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Celebrating the Rich Culture & Ancient Traditions of India

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Celebrating the Rich Culture & Ancient Traditions of India

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23 Fascinating Fairbanks Facts & Statistics

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23 Fascinating Fairbanks Facts & Statistics

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My blog posts likely contain affiliate links, including for the Amazon Associates program.
If you click, book, or buy from one of these links, I may earn a commission. Read more in my Privacy Policy.

Growing up in Alaska, I visited Fairbanks only a few times, but it always stands out in my memory. It's definitely the coldest place I've ever been, and it turns out it's one of the coldest cities in the U.S. - and that's just of the Fairbanks facts to know.

I visited Fairbanks again in February 2020, and was surprised how much more there is to know about Alaska's Golden Heart. Whether you're planning a trip or just want to learn more about Fairbanks, read on for a number of facts and statistics that are sure to surprise you - and inspire a trip.

History Facts about Fairbanks

Fairbanks is one of Alaska's oldest cities, and has a number of interesting chapters in it history. From its founding to gold and oil, there are some fascinating Fairbanks history facts that make more sense of this city in the center of the Last Frontier.

1. Fairbanks was founded on August 26, 1901, when riverboat captain E.T. Barnette established a trading post on the banks of the Chena River.

2. Fairbanks was incorporated in November 1903; Barnette became Fairbanks' first mayor.

3. By 1911, Fairbanks was Alaska territory's largest city, with a population of 3,500.

4. Fairbanks flourished as thousands of people came in search of gold. Gold production in Fairbanks increased from $40,000 in 1903 to $6,000,000 in 1905.

5. The construction of the Alaska Railroad in the 1902s brought heavy equipment north, including the supplies to build enormous gold dredges in the Fairbanks area.

6. Large-scale gold dredging peaked in 1940 with 209,000 ounces of gold produced in the greater Fairbanks area. Today that's worth almost $375 million.

7. After the outbreak of World War II in Alaska, the federal government closed most gold-mining operations as unessential to the war effort.

8. Gold is still commercially mined in two locations near Fairbanks: the Fort Knox Gold Mine and the Pogo Gold Mine.

9. After oil was discovered on Alaska's North Slope in 1968, Fairbanks saw another boom. As the closest city, Fairbanks was the supply point for the oil field and for the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.

Fairbanks Geography Facts

While almost every Alaska community has an interesting and relevant geography (hence where they're located), Fairbanks is the largest city in its region of the state. Learn more about Fairbanks' geography and why its located where it is - plus what natural wonders you can experience there.

1. Fairbanks is located in Interior Alaska; it is the largest city in this part of the state.

2. Fairbanks is located approximately 120 miles south of the Arctic Circle, on the banks of the Chena River.

3. Fairbanks is located under the Auroral Oval, a ring where solar wind from the sun enters the earth's atmosphere and creates the aurora borealis (northern lights).

4. Because of its location under the Auroral Oval, the northern lights are visible in Fairbanks roughly 200 nights per year during the winter months.

5. Fairbanks is halfway between New York City and Tokyo by plane. As a result, it was a popular stopover on some of history's first round-the-world flights.

Facts about Life in Fairbanks

Like life across most of Alaska, Fairbanks is a fascinating place to live. Learn some Fairbanks facts about what it's like to call this city home.

1. Fairbanks has a population of roughly 32,000 people. Historically, it was the second-largest city in Alaska.

2. In 2020, Juneau surpassed Fairbanks in population, making Fairbanks the third-largest city in Alaska.

3. Nearly half of Fairbank's population is made up of military personnel, due to nearby Eielson Air Force Base.

4. Because of its geography, Fairbanks is a city with extreme temperatures. Fairbanks is also the only place in Alaska where a tornado has ever been recorded.

5. The hottest temperature ever recorded in Fairbanks was 99°F in 1919. The coldest temperature ever was -66°F in 1934.

6. On average, Fairbanks is one of the costest cities in the U.S. with average winter low temperatures from -15°F to -25°F.

7. Because of the cold, cars in Fairbanks can freeze if they get too cold. To combat this, parking lots in Fairbanks offer electric outlets for plugging in vehicle engine block heaters so they will start in the frigid temps.

8. On the winter solstice, December 21st, Fairbanks has 3 hours, 43 minutes of daylight. That obviously makes it the shortest day of the year!

9. By the summer solstice on June 21st, Fairbanks experiences 21 hours and 49 minutes of daylight. Don't forget your eye mask so you can catch some sleep even though the sun doesn't set.

Other Curious Fairbanks Facts

When I researched this post, I found a few other Fairbanks facts that you might find interesting. Here they are, to round out the list so you know all the trivia night-worthy facts out there about Fairbanks.

1. Fairbanks was named in honor of Senator (and Teddy Roosevelt's future VP) Charles W. Fairbanks.

2. The Fairbanks city motto is "Fairbanks, Alaska's Golden Heart." This was created by the Fairbanks Commercial Club.

3. As already mentioned, aviation and the military are two major industries in Fairbanks. Alaska's first commercial aircraft service began in June 1923, and by the early 1930s, there was one plane for every 60 people in Fairbanks.

