The March issue of Alaska Economic Trends, a publication of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, estimated that about 7% of Alaska's seniors appear to be snowbirds, numbering about 7,000 in 2024. They travel out of state for more than three months but less than six months.
How many Alaska seniors have wings? Hmm, perhaps that's not the best way to phrase it. How about, "How many Alaska seniors are snowbirds?" Better.
It's an interesting question because we all know at least a couple of snowbirds.
Heck, maybe even you are a snowbird, but that doesn't really tell us much about the big picture. Turns out that counting snowbirds is a bit of a sticky wicket.
"Snowbirds are hard to measure because they either remain residents and therefore aren't counted as out-migrants, or, conversely, they spend a significant amount of the year in Alaska but are nonresidents, so they don't show up in the population data."
So noted the briefly flummoxed researchers writing in the March issue of Alaska Economic Trends in the featured article, "Alaska's Seniors." It's accessible at https://live.laborstats.alaska.gov/trends-magazine/2025/March/seniorsare-a-growing-slice-ofalaska
What to do? Putting their heads together to consider this dilemma, the researchers had an epiphany. How about taking a close look at PFD applications because those documents identify people who have been out of Alaska for more than three months but less than six months in order to qualify for the PFD. That sounds like snowbirds.
Approximately 7% of Alaska's seniors appear to be snowbirds, numbering about 7,000 in 2024. Frankly, considering the strength and persistence of the meme, I thought there would be more, but there it is. Alaska Seniors with wings.
One more factoid about 65+ snowbirds. For reasons unexplained and probably not well known, older snowbirds are not evenly scattered throughout the state. For example, Haines and Petersburg lead the state with around 13% of seniors absent at least 90 days a year. Those Panhandlers really have wings! On
the other hand, Fairbanks, Mat-Su and Anchorage are 6 to 7%, approximating the state average, but in rural western Alaska relatively few seniors are snowbirds.
But there is more to this story. How about older Alaskans who fly off and don't come back, or seniors who arrive from elsewhere and stay? The same clever researchers observed that,
overall, people relocate less as they get older. In the 1990s seniors were a mere 2% of the total migrants into and out of Alaska. However, in the last five
years, seniors were 9% of total migrants. We seniors are boldly mobile in ways we were not before. The analysts are quick to point out the ramifications.
"Although the outflow has increased, it hasn't stopped the age group from growing in Alaska, nor is it the primary reason for the state's net loss streak,
which is the net outflow of working-age adults and children. However, the bigger and consistent senior outflow has created an undertow to the state's migration numbers that didn't exist before, which has baked in a steady net loss."
A little bone to pick here. Why not call "working-age adults" or "children" the "undertow to the state's migration numbers?" After all, there are more of
them than us. Harrumph!
To continue, looking at all ages, Alaska has had a net migration loss for about a dozen years. In other words, more people have been leaving than arriving to stay. But we Alaska seniors seem to have itchier feet than the rest of the population. Compared to younger age groups, we seniors are much more likely to leave the state than immigrate into the
state. We have been big on getting out of Dodge. The authors of the article do not speculate on why that is, but to me this would be a very interesting question. Better access to health care, family, cheaper prices for everything?
One last observation about seniors with wings. "The number of Alaskans 65 or older has skyrocketed over the last decade and a half, continuing to rise even as youth and working-age populations have declined." So note the analysts who wrote this article in Alaska Economic Trends. Our demographic is still growing pretty fast, but not quite as fast as in past decades. In 2024 there were 115,000 seniors in Alaska, fully 16% of the state's population.
Putting all this together, the areas of the state with the highest rates of snowbirds, the Panhandle in the Southeast, are the same areas with the highest rates of seniors. In Haines, about 29% of the population are seniors. Petersburg comes in at around 25% seniors.
So, what's the conclusion? Barring cataclysmic political or economic changes in the foreseeable future, there should be more Alaska senior snowbirders than ever. Sound
like a good idea? Don't forget your suntan lotion on the way out.
Lawrence D. Weiss is a UAA Professor of Public Health, Emeritus, creator of the UAA Master of Public Health program, and author of several books and numerous articles.
