Population Changes

In the first decades after the purchase, Alaska largely stagnated. The 1880 census listed a population of 430 non-Native residents, lower than it had been during the Russian Era. The discovery of gold dramatically changed this and transformed the state's ethnicity.

Starting with the first significant strikes near Juneau in the 1880s, Alaska saw its largest migration of new people since the Aleut and Eskimo migrations millennia earlier. In 1890, the non-Native population had increased nearly 10 times, from 430 to over 4,000. The Klondike Gold Rush was the peak years of migration to Alaska. By 1900, the non-Native population had jumped to 30,000. For the first time, the population of non-Natives was more than that of Alaskan Natives. 

Most of the people who came north planned to strike it rich and leave. Many people did stay, however. In 1910, at the end of the Gold Rush Era, the census report counted 64,356 people in Alaska. The population would remain relatively stable for the next 30 years until World War II brought another large migration of people to the territory.

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