Regions

The Arctic

Citation Formats

General Reference

Geography Atlas. "The Arctic." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://geography.interactiveatlas.org/regions/the-arctic.

APA Style

Geography Atlas. (n.d.). The Arctic. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://geography.interactiveatlas.org/regions/the-arctic

BibTeX

@misc{geographyatlas-the-arctic,
  author = {Geography Atlas},
  title = {The Arctic},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://geography.interactiveatlas.org/regions/the-arctic},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The Arctic is the polar region north of the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean and the northernmost fringes of North America, Europe, and Asia, much of it locked under sea ice for part of the year and warming faster than any other region on Earth. It has no permanent population center of its own; its Indigenous peoples, from the Inuit to the Sami, live across the territory of eight surrounding nations.

Facts

Disputed

Area (sq km)

14,500,000 1

Figure for the area north of the Arctic Circle; a broader definition using the 10C July isotherm instead of the fixed 66 33 N line runs well above 21 million sq km, the same boundary dispute already carried on this entity own description.

Population

4,000,000 1

Approximate, including over 30 Indigenous peoples across the eight surrounding nations.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Canada

Norway

Russia

The Atlantic Ocean

This source names The Arctic directly: "from Europe and Africa and connecting the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south."

Source National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The Pacific Ocean

This source names The Arctic directly: "of Earth's oceans, stretching from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean, and bounded by Asia and Australia to the west and the Americas to the east."

Source National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration