from 2024 to Aug 2026
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Most & Least Distressed
Most Distressed
Least Distressed
Score Distribution
How Alaska's 30 county scores are distributed across the 0–100 scale.
All Alaska Counties
30 counties ranked by distress score. Click column headers to sort.
| State Rank | Nat'l Rank | County | Score | Score Label | Primary Driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | — | Northwest Arctic Borough | 74 | high county distress | Labor |
| 2 | — | Bethel Census Area | 65 | moderate-high county distress | Labor |
| 3 | — | Nome Census Area | 63 | moderate-high county distress | Labor |
| 4 | — | Dillingham Census Area | 62 | moderate-high county distress | Labor |
| 5 | — | Kusilvak Census Area | 59 | moderate county distress | Labor |
| 6 | — | Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area | 58 | moderate county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 7 | — | Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area | 57 | moderate county distress | Labor |
| 8 | — | Hoonah-Angoon Census Area | 53 | moderate county distress | Labor |
| 9 | — | Lake and Peninsula Borough | 38 | low-moderate county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 10 | — | Haines Borough | 34 | low-moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 11 | — | Southeast Fairbanks Census Area | 33 | low-moderate county distress | Labor |
| 12 | — | Yakutat City and Borough | 32 | low-moderate county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 13 | — | Kenai Peninsula Borough | 32 | low-moderate county distress | Labor |
| 14 | — | Copper River Census Area | 30 | low-moderate county distress | Labor |
| 15 | — | Bristol Bay Borough | 27 | low county distress | Labor |
| 16 | — | Wrangell City and Borough | 27 | low county distress | Labor |
| 17 | — | Matanuska-Susitna Borough | 26 | low county distress | Labor |
| 18 | — | North Slope Borough | 26 | low county distress | Delinquency |
| 19 | — | Aleutians East Borough | 25 | low county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 20 | — | Skagway Municipality | 21 | low county distress | Labor |
| 21 | — | Ketchikan Gateway Borough | 20 | low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 22 | — | Aleutians West Census Area | 19 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 23 | — | Anchorage Municipality | 19 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 24 | — | Fairbanks North Star Borough | 18 | very low county distress | Labor |
| 25 | — | Petersburg Borough | 14 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 26 | — | Chugach Census Area | 13 | very low county distress | Labor |
| 27 | — | Kodiak Island Borough | 10 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 28 | — | Sitka City and Borough | 10 | very low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 29 | — | Denali Borough | 4 | exceptionally low county distress | Labor |
| 30 | — | Juneau City and Borough | 4 | exceptionally low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
How County Scores Work
Each county is scored 0–100 using five equal-weighted domains. Each domain averages its member indicators' county ranks, the domains are averaged, and that average is ranked against every U.S. county. So a county's score is the share of U.S. counties it is more distressed than. National ranks are shown only for the 100 most and 100 least distressed counties, because ranks in between move between updates. Counties with identical composite scores share a rank, marked T- for tied.
Urban Institute data: Breno Braga, Signe-Mary McKernan, Samantha Atherton, and Kassandra Martinchek, "Debt in America," last updated November 20, 2025, https://datacatalog.urban.org/dataset/debt-america-2025. Licensed under ODC-By 1.0. The County Distress Index is American Default Research's own calculation; the Urban Institute does not produce or endorse it.