Counties in Alaska by business establishments (QCEW)

Anchorage Municipality had the highest business establishments (QCEW) of 28 counties in 2016, at 8,278. Yakutat City and Borough had the lowest, at 47. The median was 208 and the figure for Alaska was 22,045. Source: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Highest8,278Anchorage Municipality

Lowest47Yakutat City and Borough

Median20828 counties

Alaska22,045History

Map of counties, 2016

Under 130
130 to 160
160 to 270
270 to 550
550 and over
No data

count, 2016. Hatched areas have no value for this period. Source: BLS, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW): annual average establishments, total covered, all industries (NAICS 10), nation, states and counties. Boundaries: U.S. Census Bureau cartographic boundary files.

All counties, 2016

count. Source: BLS, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW): annual average establishments, total covered, all industries (NAICS 10), nation, states and counties. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	Counties	2016 count	Change on 2015
1	Anchorage Municipality	8,278	-1.1%
2	Fairbanks North Star Borough	2,264	-1.3%
3	Matanuska-Susitna Borough	2,094	+2.2%
4	Kenai Peninsula Borough	1,980	+0.3%
5	Juneau City and Borough	1,119	-0.2%
6	Ketchikan Gateway Borough	600	-2%
7	Kodiak Island Borough	484	-3%
8	Sitka City and Borough	381	-0.5%
9	Bethel Census Area	366	-2.4%
10	Nome Census Area	316	-2.2%
11	Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	288	-3.4%
12	Southeast Fairbanks Census Area	260	-2.6%
13	North Slope Borough	245	-0.4%
14	Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area	240	0%
15	Northwest Arctic Borough	175	-2.2%
16	Aleutians West Census Area	167	-1.2%
17	Petersburg Borough	165	0%
18	Haines Borough	158	0%
19	Dillingham Census Area	154	-0.6%
20	Kusilvak Census Area	142	n/a
21	Hoonah-Angoon Census Area	137	-2.8%
22	Denali Borough	130	-1.5%
22	Lake and Peninsula Borough	130	-2.3%
22	Skagway Municipality	130	+1.6%
25	Bristol Bay Borough	116	+10.5%
26	Aleutians East Borough	104	+1%
27	Wrangell City and Borough	95	-2.1%
28	Yakutat City and Borough	47	0%

Other periods

About this ranking

Average number of establishments with jobs covered by unemployment insurance during the year, all industries, private and government, from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. An establishment is a single place of business, such as a factory, store or office; a company with several locations has several.

Counts places of business, not firms: for firms use employer_firms. Changes in how large employers report their locations can move the count without any change in activity.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the counties are compared on one definition. 2 counties with data in other periods have no value for 2016 and are left out rather than filled from another source. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW): annual average establishments, total covered, all industries (NAICS 10), nation, states and counties. https://data.bls.gov/cew/data/api/2016/a/industry/10.csv. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Citation styles

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026). Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW): annual average establishments, total covered, all industries (NAICS 10), nation, states and counties (Counties in Alaska by business establishments (QCEW), 2016) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://data.bls.gov/cew/data/api/2016/a/industry/10.csv

MLA 9

Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW): annual average establishments, total covered, all industries (NAICS 10), nation, states and counties, Counties in Alaska by business establishments (QCEW), 2016. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 21 Aug. 2026, https://data.bls.gov/cew/data/api/2016/a/industry/10.csv. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/business-establishments/alaska-counties?period=2016. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2026. Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW): annual average establishments, total covered, all industries (NAICS 10), nation, states and counties. Counties in Alaska by business establishments (QCEW), 2016. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://data.bls.gov/cew/data/api/2016/a/industry/10.csv. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/business-establishments/alaska-counties?period=2016.

Harvard

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2026) Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW): annual average establishments, total covered, all industries (NAICS 10), nation, states and counties, Counties in Alaska by business establishments (QCEW), 2016 [Dataset]. Available at: https://data.bls.gov/cew/data/api/2016/a/industry/10.csv, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/business-establishments/alaska-counties?period=2016 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{bureau_counties_in_alaska_by_2016,
  author = {{U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics}},
  title = {{Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW): annual average establishments, total covered, all industries (NAICS 10), nation, states and counties: Counties in Alaska by business establishments (QCEW), 2016}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://data.bls.gov/cew/data/api/2016/a/industry/10.csv},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/business-establishments/alaska-counties?period=2016. Publisher attribution: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW): annual average establishments, total covered, all industries (NAICS 10), nation, states and counties. https://data.bls.gov/cew/data/api/2016/a/industry/10.csv. Retrieved 2026-10-12.},
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
AU  - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
TI  - Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW): annual average establishments, total covered, all industries (NAICS 10), nation, states and counties: Counties in Alaska by business establishments (QCEW), 2016
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/21
PB  - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://data.bls.gov/cew/data/api/2016/a/industry/10.csv
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/business-establishments/alaska-counties?period=2016
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/business-establishments/alaska-counties?period=2016.
N1  - Publisher attribution: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW): annual average establishments, total covered, all industries (NAICS 10), nation, states and counties. https://data.bls.gov/cew/data/api/2016/a/industry/10.csv. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
ER  -

Embed this chart

Paste this code into a web page or a blog post. The chart shows the latest figures as they are published, with the source and a link back to this page.

Embed code

<iframe src="https://invokely.ai/embed/rankings/business-establishments/alaska-counties?period=2016" width="760" height="500" title="Counties in Alaska by business establishments (QCEW), 2016, chart from Invokely" loading="lazy" style="border:0;width:100%;max-width:760px" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin"></iframe>

Sites that read oEmbed links, such as WordPress, can show the chart when you paste the link to this page.

Use this data in your AI agent

Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:

Rank Counties in Alaska by business establishments (QCEW) using official data, and cite the source.

rank_places {"indicator":"establishments_qcew","level":"province","within":"Alaska","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=establishments_qcew&level=province&within=Alaska&limit=10

Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor in one step. The trial answers 25 calls a day without an account.

Questions

Which county has the highest business establishments (QCEW)?

Anchorage Municipality, with 8,278 in 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Which county has the lowest business establishments (QCEW)?

Yakutat City and Borough, with 47 in 2016.

Where does this ranking come from?

Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW): annual average establishments, total covered, all industries (NAICS 10), nation, states and counties. Retrieved 2026-10-12. 2 counties have no value for 2016 and are not ranked.