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Diversity provides strength to the borough's seasonal economy, in the words of the newly released Kenai Peninsula Borough Situations and Prospects economic report.

"Even as some sectors contract, others expand, resulting in continued growth of taxable sales and employment," according to the report compiled and produced by Jeanne Camp, economic analyst, and published last month.

The annual report lists population trends and other demographic data, school enrollments, taxable and nontaxable sales, employment figures, as well as economic statistics in the housing, commercial fishing, construction, oil and gas, retail and visitor industries.

Data reported in the newest Situations and Prospects are for the year ending Dec. 31, 2007, the latest full-year statistics available.

One year before the nation was hit with numerous economic crises, gross sales and taxable sales continued trending upward, as did the overall population of the borough.

The 2007 population estimate for the borough was 52,370, which was 2.3 percent greater than the 2006 estimate.

Leading the way in population growth was Seldovia with a 21.8 percent increase to 268 people. In the central Kenai Peninsula, Kasilof led the way with a 9 percent increase to 596; then came Soldotna with a 4.6 percent increase to 3,982; Kalifornsky Beach followed with a 3.1 percent increase to 7,129; and Nikiski was up 4 percent to 4,345. Sterling's population was up 1.7 percent to 5,123 and Kenai grew 1.6 percent to 6,971.

Annual gross sales in the borough increased 3.9 percent to $2,805,925,989, following a 5 percent gain the previous year. Out of 20 lines of business reporting, only two marked decreasing sales -- construction and resource production, according to the report.

Taxable sales improved by 8.9 percent for the year. Sales totaled $967,190,987 in 2007, a gain of $79,249,351.

The focus of commercial fishing on Cook Inlet is on sockeye salmon. For the 2007 commercial salmon fishery, 817 active permits accounted for the harvest of 103,670,018 pounds representing $43,110,760 in estimated gross income. The average Cook Inlet sockeye harvested weighed 6.15 pounds, compared with 5.05 pounds a year earlier.

Preliminary reports showed 15,534,290 pounds of halibut being delivered to Kenai Peninsula Borough ports, compared with 15,736,461 pounds during 2006. Homer ports received 9,869,693 pounds of halibut, the highest total within the state. Seward received 5,539,055 pounds.

Homer and Seward are two of the top landing ports for the 3A regulatory region of the Pacific halibut fishery, the report states.

In the Kenai Peninsula Borough, only the cities of Homer, Kenai, Seldovia, Seward and Soldotna require building permits, so the report only lists construction figures for those cities.

The total permitted value in 2007 reached $71,656,849, a 10.7 percent decrease from 2006, even though Kenai's total permit value gained 102.2 percent to $22,398,000. Both new commercial and commercial remodels passed the $7 million mark in Kenai while housing values totaled $5.7 million.

The other reporting category showing a decrease in 2007 was hydrocarbon production. Crude oil production was down 13.7 percent for the year to 6,140,000 barrels, and natural gas production declined to 196,628,000 cubic feet or 7 percent.

As reserves dwindle, Cook Inlet natural gas exploration and development was escalating during 2006.

In the retail industry, taxable sales reached $452,696,833 for the year, an 8.3 percent annual increase. The central peninsula -- Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna and Sterling -- account for 56.3 percent of the retail space in the borough.

With Soldotna being the only visitation center reporting an increase, summer 2007 visitor counts were down 3.2 percent from 2006. A combined total of 105,540 people entered visitor centers in June, July and August of 2007 compared with 109,038 in 2006.

Phil Hermanek can be reached at phillip.hermanek@peninsulaclarion.com.