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The population of the Arctic,subarctic, and Boreal regionsIlmari HustichPublished online: 23 Dec 2008.

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THE POPULATION OF THE ARCTIC, SUBARCTIC, AND BOREAL REGIONS

Ilmari Hustich

From: TERRA, Vol. 184, No. 3, 1972. pp. 181-190

Abstract: Approximate numbers are given for the population in the northerncircumpolar biotic regions, which cover 19 million km2 , i.e., twice the size of Europe.This vast northern area, often neglected in recent discussions on the capacity andresources of the globe, is inhabited by only 13 or 14 million people. Because the BorealRegion proper in Europe lies north of the densely populated areas of southernScandinavia and southern Finland, the population north of 60°N is slightly larger, about15.3 million. Of this total, about one-third lives in Finalnd. The strong urbanizationtendency in the north is also discussed. The recent concentration of human activity insouthern Canada, southern Finland, etc., has caused other regions in the north tostagnate, for instance the development area of Scandinavia. (This essay represents anedited version of a lecture given before the Finnish Academy of Sciences on April 29,1972. The essay is dedicated to Prof. Veikko Okko on the occasion of his 60th birthday,to commemorate his interest in Arctic studies.) (The translation is by Vincent H.Malmstrom, Dartmouth College.)

Up until the 16th and 17th centuries when the first major trading stationsbegan to appear along the Arctic coasts of Eurasia and—about a century later—inCanada, the northern regions were occupied by various polar peoples who togethernumbered scarcely more than 150,000. These polar aborigines are, or moreaccurately, were well adapted to the harsh environment, despite the fact that someof them had settled the Arctic coast only in relatively recent times.

Today these originally homogeneous cultures have been fragmented by moderneconomic life. The circumpolar cultural realm has been invaded by influences fromthe south that have resulted in the fact that the Arctic peoples in various parts ofthe region now belong to different religious faiths and political ideologies. Some-what later, these northern aborigines, just as elsewhere in the world, weresubordinated to the devastating patterns of a technologically advanced civilization.The once locally distinctive cultures of the north have more or less disappeared andthe Arctic peoples are regarded today as scientific curiosities (for example, theLapps). In addition, there has been a noticeable increase in alcoholism and apronounced susceptibility to diseases from the south.

The number of Arctic aborigines (Eskimos, Lapps, Samoyeds, Chukchis, Kory-aks, etc.) has not appreciably diminished during the last century. Nonetheless, todaythere is a considerable intermixture of races. Of Greenland's present population ofsome 40,000, scarcely a couple of thousand are pure Eskimos, while the remainderare so-called Greenlanders, who are a racially mixed people. No longer does one findso-called "wild" Arctic natives.

Table 1 shows the number of native peoples in the North about 1970. Theyreside partly in the Arctic region, but also rather commonly in the Subarctic aswell, particularly in the wooded tundra. Table 1 enumerates 263,500 persons, whichis, however, a very approximate figure. To this number should be added some fewhundred Indians who reside in a similar environment.

The Arctic peoples represent an original circumpolar cultural realm which was

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TABLE 1

Distribution of Arctic Peoples by Political Units

Eskimos:Greenland(*) 40,000Alaska 25,000 (?)Canada 16,000Soviet Union 1,300

89,000 (?)

Aleuts:Alaska 4,000 (?)Soviet Union 400

Lapps:NorwaySwedenFinlandSoviet Union

4,500

21,00010,0002,9001,300

36,000

Other Arctic and Siberian PeoplesSoviet Union 145,500

Total 263,500

(*)The majority of Greenland's population isracially mixed; this is true to a lesser degree inCanada and Alaska as well.

well adjusted to life north of the tree line, even though ethnically they were ofdiverse origins. One can, with some justification, compare these peoples' commonadjustment to a uniformly extreme environment with the fundamentally similarecology and morphology which systematically varied forms of plant life demonstratein Arctic regions. Here we have an intriguing cultural-ecological subject for study.

The native peoples' total population in 1970 was approximately the same as itwas 10 years earlier. A small increase had, however, occurred, especially inGreenland, which supposedly demonstrated the "world's greatest population in-crease" during the decade of the 1960s, and in the Soviet Union, where the 21so-called Arctic and Siberian peoples totaled 128,000 in 1959 and some 149,000 in1970 (Shabad, 1971); note that the figures for the Soviet Union's "other peoples"in Table 1 exclude Lapps, Eskimos, and Aleuts.

It should be pointed out that both Eskimos and Lapps are scattered over fourcountries. In other words, we find that political boundaries cut right across these

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TABLE 2

Population (about 1970) in Political Administrative UnitsNorth of 60° N (partly estimated by author)

GreenlandIcelandNorwaySwedenFinlandSoviet Union:

Murmansk OblastKarelian ASSRArkhangelsk OblastKomi ASSRYamal-Nenets Aut. OkrugKhanty-Mansi Aut. OkrugTaymyr Aut. OkrugEvenki Aut. OkrugYakut ASSRMagadan OblastKoryak Aut. OkrugLeningrad Oblast (north

of 60°)Vologda Oblast (north

of 60°)Canada (Yukon and NorthwestAlaska

799,000714,000

1,042,000965,000

80,000272,000

38,00013,000

664,000352,000

30,000

400,000

50,000Territories)

30,000200,000

2,400,0001,800,0004,700,0005,730,000

50,000215,000

Total 15,225,000

peoples' widespread domains, exactly as in the case, albeit on a much larger scale,of present-day Africa.

Finland alone accounts for some 32% of the total population that lives north of60°N. Indeed, Northern Europe (including the Karelian Autonomous Republic,Murmansk Oblast and the northern part of Leningrad Oblast) has more than 75% ofthe combined inhabitants north of 60°N, a result of both climatic conditions andhistory. Therefore, on a total land area of nearly 14.5 million square kilometersnorth of 60°N that is ice-free during the summer months live a total of only 15.3million people.

If, on the other hand, we do not use a geomathematical line such as the 60thparallel of latitude as the southern boundary for the circumpolar region but chooseinstead a more biogeographical limit, we will get a somewhat different value. Onereason for this, of course, is the eccentricity of the polar region, a result of the factthat neither climatic conditions nor ocean currents follow lines of latitude.

Within the northern biogeographical regions (in other words, the Arctic,Subarctic, and boreal regions; see Hustich, 1966) is a somewhat smaller popula-

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tion—13 to 14 million-than north of 60°. This is because the most denselypopulated regions north of 60° in Northern Europe lie just south of the borealforest's southern boundary.

It should be noted that with respect to its natural conditions for settlement,the empty northwestern part of Canada, for example, is not much more poorlyendowed in terms of basic physical-geographic characteristics, than for example,central or northern Finland.

These vacant, Arctic wastelands are administered by the Soviet Union, Canada,the United States, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland. The United States has a greateconomic and political influence in Canada and possesses in addition the rich stateof Alaska which, although four times larger than Finland, has only 300,000inhabitants. The north polar region is an area which is sensitive to Great Powerpolitics; it is essentially divided in two by NATO and the Soviet Union. Especiallysensitive are the relatively densely settled polar regions of Northern Europe whereNorway and the Soviet Union meet, for almost 1.5 million people live north of theArctic Circle in this area.

The military-strategic significance of the Arctic in the age of aircraft andnuclear submarines has meant that most of the permanent settlement which hastaken place there are military installations of one kind or another and, therefore, forbetter or for worse, this has been an important source of employment in the north.

In the Arctic region there is an international agreement on the demilitarizationonly of the Norwegian dependency of Svalbard (Spitsbergen), whereas the entireAntarctic continent is covered by a similar treaty. Nevertheless increased scientificcooperation has been demonstrated in the North during recent years, encompassinggeophysical studies (ocean currents, sea-bottom conditions, drifting ice islands, etc.)as well, for example, as investigations concerning the productive capacity of thetundra and boreal forest zones and the economic and social conditions of the Arcticpeoples.

The colonization of the region by outsiders has developed differently indifferent parts of the northern zones. In the Arctic region of Canada and in largeparts of Eurasia, hunting, fishing, and reindeer-herding were the principal occupa-tions in the North up until the turn of the century. This involved spatial (or, as Iwill call them, ecological) livelihoods which are directly dependent on climatic andedaphic factors. The initial pattern of colonization in Scandinavia and Finlandestablished in the 18th century was based on agriculture and grazing combined withforestry and continued up until the 1960s. (One can say that this stage terminatedin Finland with the parcelling out of farmland.) The tree line generally marked thenorthern limit for this agriculturally based colonization in Scandinavia and Finland,where this form of colonization developed earliest. By the turn of the centuryagriculture had scarcely reached the southern edges of the boreal region in Canadaand the Soviet Union when the northward tide of expansion began to subside.

The first era in the colonization of the North was characterized by the furtrade and fishing. The second stage consisted of the truly settled colonists. Thethird period was characterized by the development of large woodworking industries,mines, and hydroelectric power installations. But, just like hunting and fishing (thefirst stage of colonization), the third stage too, scarcely represents a permanent

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colonization because it is an extractive activity, one phase in the accelerating questfor raw materials on a global scale.

It is remarkable for many reasons that today in the northern hemisphere, withinbiogeographic zones apart from the forests (which otherwise have great potentialriches), we find a region which, according to a rough estimate of the author,embraces about 19 million square kilometers (in other words, a region twice as largeas all of Europe) which is inhabited by only 13—14 million people. At the sametime, other parts of our planet are suffering from a lack of space and of resources.

It should be observed that the population of a large part of the northern region(especially of the true Arctic) is composed of people about 50% of whom are onlytemporarily settled there during such periods as the contracts for trading stations,mines, military bases, etc., prescribe.

The northern regions were especially important in the 1920s and '30s. It wasknown that in the North, great natural resources were ready to be exploited on anever-increasing scale, inasmuch as it had become technically less difficult toovercome the climate. Already the extraction of coal had begun quite early inSvalbard and at Vorkuta, etc., nickel in Petsamo, gold, uranium, and radium at GreatBear Lake, copper at Norilsk, cryolite and lead in Greenland, etc. It is not so longago that it was believed that the ekumene—the inhabited part of the world—wasexpanding, and must expand northwards. For a time the geographic literature spokeglowingly of the "pioneer spirit" and the "pioneer fringe" in the North. It wasquite naturally assumed that there were both resources and space to be found there.

Following World War II, at the same time as the search for raw materials hasintensified in practically all of the northern regions, the tendency toward aconcentration of settlement has distinguished itself all over the world. This trend isseen especially on the periphery and on the northern limit of the ekumene, in thesame way that the ebb and flow of the tide is most marked at the inner ends offjords.

As a result of the radical transformation in the structure of modern economiclife, the population, including the northern aborigines, has been drawn together invarious smaller local centers, including trading stations, military bases, administrativecenters, and mining towns. Within the Arctic region, however, there is not a singlecity or agglomeration with more than 10,000 inhabitants. Within the Subarctic andthe boreal forest region, the largest cities are Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, each withabout 200,000 inhabitants.

The degree of urbanization by administrative and political units is presented inTable 3. The Soviet data are from 1970, whereas the remaining-and less reliable-data are from a variety of sources dating from the 1960s (and consist in part ofestimates made by the author).

In the Soviet Union, planning in the North since the revolution has emphasizeda conscious urbanization. The extremely high degree of urbanization found in theKola Peninsula (89%) is twice as high as the figures for Finnish and NorwegianLappland. The degree of urbanization is likewise high in the Yukon and NorthwestTerritories (ca. 70-80%) and in Alaska (60%). Moreover, Greenland's small cities arereplete with high-rise apartment buildings!

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TABLE 3

Population and degree of urbanization in the northern administrative units

Lapplands Ian (Finland)Uleaborgs Ian (Finland)Norrbottens Ian (Sweden)Vasterbottens Ian (Sweden)Finnmarks fylke (Norway)Troms fylke (NorwayNordlands fylke (Norway)Murmansk OblastKarelian ASSRArkhangelsk OblastKomi ASSRTyumen' OblastKrasnoyarsk KrayYakut ASSRMagadan OblastKamchatka OblastIcelandGreenlandYukon TerritoryNorthwest TerritoriesAlaska

Population

218,000418,000

98,90055,30075,000

132,000245,000799,000714,000

1,402,000965,000

1,407,0002,962,000

664,000352,000287,000200,000

35,000—

25,000250,000

Degree ofurbanization (%)

454552505050458969666249625675767060708060

Note: Some values are highly approximate.

