Arctic Archipelago

Arctic Archipelago
*Archipel Arctique Canadien* (French)
	Polar projection map of the Arctic Archipelago
Geography
Location	Northern Canada
Coordinates	75°N 90°W / 75°N 90°W
Total islands	36,563
Major islands	Baffin Island, Victoria Island, Ellesmere Island
Area	1,407,770 km2 (543,540 sq mi)
Administration
	Canada
Territories and province	Nunavut; Northwest Territories; Yukon; Newfoundland and Labrador
Largest settlement	Iqaluit, Nunavut (pop. 7,429)
Demographics
Population	23,073 (2021)
Pop. density	0.0098/km2 (0.0254/sq mi)

The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark) and Iceland (an independent country).

Situated in the northern extremity of North America and covering about 1,424,500 km² (550,000 sq mi), this group of 36,563 islands, surrounded by the Arctic Ocean, comprises much of Northern Canada, predominately Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.^[4] The archipelago is showing some effects of climate change,^[5]^[6] with some computer estimates determining that melting there will contribute 3.5 cm (1.4 in) to the rise in sea levels by 2100.^[7]

History

Around 2500 BCE, the first humans, the Paleo-Eskimos, arrived in the archipelago from the Canadian mainland. Between 1000 and 1500 CE, they were replaced by the Thule people, who are the ancestors of today's Inuit.

British claims on the islands, the British Arctic Territories, were based on the explorations in the 1570s by Martin Frobisher. Canadian sovereignty was originally (1870–80) only over island portions that drained into Foxe Basin, Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait. Canadian sovereignty over the islands was established by 1880 when Britain transferred them to Canada.^[8] The District of Franklin – established in 1895 – comprised almost all of the archipelago. The district was dissolved upon the creation of Nunavut in 1999. Canada claims all the waterways of the Northwest Passage as Canadian Internal Waters; however, most maritime countries view these as international waters.^[9]^{[failed verification]} Disagreement over the passages' status has raised Canadian concerns about environmental enforcement, national security, and general sovereignty. East of Ellesmere Island, in the Nares Strait, lies Hans Island, ownership of which is now shared between Canada and Denmark, after a decades-long dispute.^[10]^[11]^[12]

Geography

The archipelago extends some 2,400 km (1,500 mi) longitudinally and 1,900 km (1,200 mi) from the mainland to Cape Columbia, the northernmost point on Ellesmere Island. It is bounded on the west by the Beaufort Sea; on the northwest by the Arctic Ocean; on the east by Greenland, Baffin Bay and Davis Strait; and on the south by Hudson Bay and the Canadian mainland. The various islands are separated from each other and the continental mainland by a series of waterways collectively known as the Northwest Passage. Two large peninsulas, Boothia and Melville, extend northward from the mainland. The northernmost cluster of islands, including Ellesmere Island, is known as the Queen Elizabeth Islands and was formerly the Parry Islands.

The archipelago consists of 36,563 islands, of which 94 are classified as major islands, being larger than 130 km² (50 sq mi), and cover a total area of 1,400,000 km² (540,000 sq mi).^[13] The islands of the archipelago over 10,000 km² (3,900 sq mi), in order of descending area, are:

Name	Location^*	Area	Area rank		Population (2021)
Name	Location^*	Area	World	Canada	Population (2021)
Baffin Island	NU	507,451 km² (195,928 sq mi)	5	1	13,039^[2]
Victoria Island	NT, NU	217,291 km² (83,897 sq mi)	8	2	2,168^[2]^[3]
Ellesmere Island	NU	196,236 km² (75,767 sq mi)	10	3	144^[2]
Banks Island	NT	70,028 km² (27,038 sq mi)	24	5	104^[3]
Devon Island	NU	55,247 km² (21,331 sq mi)	27	6	0
Axel Heiberg Island	NU	43,178 km² (16,671 sq mi)	32	7	0
Melville Island	NT, NU	42,149 km² (16,274 sq mi)	33	8	0
Southampton Island	NU	41,214 km² (15,913 sq mi)	34	9	1,038^[2]
Prince of Wales Island	NU	33,339 km² (12,872 sq mi)	40	10	0
Somerset Island	NU	24,786 km² (9,570 sq mi)	46	12	0
Bathurst Island	NU	16,042 km² (6,194 sq mi)	54	13	0
Prince Patrick Island	NT	15,848 km² (6,119 sq mi)	55	14	0
King William Island	NU	13,111 km² (5,062 sq mi)	61	15	1,349^[2]
Ellef Ringnes Island	NU	11,295 km² (4,361 sq mi)	69	16	0
Bylot Island	NU	11,067 km² (4,273 sq mi)	72	17	0

^* NT = Northwest Territories, NU = Nunavut

After Greenland, the archipelago is the world's largest high-Arctic land area. The climate of the islands is Arctic, and the terrain consists of tundra except in mountainous regions. Most of the islands are uninhabited; human settlement is extremely thin and scattered, being mainly coastal Inuit settlements on the southern islands.