4. Did you know Fairbanks is near the North Pole? Okay, not exactly - but Fairbanks is near North Pole, Alaska. It's a 20-minute drive to experience a town with candy cane light poles and Santa's workshop.

Do you know any other facts about Fairbanks? Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or join me in my Alaska Travel Tips Facebook Community!
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23 Fascinating Fairbanks Facts & Statistics

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My blog posts likely contain affiliate links, including for the Amazon Associates program.If you click, book, or buy from one of these links, I may earn a commission. Read more in my Privacy Policy. Growing up in Alaska, I visited Fairbanks only a few times, but it always stands out in my memory.

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Indian family systems, collectivistic society and psychotherapy

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Indian family systems, collectivistic society and psychotherapy

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Why Indians Continue to Live in Joint Families

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Why Indians Continue to Live in Joint Families

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Soutik Biswas
India correspondent

Published

14 September 2020

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption,
Family ties are strong in India

The Indian family, wrote novelist VS Naipaul, was a clan that gave protection and identity and "saved people from the void".

Not much has changed, as recent research shows.

Many scholars, for example, have believed that with economic growth, urbanisation, education and cultural changes, India's fabled joint family system would slowly disintegrate. Far from it, suggests research by Etienne Breton, a demographer and a visiting fellow at Cornell University, who has studied the relationship between modernisation and household changes in India.

He says that contrary to predictions, India's nuclear households have increased only modestly.

There's also no evidence of a significant decline in the average household size in India since the beginning of the 20th Century. Marriage is universal, the divorce rate is low, and there are few single-person households because of adults remaining single and childless. Demographic conditions for joint family households remain strong.

"India drastically challenges the understanding of family change," Dr Breton told me.

His recent work looks at parents living with their married sons. In India, married women rarely drive household separation all on their own, although they may influence their husband's decision.

A nuclear household in India is typically formed when sons set up their own home before their father's death. Once one parent - usually the father - passes away, sons still overwhelmingly take care of their widowed parent, even if they had been living in a nuclear household before.

Image source, Getty Images

Data from India's National Sample Survey (NSS), the oldest continuing household survey of its kind in the developing world, shows more than 50% of all people aged 65 years and above are currently married, and roughly 45% - mainly women - are widowed. An overwhelming majority - around 80% - of elderly widows and widowers live with their children.

But only 40% of elderly couples live either without children or only with their unmarried children. This number has been increasing slowly - a six percentage points rise over 25 years.

"This is the best evidence we have of the modest increase in nuclear households in India," Dr Breton says.

One major reason why more young people continue to live with their parents is the increase in life expectancy - a 30-year-old man is more likely to live with at least one surviving parent in 2020 than in 1980.

Slow pace of urbanisation is another reason. Around 35% of Indians live in urban areas, compared to 60% of the Chinese. Even if India's census wrongly classifies many urban areas as rural as some researchers believe, the data does not suggest that cities have more nuclear homes than villages.

Alice Evans, a social scientist at King's College London who is researching a book on gender equality, believes Indians continue to live in joint families because strong family bonds encourage family business and low employment of women which, in turn, strengthens family ties. Also, housing costs make it difficult to live alone.

Indian families were not exceptional. In 1900, says Dr Evans, almost all Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese families were possibly as extended as Indian ones. Independent living was rare.

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption,
The poor are more likely to live in nuclear families

"East Asian families had strong family bonds just like India. But over 20th Century, they became more nuclear because of non-family employment, rural-urban migration, and female employment," Dr Evans told me. Adults still support their parents, but "through remittances rather than co-residence".

Employment of women also holds a key to families becoming more nuclear. Again, East Asia offers a good contrast.

As large numbers of women in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China went to work over the last century, young double-income couples sought economic independence.

South Korea, for example, invested hugely in large firms. By working together on the factory floor, living in dormitories, and protesting for rights, workers "came to develop class consciousness and forged ties beyond the family", says Dr Evans.

With economic independence, women would have fewer children which, in turn, would make it easier for them to work outside.

Dr Evans believes South Asia is a study in contrast.

"Female employment here is associated with deprivation," she says. "Women in rural areas gain status by withdrawing from the labour market, a striking similarity with Western Europe in the early phases of the Industrial Revolution. And even if rural women want to work, opportunities are declining due to mechanisation of agriculture." The low female employment is a brake on economic independence for young couples.

"If women are not going out for work, broadening their networks, they remain more rooted in the family," says Dr Evans.

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption,
The elderly often stay with their married sons and take care of grandchildren

To be sure, India is not unusual in this, given its level of GDP. Extended families are more common in many middle and low-income countries: a study by Steven Ruggles and Misty Heggeness of census data for 15 developing countries found no general decline in generations of families staying together.

