Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Location of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

The Canadian Arctic Archipelago, also known as just the Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago north of the Canadian mainland in the Arctic. There are about 36,563 islands which have much of the territory of Northern Canada – most of Nunavut and part of Northwest Territories.

The archipelago has 94 major islands (bigger than 130 km²), including three of the world's ten biggest islands, and 36,469 minor islands. The bigger islands of the archipelago (over 10,000 km²) are:


Name Location* Area Area rank Population
(2001)
World Canada
Baffin Island Nunavut NU 507,451 km2 (195,928 sq mi) 5 1 9,563
Victoria Island Northwest Territories NT, Nunavut NU 217,291 km2 (83,897 sq mi) 9 2 1,707
Ellesmere Island Nunavut NU 196,236 km2 (75,767 sq mi) 10 3 168
Banks Island Northwest Territories NT 70,028 km2 (27,038 sq mi) 24 5 114
Devon Island NU NU 55,247 km2 (21,331 sq mi) 27 6 0
Axel Heiberg Island Nunavut NU 43,178 km2 (16,671 sq mi) 32 7 0
Melville Island Northwest Territories NT, Nunavut NU 42,149 km2 (16,274 sq mi) 33 8 0
Southampton Island Nunavut NU 41,214 km2 (15,913 sq mi) 34 9 721
Prince of Wales Island Nunavut NU 33,339 km2 (12,872 sq mi) 40 10 0
Somerset Island Nunavut NU 24,786 km2 (9,570 sq mi) 46 12 0
Bathurst Island Nunavut NU 16,042 km2 (6,194 sq mi) 54 13 0
Prince Patrick Island Northwest Territories NT 15,848 km2 (6,119 sq mi) 55 14 0
King William Island Nunavut NU 13,111 km2 (5,062 sq mi) 61 15 960
Ellef Ringnes Island Nunavut NU 11,295 km2 (4,361 sq mi) 69 16 0
Bylot Island Nunavut NU 11,067 km2 (4,273 sq mi) 72 17 0

* NT = Northwest Territories, NU = Nunavut