Map with links to islands

Reference map of Canadian Arctic Archipelago

King Christian^{map 1}
Borden^{map 2}
Lougheed^{map 3}
Brock^{map 4}
Mackenzie King^{map 5}
Helena^{map 6}
Cameron^{map 7}
Emerald^{map 8}
Prince Patrick^{map 9}
Île Vanier^{map 10}
Eglinton^{map 11}
Alexander^{map 12}
Bathurst^{map 13}
Melville^{map 14}
Byam Martin^{map 15}
Banks^{map 16}
Stefansson^{map 17}
Russell^{map 18}
Prince of Wales^{map 19}
Prescott^{map 20}
Somerset^{map 21}
Victoria^{map 22}
King William^{map 23}
Matty^{map 24}
Wales^{map 25}
Belcher^{map 26}
Long^{map 27}
Akimiski^{map 28}
Charlton^{map 29}
Ellesmere^{map 30}
Meighen^{map 31}
Axel Heiberg^{map 32}
Ellef Ringnes^{map 33}
Amund Ringnes^{map 34}
Cornwall^{map 35}
Graham^{map 36}
North Kent^{map 37}
Baillie-Hamilton^{map 38}
Little Cornwallis^{map 39}
Cornwallis^{map 40} ^A
Devon^{map 41}
Bylot^{map 42}
Baffin^{map 43}
Kapuiviit^{map 44} ^B
Koch^{map 45}
Bray^{map 46}
Rowley^{map 47}
Foley^{map 48}
Air Force^{map 49}
Prince Charles^{map 50}
Nagjuttuuq^{map 51} ^C
Qikiqtaaluk (Foxe Basin)^{map 52} ^D
Southampton^{map 53}
Resolution^{map 54}
Loks^{map 55}
Akpatok^{map 56}
Qikiqtarjuaq (Hudson Strait)^{map 57} ^E
Salisbury^{map 58}
Nottingham^{map 59}
Mansel^{map 60}
Coats^{map 61}

Islands not on map

Notes

^A Population: 183^[2]
^B Formerly Jens Munk Island
^C Formerly Vansittart Island
^D Formerly White Island
^E Formerly Big Island
^F Population: 593^[2]
^G Population: 1,396^[2]
^H Population: 1,010^[2]
^I Population: 2,049^[2]
^J Formerly Jenny Lind Island
^K Formerly Gateshead Island

Communities

Community	Island	Region, territory	Population^[2]^[3]
Arctic Bay	Baffin Island	Qikiqtaaluk, NU	944
Clyde River	Baffin Island	Qikiqtaaluk, NU	1,181
Iqaluit	Baffin Island	Qikiqtaaluk, NU	7,429
Kimmirut	Baffin Island	Qikiqtaaluk, NU	426
Pangnirtung	Baffin Island	Qikiqtaaluk, NU	1,504
Pond Inlet	Baffin Island	Qikiqtaaluk, NU	1,555
Sachs Harbour	Banks Island	Inuvik, NT	104
Qikiqtarjuaq	Broughton Island	Qikiqtaaluk, NU	593
Resolute	Cornwallis Island	Qikiqtaaluk, NU	183
Kinngait	Dorset Island	Qikiqtaaluk, NU	1,396
Grise Fiord	Ellesmere Island	Qikiqtaaluk, NU	144
Sanikiluaq	Flaherty Island	Qikiqtaaluk, NU	1,010
Igloolik	Igloolik Island	Qikiqtaaluk, NU	2,049
Gjoa Haven	King William Island	Kitikmeot, NU	1,349
Coral Harbour	Southampton Island	Kivalliq, NU	1,038
Cambridge Bay	Victoria Island	Kitikmeot, NU	1,760
Ulukhaktok	Victoria Island	Inuvik, NT	408
		Total	23,073

Populated islands

Of the more than 36,000 islands, only 11 are populated. Baffin Island, the largest, also has the largest population of 13,309.^[2] The population accounts for 67.37 per cent of the 19,355 people in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, 56.51 per cent of the population of the Arctic Archipelago, and 35.38 per cent of the population of Nunavut.^[2]^[3]

Island	Population^[2]^[3]	Area^[1]^[14]^[15] (km2)	Area (sq mi)	Density (km2)	Density (sq mi)
Baffin Island	13,039	507,451	315,315	0.026	0.067
Banks Island	104	70,028	43,513	0.001	0.004
Broughton Island	593	127.6	79.3	4.647	12.037
Cornwallis Island	183	6,995	4,346	0.026	0.068
Dorset Island	1,396	21	8	174.500	67.375
Ellesmere Island	144	196,236	121,935	0.001	0.002
Flaherty Island	1,010	1,585	985	0.637	1.650
Igloolik Island	2,049	114.5	71.1	17.895	46.348
King William Island	1,349	13,111	8,147	0.103	0.266
Southampton Island	1,038	41,214	25,609	0.103	0.266
Victoria Island	2,168	217,291	135,018	0.010	0.026