Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Canadian Arctic Archipelago
Waters	Arctic Ocean
Geographical location	75 ° 0 ′ N , 90 ° 0 ′ W Coordinates: 75 ° 0 ′ N , 90 ° 0 ′ W
Number of islands	36563
Main island	Baffin Island , ; Victoria Island , ; Ellesmere Island
Total land area	1,424,500 km²
Residents	17,000 (2011)

The Canadian Arctic Archipelago is the northern archipelago of Canada . It is located in the north of Canada and borders Greenland . The archipelago, located in the Arctic Ocean , has a population of almost 17,000 - mainly Inuit . Around 11,000 of them live on the largest island, Baffin Island , and there again for the most part (6,700 inhabitants) in Iqaluit .

history

The first proven exploration of the island world by Europeans took place with the voyages of the English navigator Martin Frobisher in the late 1570s. Thereafter, the island world belonged to British North America and only came to the Franklin District in 1880 , which is part of the Northwest Territories of Canada. Within Canada, the island world today mainly belongs to the territory of Nunavut and to a lesser extent to the northwest territories.

From the Canadian side, Hans Island is also included in the archipelago. However, their national affiliation is disputed between Canada and Denmark , which represents the autonomous Greenland in foreign policy.

geography

The archipelago includes more than 36,000 mostly small and tiny islands. Only 94 of the islands are defined as larger islands with an area greater than 130 km². The largest islands are Baffin Island , Ellesmere Island , Victoria Island and Banks Island . The Queen Elizabeth Islands comprise more than 2,100 individual islands and have a total area of 419,061 km². This makes it the largest group of islands within the archipelago. The Queen Elizabeth Islands are not the only group of islands within the entire archipelago. Other island groups in the archipelago are for example the Royal Geographical Society Islands , the Astronomical Society Islands or the Hecla and Fury Islands .

The total land area of all the islands in the archipelago is around 1,424,500 km².

Surname	Territory ^*	Area km²	Ranking list		Population (2001)
Surname	Territory ^*	Area km²	world	Canada	Population (2001)
Baffin Island	NU	507451	5	1	9563
Victoria Island	NT, NU	217291	9	2	1707
Ellesmere Island	NU	196236	10	3	168
Banks Island	NT	70028	24	5	114
Devon Island	NU	55247	27	6th	0
Axel Heiberg Island	NU	43178	32	7th	0
Melville Island	NT, NU	42149	33	8th	0
Southampton Island	NU	41214	34	9	721
Prince of Wales Island	NU	33339	40	10	0
Somerset Island	NU	24786	46	12	0
Bathurst Island	NU	16042	54	13	0
Prince Patrick Island	NT	15848	55	14th	0
King William Island	NU	13111	61	15th	960
Ellef Ringnes Island	NU	11295	69	16	0
Bylot Island	NU	11067	72	17th	0
Prince Charles Island	NU	9521	78	19th	0