Editing Arctic Archipelago (section)

==Geography==
[[File:Wfm baffin island.jpg|thumb|Satellite image of [[Baffin Island]], the largest island by total area of the Arctic Archipelago]]

The archipelago extends some {{cvt|2400|km}} longitudinally and {{cvt|1900|km}} 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 Peninsula|Boothia]] and [[Melville Peninsula|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 {{cvt|130|km2}}, and cover a total area of {{cvt|1400000|km2}}.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arctic Archipelago |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/arctic-archipelago |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca |language=en}}</ref> The islands of the archipelago over {{cvt|10000|km2}}, in order of descending area, are:

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! rowspan="2"| Name !! rowspan="2"| Location<sup>*</sup> !! rowspan="2"|Area!! colspan="2"| Area rank !! rowspan="2" | Population<br />(2021)
|-
! World !! Canada
|-
| [[Baffin Island]] || [[Nunavut|NU]] || style="text-align: right;" | {{cvt|507451|km2}} || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 1 || style="text-align: right;" | 13,039<ref name=2021censusNU/>
|-
| [[Victoria Island]] || [[Northwest Territories|NT]], [[Nunavut|NU]] || style="text-align: right;" | {{cvt|217291|km2}} || style="text-align: right;" | 8 || style="text-align: right;" | 2 || style="text-align: right;" | 2,168<ref name=2021censusNU>{{cite web | url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810000202&geocode=A000262 | title=Population and dwelling counts: Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities), Nunavut | publisher=[[Statistics Canada]] | date=9 February 2022 | accessdate=19 February 2022}}</ref><ref name=2021censusNWT>{{cite web | url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810000202&geocode=A000261 | title= Population and dwelling counts: Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities), Northwest Territories | publisher=[[Statistics Canada]] | date=9 February 2022 | accessdate=18 February 2022}}</ref>
|-
| [[Ellesmere Island]] || [[Nunavut|NU]] || style="text-align: right;" | {{cvt|196236|km2}} || style="text-align: right;" | 10 || style="text-align: right;" | 3 || style="text-align: right;" | 144<ref name=2021censusNU/>
|-
| [[Banks Island]] || [[Northwest Territories|NT]] || style="text-align: right;" | {{cvt|70028|km2}} || style="text-align: right;" | 24 || style="text-align: right;" | 5 || style="text-align: right;" | 104<ref name=2021censusNWT/>
|-
| [[Devon Island]] || [[Nunavut|NU]] || style="text-align: right;" | {{cvt|55247|km2}} || style="text-align: right;" | 27 || style="text-align: right;" | 6 || style="text-align: right;" | 0
|-
| [[Axel Heiberg Island]] || [[Nunavut|NU]] ||style="text-align: right;" | {{cvt|43178|km2}} || style="text-align: right;" | 32 || style="text-align: right;" | 7 || style="text-align: right;" | 0
|-
| [[Melville Island (Northwest Territories and Nunavut)|Melville Island]] || [[Northwest Territories|NT]], [[Nunavut|NU]] || style="text-align: right;" | {{cvt|42149|km2}} || style="text-align: right;" | 33 || style="text-align: right;" | 8 || style="text-align: right;" | 0
|-
| [[Southampton Island]] || [[Nunavut|NU]] || style="text-align: right;" | {{cvt|41214|km2}} || style="text-align: right;" | 34 || style="text-align: right;" | 9 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,038<ref name=2021censusNU/>
|-
| [[Prince of Wales Island (Nunavut)|Prince of Wales Island]] || [[Nunavut|NU]] || style="text-align: right;" | {{cvt|33339|km2}} || style="text-align: right;" | 40 || style="text-align: right;" | 10 || style="text-align: right;" | 0
|-
| [[Somerset Island (Nunavut)|Somerset Island]] || [[Nunavut|NU]] || style="text-align: right;" | {{cvt|24786|km2}} || style="text-align: right;" | 46 || style="text-align: right;" | 12 || style="text-align: right;" | 0
|-
| [[Bathurst Island (Nunavut)|Bathurst Island]] || [[Nunavut|NU]] || style="text-align: right;" | {{cvt|16042|km2}} || style="text-align: right;" | 54 || style="text-align: right;" | 13 || style="text-align: right;" | 0
|-
| [[Prince Patrick Island]] || [[Northwest Territories|NT]] || style="text-align: right;" | {{cvt|15848|km2}} || style="text-align: right;" | 55 || style="text-align: right;" | 14 ||style="text-align: right;" | 0
|-
| [[King William Island]] || [[Nunavut|NU]] || style="text-align: right;" | {{cvt|13111|km2}} || style="text-align: right;" | 61 || style="text-align: right;" | 15 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,349<ref name=2021censusNU/>
|-
| [[Ellef Ringnes Island]] || [[Nunavut|NU]] || style="text-align: right;" | {{cvt|11295|km2}} || style="text-align: right;" | 69 || style="text-align: right;" | 16 || style="text-align: right;" | 0
|-
| [[Bylot Island]] || [[Nunavut|NU]] || style="text-align: right;" | {{cvt|11067|km2}} || style="text-align: right;" | 72 || style="text-align: right;" | 17 ||style="text-align: right;" | 0
|}<sup>*</sup>&nbsp;<small>NT = [[Northwest Territories]], NU = [[Nunavut]]</small>

After Greenland, the archipelago is the world's largest high-Arctic land area. The climate of the islands is [[Climate of the Arctic|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.