Wrangell’s population has been on a downward trajectory for most of the past 25 years with the loss of the timber industry, but last year showed a small reversal of that trend. The Alaska Department of Labor estimates the community gained 18 residents last year, an increase of 0.8%.

From 2,448 residents in 2000, the department estimates Wrangell’s population last July at 2,037, up from 2,019 in July 2024.

The small gain is from more people moving to town than leaving, according to the department’s annual statewide population numbers released on Jan. 28.

Net migration — the number of new arrivals and departures — was plus 20 from 2024 to 2025.

That compares to a net-migration loss of 64 residents between 2020 and 2024.

The worst years for negative net-migration, according to the state, were 2016-2017, when 81 more people moved away than moved to town, and 2013-2104, when the loss numbered 76.

Statewide, Alaska in 2025 lost more residents who left the state than new residents moving here — a net loss of 1,740 — for the 13th year in a row, according to the department’s annual report.

Overall, however, the state eked out a small population gain as births outpaced deaths last year.

And while Wrangell counted 44 more deaths than births from 2020 to 2024, that negative number shrunk in last year’s tally, with the town only losing two more residents to death than it gained in births.

Elsewhere in Southeast, Petersburg grew about 1% to 3,395 residents; the Prince of Wales Island and Hyder census area also added about 1%, or 59 people, to its population count to reach 5,768; and Skagway gained more than 1% to 1,134.

Everywhere else in Southeast was flat or down in population last year.

Wrangell was No. 2 in Southeast in median age, at 48.5 years old, second to Haines, where the median age was 50.1. Statewide, the median was 37.1 years old last year. Wrangell’s median age is two years older than it was in 2020.

The community’s aging population shows up in the spread between children and teens compared to senior citizens. In the July 2025 count, the community had 417 people between the ages of newborn and 19 years old, with 583 at age 65 and older.

Borough officials have embarked on a concerted effort the past couple of years to promote business development in the community in an effort to reverse the long-term population decline from the loss of timber industry jobs in the 1990s and several years of a weakened commercial salmon fishery.