A state labor department first ever release of migration data by age and sex shows that from 2010 to 2015 Alaska had a net gain of adults in their 20s each year, accompanied by a net loss of teens and older adults.
The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development data showed that people in their 20s, who made up about 15 percent of Alaska’s population over that period, represented 27 percent of those who came to Alaska and 24 percent of those who left the state. This age group is the most mobile, both in Alaska and nationwide.
Alaska consistently loses more 15-19-year-olds than it gains, usually through high school graduates leaving for college.
The state also lost more people 35 and older than it gained between 2010 and 2015. The difference between in-migration and out-migration was greatest among people in their 60s, with an average of nearly twice the number leaving as arriving each year, the data showed.
Overall, roughly 44,000 people moved into Alaska each year and 47,000 moved away. This magnitude of churn, about 12 percent of the population moving in to or out of the state each year, is among the highest in the nation.
State labor migration data by age and sex for the last three five-year intervals, from 2000 to 2005, from 2005 to 2010, and from 2010 to 2015, is available at
http://live.laborstats.alaska.gov/pop/migration.cfm
