Demographic, migration, and climate data from Arctic towns and villages in Alaska, 1990-2016

• Main Author: Hamilton, Lawrence
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2020
• Subjects: arctic; alaska; village; population; Arctic; Huntington; Lammers; Climate change; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.18739/a2td9n813; https://arcticdata.io/catalog/view/doi:10.18739/A2TD9N813

Arctic demography is commonly viewed on a large scale, across entire regions such as states, counties or boroughs. The data archived here contain annual time series for each of 43 Arctic Alaska towns and villages. Variables include annual estimates of population, natural increase (births minus deaths), and net migration (inmigration minus outmigration) for each place. Graphics depicting community population dynamics from 1990 to 2016 have been published online in connection with this research, and show that seemingly comparable places even within one borough can take widely divergent paths. Birth rates generally exceed death rates, although both are high. Year-to-year and place-to-place variations are dominated not by natural increase, but by differences in net migration. Population changes influence demand for resources such as water, electricity, fuel, and capital improvements, and probably for subsistence resources as well. Migration rates provide sensitive indicators that integrate diverse internal and external pressures. Recent analyses used these data to test for evidence of "climigration," or enhanced outmigration from places facing serious threats from climate-linked erosion. The data also provide information for comparative studies involving other far Northern regions; and for detecting possible impacts from economic events such as the 2008 recession. Example publications showing use of these data, with more background and sources, include: Hamilton, L.C., K. Saito, P.A. Loring, R.B. Lammers & H.P. Huntington. 2016. “Climigration? Population and climate change in Arctic Alaska.” Population and Environment 38(2):115–133. doi: 10.1007/s11111-016-0259-6 Hamilton, L.C., D.M. White, R.B. Lammers & G. Myerchin. 2012. “Population, climate and electricity use in the Arctic: Integrated analysis of Alaska community data.” Population and Environment 33(4):269–283. doi: 10.1007/s11111-011-0145-1