The Top Reasons People Are Leaving Alaska! 

I LONG for the isolation (nearly every time I leave the house.)And I am all for long cold winters and I love to miss out. I have concert tickets for Def Leppard this week which I’d like to see, but I don’t want to go. So I’m selling them. I can’t wait to sell our house too and leave the increasingly horrible dumpster fire that is Washington state and move to AK. I’d leave tomorrow if I could.

I just got a job in Anchorage. My wife and 4 children are moving there next week. I'm looking forward to getting up there.

There is nothing to miss down here in the lower 48.

small time Alaska here. reasons I see people leave 1. lack of decent housing. you pay too much for a crappy house simply because labor is short and hard to get supplies to repair the place. 2. lack of child care 3. you have to be very handy to survive. 4. lack.of food options.

1) Family...a flight for a family of 4 is expensive and may take 18-24 hours to visit family in some locations of the lower-48. 2) Winter. Some people find the short days of December, the length of winter, the cold tough. Fairbanks at winter solstice daylength 3 hours 42 minutes. 3) Cost of living. Higher cost of transportation, goods and services. Higher cost heating homes. 4) Retirement. Heath care better in some locations of the lower-48, especially for retirees.

We just set the record for consecutive number of 100+ degree days here. I can't wait to move to Alaska. Have to save more money though first. Hoping for next summer still.

Good when shtf happens will have plenty of natural resources when they don't have groceries. Been hunting/fishing/trapping for 20+ years

Your episodes and research is awesome man. Thanks for all your videos

I couldn't stay in Alaska. I tried for 5 years and could not find ANY job that pay higher than minimum wage. Of course, the cost of living is higher than the lower 48. I would have stayed but for no opportunities for residents. Most of the people with high pay were not residents of AK, they flew in from the lower 48, then flew back to Seatle, etc. (BTW i had a degree in Electonics and 5 years of RF and other radio engineering) If I could find a good paying job, and I've tried for the past 40 year, I'd be there. When we lived there, we referred to the rest of the states as the "Lower 48", but we meant it as a derogatory term.

I love this video! Every reason people are leaving is every reason I want to move up there. Been up twice and going again in August and January to get all the seasons before the final decision. I can't stand what I call "The lower 49"! I want a small town, slow, and respectable population. I'll give you a call when the time comes brother!

We are coming up in 3 years. Already picked Wasilla as our home base.

I get seasonal depression in the summer. Been this way since a kid. Summer time makes me depressed. I feel like I come alive in the fall and winter. I'm thinking of moving to Alaska...NJ is so congested I can't take it anymore. The less people around the better.

I'm thinking about Alaska for a few reasons. First, I'm tired of the hustle and bustle of the lower 48. Second, I'm tired of the hot and humid summers that are present even in the northern continental United States. The humidity zaps my energy and drive to do anything. Third, I would love to be a part of a state with so much natural beauty. I can only imagine the beauty of the mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, and wildlife of Alaska. My biggest worries about Alaska are the cost of living and the lack of job opportunities. So...I just don't know...

My significant other is a land broker in southern Alaska. He didn't mention this to me. His focus is the Kenai Peninsula.

Great and informative video... much appreciated. I want to move up there around the Fairbanks area so much. Might be able to sometime in the next 5 years.. I want to buy a piece of land.

I'm guessing the THREAT of Russian invasion may have a bearing on some leaving recently!? The higher cost of fuel, long cold winter & isolation. Lack of medical services, distance of retail. All of these issues would impact on persons ability to live long-term. The positives are: It's one of the world's resource rich territories, it's STUNNINGLY Beautiful & very CLEAN. I love Alaska 😍

I'm not sure if data is available yet, but my friend in Fairbanks says that it's gotten much much worse since the pandemic. He was telling me that since the pandemic many jobs in alaska have dried up. Tourism and the service industry collapsed and people had to find work in the lower 48, or return there. Less tourism=less money spending=local economies stagnate. After a few years of lockdowns people seem to travel less. Just the other day he was mentioning that restaurants which used to have 3 or 4 waitresses, now only have 1 or 2 at a time. Then he was complaining that 10,000 new servicemen were just garrisoned near Fairbanks and it's driving rent prices up unnaturally. He expects his rent will increase by 50% next time he re-ups his contract.

Raised in Alaska. I loved my job but the pay wasn't as good as some places in the Lower 48 and also my retirement was garbage. Not to mention the weather, i love mountain biking and the season is soooo short up there. I'm east coast usa now wish I left Alaska sooner.

Just subscribed!

