Arctic Yearbook 2014 | Page 93

Arctic Yearbook 2014 93 leading them towards larger urban centers in Alaska and elsewhere. They tend to gain more education, which many young men view as a more female activity. In four regions of rural Alaska – Bethel, Nome, the North Slope, and Northwest Arctic – the bulk of settlements of less than 1,000 people have less than 50 percent female among those ages 20 to 39 years. In the hub towns in each of these regions – Bethel, Nome, Barrow, and Kotzebue – women outnumber men in this age group as young women take advantage of job and educational opportunities more than young men. In a trend seen elsewhere in the Arctic, there are growing numbers of Alaskan Natives residing outside of Alaska. In 2010, more than a quarter or persons who identified as Alaskan Native lived outside of Alaska, with 9 percent of the national total residing in Washington State, the closest state and the first stop of many flights to and from Alaska (Hunsinger & Sandberg, 2013). Canadian North Population growth from migration in the Canadian North is subject to the same boom and bust patterns found elsewhere in the Arctic. In the first population census following the Klondike Gold Rush, the population of Yukon had swelled to 27,219 and that of the Northwest Territories (which then included Nunavut) to 20,129 (Figure 7). Figure 7: Population of the Northern regions of Canada, 1901 to 2011 50,000 Yukon 45,000 Northwest Territories (including Nunavut) Northwest Territories 40,000 Nunavut 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011 Source: Statistics Canada, CANSIM table 051-0001 and Catalogue no. 11-516-X. In what had been previously been a largely indigenous population (including North American Indian (First Nation), Métis, and Inuit), the percent non-indigenous was 85 percent of the population. Following realization that most miners would not make their fortunes in the North, the population fell to less than one-third of its 1901 level by 1911. The percent non-indigenous would continue to decline, reaching a low of just 14 percent of the northern population in 1931. The population of the NWT would not reach the levels seen during the Gold Rush period until 1961 and the Yukon would   Migration in the Arctic