Alaska Facts -- National Geographic

Fast Facts

Population:: 648,818
Capital:: Juneau; 30,751
Area:: 663,267 square miles (1,717,854 square kilometers)
Per Capita Income:: U.S. $31,792
Date Statehood Achieved:: January 3, 1959

In 1867 Secretary of State William H. Seward paid Russia 7.2 million dollars for a huge region derided as "Seward's Icebox." Today this land of overwhelming beauty, abundant resources, and few people is a battleground between conservationists and energy and mining interests. More than a third of the mineral-rich state is forested; a quarter is set aside as parks, refuges, and wilderness. Fisheries teem with salmon, halibut, and shellfish. Alaska natives, who number some 100,000, administer 13 regional corporations established under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

ECONOMY

Industry: Petroleum products, state and local government, services, trade, federal government
Agriculture: Shellfish, seafood, nursery stock, vegetables, dairy products, feed crops

—Text From National Geographic Atlas of the World, Eighth Edition

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