Anchorage (officially called the Municipality of Anchorage) is a consolidated city-borough in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States. With 291,826 municipal residents in 2010 (374,553 residents within the Metropolitan Statistical Area), it is Alaska's largest city and constitutes more than 40 percent of the state's total population; only New York has a higher percentage of residents who live in the state's largest city.

Anchorage has been named All-America City four times, in 1956, 1965, 1984/85, and 2002, by the National Civic League. It has also been named by Kiplinger as the most tax friendly city in the United States.

Russian presence in south central Alaska was well established in the 19th century. In 1867, U. S. Secretary of State William H. Seward brokered a deal to purchase Alaska from a debt-ridden Imperial Russia for $7.2 million (about two cents an acre). The deal was lampooned by political rivals as "Seward's folly", "Seward's icebox" and "Walrussia." By 1888, gold was discovered along Turnagain Arm.

In 1912, Alaska became a United States territory. Anchorage, unlike every other large town in Alaska south of the Brooks Range, was neither a fishing nor mining camp. The area within tens of miles of Anchorage is barren of significant economic metal minerals; there is no fishing fleet operating out of Anchorage. While a number of Dena'ina settlements existed along Knik Arm for years, only two white men, Bud Whitney and Jack Brown, were reported to have lived in the Ship Creek valley in the 1910s prior to the large influx of settlers.

The city grew from its happenstance choice as the site, in 1914, of a railroad construction port for the Alaska Engineering Commission. Construction of the railroad, to be known as the Alaska Railroad, continued until its completion in 1923. The area near the mouth of Ship Creek, where the railroad headquarters was located, quickly became a tent city. A townsite was platted on higher ground to the south of the tent city, greatly noted in the years since for its order and rigidity compared with other Alaskan townsites. Anchorage was incorporated on November 23, 1920.

In 1968, oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay, and the resulting oil boom spurred further growth in Anchorage. In 1975, the City of Anchorage and the Greater Anchorage Area Borough (which includes Eagle River, Girdwood, Glen Alps, and several other communities) merged into the geographically larger Municipality of Anchorage. The city continued to grow in the 1980s, and capital projects and an aggressive beautification campaign took place.

Anchorage's largest economic sectors include transportation, military, local and federal government, tourism, liquidations, and resource extraction. Large portions of the local economy depend on Anchorage's geographical location and surrounding natural resources. Anchorage's economy traditionally has seen steady growth, while not quite as rapid as the rest of the country.

Anchorage has four higher-education facilities that offer bachelor's or master's degrees: the University of Alaska Anchorage, Alaska Pacific University, Charter College, and the Anchorage campus of Texas-based Wayland Baptist University. Other continuing education facilities in Anchorage include the Grainger Leadership Institute, Nine Star Enterprises, CLE International, Nana Worksafe, and PackBear DBA Barr & Co.

Ninety percent of Anchorage's adults have high-school diplomas, 65 percent have attended one to three years of college, and 17 percent hold advanced degrees.