High Energy Costs Appear to be a Driver in Alaska Rural-Urban Migration

Julia O'Malley and Kyle Hopkins report that the high costs of living in rural Alaska are prompting migration to Anchorage in today's Anchorage Daily News: Bush costs prompt exodus to cities:

With growing evidence of an Alaska Native exodus from villages to the city, Mayor Mark Begich and Schools Superintendent Carol Comeau sent a letter to Gov. Sarah Palin on Monday asking her to organize an emergency task force to find ways to stem the migration.

Anchorage and the state "cannot stand by and tolerate the deterioration of rural Alaska," the letter said.

The main evidence of the migration is enrollment in Anchorage schools, which have seen more than 400 new Native students since school started, said Doreen Brown, Indian Education supervisor for the district. It wasn't clear how many of those came directly from rural Alaska, but schools in communities across Western Alaska report losing pupils, Comeau said.

High energy costs in rural areas are seen as one of the reasons for the migration:

The relatively high cost of living in the villages is bringing some rural residents to the city.

According to the Institute of Social and Economic Research at UAA, this year the poorest 20 percent of rural residents were paying 47 percent of their income in energy costs. In 2000, that same income group was spending about 16 percent of their income on energy. That group in Anchorage pays just under 9 percent of their income on energy. Middle income people in rural Alaska, who make up about 60 percent, are currently spending 12 percent of their money on energy, compared to that group in Anchorage, who are spending just over 3 percent.

This seems like a reasonable conjecture, although the article doesn't point to a survey or statistical basis for the energy-migration connection.

This year the State distributed $1,200 to each person in Alaska to offset the higher costs of energy (this is in addition to a distribution of a $2,000 check to each Alaskan from the Alaska Permanent Fund).

The $1,200 energy bonus that came with Permanent Fund checks this year was supposed to ease energy costs for rural residents, but many used the money to move to urban areas where food and fuel are cheaper, Comeau said....