Fun Facts and Trivia about Alaska's largest city, Anchorage.

Location and Size

Anchorage is the northernmost major city (with a large population and urban infrastructure) in the U.S.
With an area of 1,704.7 square miles. Anchorage is the 3rd largest city, by area, in the United States.
Larger than the entire state of Rhode Island, the Municipality of Anchorage is over 2,000 square miles, almost the size of Delaware.

Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage, with a population of 288,970
The 68th largest city in the United States, Anchorage is just a little smaller, population-wise, than Cincinnati, Ohio and just a little larger than St. Louis, Missouri.

Anchorage has four distinct seasons: warm summers, snowy winters, and noticeable spring and fall transitions.
Summer temperatures average between 55-78°F with winter temperatures ranging between 5-30°F.
In Anchorage, the hottest temperature on record is 90°F in 2019 and the coldest temperature ever recorded was -38°F in 1947
The average annual snowfall in Anchorage is 75.5 inches. In the winter of 2011-12, Anchorage received over 11 feet of snow, an all-time record for the community.

In Alaska, there are 224 federally recognized tribes and 20 Indigenous languages spoken. The Dena’ina, a group of Athabascans are the original inhabitants of the Southcentral Alaska, and Anchorage is inside the traditional Dena'ina homeland.
Anchorage is diverse. The Anchorage School District estimated 112 different languages are spoken by students or their families at home. The top five languages apart from English were Spanish, Samoan, Filipino, Hmong, and Yupik.

Also known as the northern lights, charged electrons and protons hit the earth’s outer atmosphere creating an amazing light show in the winter night sky over Anchorage. Learn about aurora viewing in Anchorage.

During summer, Anchorage can receive up to 22 hours of daylight with the sun barely dipping below the horizon. Above the Arctic Circle this is known as a midnight sun, where the angled sun travels in a 360-degree circle in the sky without appearing to set. Read more

On a clear day you can see six different mountain ranges from Anchorage: the Chugach Range, the Talkeetna Range, the Alaska Range, the Aleutian Chain, the Kenai Range, and the Tordrillo Range. Also, on a clear day, several (active) volcanoes can be viewed from Anchorage.
From Anchorage, you can see Denali, formerly called Mount McKinley. It is the tallest mountain in North America (at 20,320-feet) which is almost 130 miles north.
There are more than 60 glaciers within a day's travel from Anchorage.

Anchorage is located on a peninsula surrounded by Cook Inlet, including Turnagain Arm and Knik Arm.

What most of the U.S. knows as snowmobiles, Alaskans call snowmachines (not to be confused with snow makers, which make snow at ski resorts).
Anchorage loves coffee, with more coffee shops and unique street huts than most other cities in the country per capita.
On the cold side, locals love their ice cream, so much that Alaska holds the record for most ice-cream consumed per capita.
Ask someone who lives in Anchorage how they ended up here and many will tell you that they came here for a visit and either never left or moved here right after. That’s all it takes to fall in love with Alaska.
When driving in Anchorage you may discover that residents love to express themselves – with their personalized vanity plates. It’s not just locals, Alaska has been ranked #13 in U.S. for states with the highest number of vanity plates.
Another badge of honor for Anchorage is its urban and wild fashion sense. Travel & Leisure once voted it the worst-dressed city in the U.S., but residents find their beanies, Carhartts (rugged outerwear), puffy coats (down jackets), Xtra Tuffs (rain boots), and Sorels (winter boots) not only functional but stylish as well and are proud to keep sporting a singularly Alaskan style.