Northumberland role in the Industrial Revolution from the 18th century on. Many coal mines operated in Northumberland until the widespread closures in the 1970s and 1980s. Collieries operated at Ashington, Bedlington, Blyth, Choppington, Netherton, Ellington and Pegswood. The region's coalfields fuelled industrial expansion in other areas of Britain, and the need to transport the coal from the collieries to the Tyne led to the development of the first railways. Shipbuilding and armaments manufacture were other important industries before the deindustrialisation of the 1980s. Northumberland remains largely rural, and is the least-densely populated county in England. In recent years the county has
North Slope Borough, Alaska the Beaufort Sea. The North Slope Borough is the largest county-level political subdivision in the United States by area, with a larger land area than that of the state of Utah (UT is the 13th-largest state in the nation). Although the adjacent Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area is larger in area, it has no borough-level government. The borough is the fourth-least densely populated county-level entity in the United States. The Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area is the least densely populated county-level entity). It shares its eastern border with Yukon, Canada, which has no subdivisions. As of the census of 2010, there were 7,385 people,