Demographic Changes in the Arctic

Abstract

All Arctic regions are in economically and demographically advanced countries but differ considerably in population size, growth rates, and settlement structure, as well as in fertility, epidemiological, and migration patterns. There are also significant demographic differences between Arctic indigenous and non-indigenous populations. In the North American Arctic, the populations of Alaska and the three northern territories of Canada have had significant population growth over the past several decades. In the northern Atlantic, the population of Iceland grew significantly while the populations of Greenland and the Faroe Islands had no growth. In the Nordic Arctic, the population of all Norwegian Arctic regions grew, while the Swedish and Finnish Arctic regions had moderate growth overall, with some regions showing declining growth. The population of the Russian Arctic continued its post-Soviet contraction with continued declines in all but two regions. Across the Arctic, there has been a general trend toward the concentration of populations into larger urban centers and declines in smaller settlements. Based on an examination of projections of the Arctic populations, the current demographic trend in the Arctic is expected to continue in the future.

Research for this article is part of a project titled Polar Peoples: Past, Present, and Future supported by a grant from the US National Science Foundation, Arctic Social Sciences Program (award number PLR-1418272), and Nunataryuk, a project under the EU Horizon 2020 program (EU grant agreement No. 773421).