You hit many correct points why people leave, but I think to be fair you would need at least three category breakdown and each will have different main reasons to move. Younger generation; middle age and retirees. Younger and middle generation number one would always be job opportunities, pay vs cost of living ratio and that goes for all US. Younger frequently never comes back after they finish college in lower 48th. Middle class: 1. They either can’t find good paying job, since our cost of living is high, or they need to move in order to move up the job advancement latter. 2. Moving to be closer to rest of the family. 3. Moving due to weather and that is split in categories: prefer warmer climate, prefer shorter winters, prefer city life and you not outdoorsy type ( if you not winter/ Fall-Spring outdoorsy you are really in a wrong state and going to be miserable). 4. Military families move due to given orders while active or returning to their home base. Retirees equally important: 1. Cost of living 2. Closer to family 3. Want warmer climate 4. Medical needs 5. Want more travel freedom. Now, I totally disagree with people moving out of state due to lack of food choices ( that only applies to small communities in Alaska and I gotta say, Anchorage Costco is stocked with better choices than Illinois for example). Lack of affordable child care I totally agree with but that falls under cost of living vs wage category. Housing is not cheap but when you add all the state and sales taxes that people pay in many states that changes and many people do not do the math in that regard. Also, many states have even higher cost of housing and the only cheaper thing is repair, maintenance and upgrade cost, hence why is hard to find houses that are renovated.

Well with all these immigrants coming here , I think we citizens should all go to Alaska and make it wonderful!

Think you listed off mostly why I'm looking forward to moving there except the whole seasonal depression thing. I always have blackout shades in my house anyway so don't THINK it will affect me.

I'd luv to live there great hunting and fishing thx

You forgot how EXPENSIVE it is to live there !

It's not just the Alaska economy, it's the Alaska economy relative to the lower 48 and the PNW in particular. We're losing population because things have been booming down there and sketchy up here.

The lack of consistent daylight year round, the lack of public transit, and the isolation from the rest of the world is why Alaska sucks. My circadian rythms get messed up in Alaska but not in Washington or Oregon or California or Massachusetts.

Strangely though, it sometimes depresses me to see the sun come up. I'm more alive and spiritually discerning when its dark.

The taxes arent that bad.. even tho taxes are a scam.. its a little lower than what i pay in fl, and i have a smaller house than the ones ive been looking at up there

I flew up there from Houston and had 3 interviews people are nice supplies and basic things were not that more expensive. The reasons I decided not to move my family and business to Alaska was over really two things. 1 , the Canadian Alaska highway is a FN joke I have never been treated for no reason at all like the awful Canadian people. Utterly disgraceful.. 2 , the land for sell up there has almost no value yet for some reason it cost more than prime land in Texas . And the restrictions on the land there is unreasonable. Can't do this can't do that. Alaska is absolutely beautiful and for the most part the people are friendly but if the Alaskan government really wanted to attract more people they should improve roads and land access. . Lover your channel BTW and maybe one day I'll revisit Alaska.

Every one is different, I could not stand to live in the cold, the long Winters, that would be too much, perhaps i live in the Tropics. Darwin OZ. Have never seen snow.

💚💚💚

I can’t wait to move out of boring tourist town Sitka

How's the court system there in regards to child custody? If I move there with full custody am I going to be able to keep it?

The problem is housing, primarily Airbnb. There is 0 regulation for vacation rentals, and rich property owners outside of Alaska. Housing is so bad in Alaska, that average folks can't afford to stay here. Nurses, teachers, and essential workers are paying over 1000 USD a month for a room. I've seen hard working people resorting to living in cars... Teachers and hospital staff living in cars. Until there are regulations on Airbnb or the prices of housing goes down, then people will continue to leave. It's funny you didn't mention that anywhere in this video.

Alaska, Florida, Wyoming, the Dakotas are uninhabitable.

I want to move to Anchorage in the next few months. ANy nice people can hit me up.

I left Alaska in 2018--not because of problems with Alaska, but to pursue an opportunity. My friends there voice plenty of complaints about how bad things have gotten. I do worry for Alaska's future. I will always love the state, and I miss those mountains dearly, but there are some foundational aspects to Alaska that are distinct negatives. (1) It is a Godless culture. The churches are weak and have caved to the popular culture. (2) Education is not appreciated. Why learn to think critically when you can just learn to weld? (3) Alaskans--and their legislature--are economically illiterate. When oil prices are high, they live like kings. And when the oil revenue dries up, they have saved nothing. (4) Substance abuse--primarily of alcohol--is rampant. (5) The economic leaders have always been interlopers. They arrive with a plan to extract wealth from Alaska and then leave. They build nothing of permanence. (6) The adventure of Alaska attracts the young and foolish. About the time someone is developing some wisdom, they will likely be leaving for somewhere else. So Alaska remains perpetually filled with idiots. (7) Far too much of the economy is built upon the government. Nearly a quarter of the population works for some level of government. I love Alaska, and I want to see it do well, but I fear that it may be beyond salvage.

I lived in Alaska for seven years and just recently moved, do yourself a favor and don't go. The state itself is beautiful but living there is a nightmare. There is like ten guys for every one female and plan on lowering your standards a lot. The cost of living is through the roof and shelves are routinely empty. There is a a large amount of crime, gangs, homeless and drugs. The words "customer service" doesn't exist up there. And I hope you like darkness cause there's plenty of it. Yes there are positives to living up there but they just don't seem to out weigh the negatives. So seriously consider the things I just mentioned cause they are all very real.

I'd live there again if I had the money. I miss Alaska so badly. I hate living down in the lower 48. I hate the summers,hate the climate,hate the people. I wish I could move back but I'll never make enough money to afford.

53.000 is a drop in the bucket! Commiefornia had 350,000 leave last year!!!