Yet, this doesn't fully explain the story of the evolving but complex Indian family.

Tulsi Patel, a sociologist who's written extensively on Indian families, says even defining a nuclear family in India is sometimes tricky.

"Parents typically move from one son's home to another in old age to give their grandchildren company and to be looked after by their children. When the children move abroad, they live with both their daughters and sons and look after grandchildren. How do you categorise these fluid off-and-on joint households?" Dr Patel told me.

What is most striking though is that contrary to popular perception, more of the poorest Indians live in nuclear families than the affluent do.

Dr Breton found that since the early 2000s, among married men in their 30s, uneducated farmers are more likely to live in nuclear households than college-educated salaried workers.

The poor are more likely to form nuclear households because they face fewer constraints - parents don't have property to control their children, poor families may buy smaller houses, and they have fewer incentives to live together because of the dwindling incomes from family farms or small businesses.

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption,
Strong family bonds encourage family business

Dr Breton says at "older ages, nuclear households have been most prevalent among uneducated labourers and have increased sharply among farmers".

"This suggests that the strongest driver of household nucleation in India has not been the emergence of the modern elite, but the economic stagnation or pauperisation of vulnerable segments of the population who have been left behind by modernisation," he says.

To be sure, Indian families are far from inert and unchanging.

Women are slowly gaining power while choosing their spouses in arranged marriages. Ageing parents who are economically self-sufficient are increasingly choosing to reside separately.

With declining number of children - with one son or no son at all - there will be, what Dr Breton, says "a strong demographic against formation of joint households". It will be interesting to see whether parents will increasingly turn to their married daughters for old age support and co-living, say researchers.

However, in the end, as Dr Breton says, the poor rather than the educated elite may well be driving real changes in the Indian family.

More on this story

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Why Indians continue to live in joint families

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Nuclear households have only slightly increased, while many continue to live with extended family.

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One of pillars of growing up in Fairbanks and being part of the large Indian community was family. Most Indian families are large in quantity and are often found at all events. The family was the center of most social spheres I experienced growing up. My mom was extremely close to her family, and her parents were very close to their own families. I was taught the family was of the upmost importance socially. The family was supposed to be who you went back to in times of struggle, told your greatest accomplishments to first and should be your first priority. As I have grown up though, I have watched the rest of my Indian peers and family members drift farther away from central family idea. There is no longer an emphasis on telling your family things first, or for them to be the priority. However, the family still remains the backbone of our community.

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Pioneer Park, formerly known as Alaska Land. 

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A Shrine for what makes up Fairbanks for all. It includes several picnic areas, games, a restaurant, a few small museums, live music and more. It is a fun and interactive way to learn about the community as it was and continues to be. My uncle often plays music with his band here during the summers, and I would walk around the park with my family whenever I would go to visit. My family would tell me about the first time they came here. How it seemed like an amusement park and they were in awe. Every generation of my Indian family has walked through this park. We have all played mini golf here, taken the train, walked through all the museums, because it was important for us to learn about the city that took us in.

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Alaska was a huge shift from India already, but Fairbanks is biggest northern Alaskan city. This means that Fairbanks has long, extremely cold winters. When my grandparents and my mom's family first immigrated, their first winters held -80 degree temperatures. This extreme shift in climate shifted how the family did almost everything. Where my mom and her siblings were able to walk to school in India, they now had to rely on transportation. My grandfather had to learn how to drive in the snow and ice to get to work, and change how he delegated time. My grandfather was a social worker and focused on alcoholism and drug abuse in native Alaskan and homeless communities. The climate and shape of the state heavily influenced his work. He had to account for how long winters and the lack of proximity to larger communities influenced substance abuse in those communities. So not only did he and his family have to adapt on a personal level, he had to constantly adapt to the environment in his professional life as well.

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Above was a picture from my grandparent's 60th anniversary party. There were multiple traditional dances, songs, performances, and an abundance of Indian food. The event held four generations of Indian families and friends hailing from across the globe. One of the most frequent things I saw growing up, was the importance of get-togethers. They served a social environment for multiple generations to interact and learn from one another, while also reflecting on previously acknowledged wisdoms. During these parties, children learned how to sit and listen while planning the talking point they had. At the dinner tables, we were learned how to reflect on the subject, form an argument, and come up with reasoning extremely quickly. We all wanted our voices heard, so to make people listen we had to be prepared. As we grew we became more confident and were able to share more important thoughts and teach those above us. A lot of our families know things a certain way, but it was our job to educate them, and we did that in the ways we were all taught. Through discussion and debate.

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Although I have grown up in Anchorage, Alaska, much of my cultural upbringing I credit to Fairbanks. Most of my family live in Fairbanks, including my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and long-held family friends. Specifically I associate Fairbanks with the Indian side of my family. This is where my grandfather and grandmother immigrated to from India. It is where they created a community of Indians in the most unlikely place. It is where I learned my heritage and culture.