The population in the circumpolar regions is sparser today than it was 100years ago, when the ecological livelihoods (hunting, fishing, and agriculture) weredominant. This stagnation of the original livelihoods in the North and this processof regional concentration of settlement is going on, paradoxically enough, at thesame time as improved communications, better techniques of mastering the Arcticand Subarctic environments, and greater possibilities for neutralizing the climatichazard-factor are being offered to us.

A new geographic concept, "The Middle North," was defined at a symposiumin Racine, Wisconsin, in 1966 to direct the attention of the business community aswell as the Canadian and American authorities to the existence of an empty, and, inmany ways, productive Arctic, Subarctic, and boreal region, quite close to thesomewhat overpopulated United States.

The concept "Middle North," is, of course, a completely illogical term. Oneautomatically presupposes a "northern North" and a "southern North" as well. But,the expression sounds a little more humane than Subarctic, for example, andtherefore the "Middle North" has achieved a certain currency in North America.The region known as the "Middle North" embraces the larger parts of Canada and

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the Soviet Union, sizable areas of Scandinavia and Iceland, as well as parts ofGreenland.

The region can in some sense be called today's "wild west"—an extensive bufferzone between the industrialized and more-or-less densely populated temperate zoneon the one hand and the essentially empty Arctic on the other. In some places, forexample in eastern Canada, the boundary between the industrial region and theempty wilderness of the boreal forest region is particularly sharp.

In recent years there has been a growing uneasiness in Canada regarding thefaltering interest in pushing permanent colonization to the North. This is, of course,not just a Canadian problem.

Today the expansion of the Arctic regions is not being guided by theconditions which influenced the primary occupations; quite the contrary. Agri-cultural settlement within the boreal region has, wherever it existed (especially inNorthern Europe), been followed by depopulation. Stagnation is least visible in theSoviet Union, where the state has had greater opportunities from the outset todirect the colonization of the northern and northeastern regions.

The development in recent times in the Subarctic and boreal regions hastherefore led to the same problem which we recognize. in central and northernFinland—in other words, the tendency to depopulation and stagnation of activitydue to the lack of educational, social, and medical services, etc. The so-calledextractive industries (forestry, waterpower, and mining) naturally dominate theregion, which only swells the size of the temporary work force beyond the capacityfor permanent settlement.

It is of interest to note that all of the economically depressed areas of Finland,Sweden, and Norway (that is, those where economic development has stagnated) liewithin the Subarctic and boreal regions. It is a common attitude, even wheneconomic and regional questions are concerned, to look only southward like theconventional tourist. The northern regions, apart from more sentimental rushes atvarious times (for example, the present efforts to protect the Arctic natives), haveoften been neglected for pragmatic reasons, despite their potentially great resources.

How rapidly attitudes change within a society, even when they involve largeregional problems, can be seen under present circumstances in our own country. Asrecently as five years ago, Finland gave state assistance to new cultivation in thenorth, even though this new land-clearing activity had been curtailed somewhatearlier as the industrialization of the country took place. Now we have gone over toa consolidation of agricultural holdings, which in many respects seems to be analmost hysterical effort. This has hastened the depopulation in our marginal areasand led to many tragedies. The same thing took place earlier in Swedish Norrlandwhere, in a couple of turnabouts, the planning goals were totally altered.

All of mankind's mentality in the near future will be characterized by spatialliberation. The structure of society and public mobility are changing rapidly. Theconcept of home, according to the most pessimistic futurologists at the Racinesymposium, will be, in theory, no more than a static point. A modern nomadism istaking over in the developed countries, heralded by mass tourism and the annualmigration between summer and winter residences.

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The search for variation will gradually lead once again to a movement fromsouth to north. In this way, the Arctic regions will most likely become recreationalareas, while at the same time remaining raw material-producing regions because theworld's reserves of raw materials are already being utilized to the limits of exhaustion.

But here a new element arises. The ecological balance is all the more fragile thefarther north one goes. For example, in the debate on the Alaskan pipeline, thewarning of the ecologists regarding the Arctic and Subarctic escosystem's greatsensitivity has had important political impact. In Canada, which has the world'slongest coastline, there is a special concern over possible oil spills in Arctic waters.

The struggle between the conservation of nature on the one hand and increasingindustrial activity on the other will become all the more severe in the moresoutherly, more densely populated regions. Seen against this background, thebefore-mentioned 19 million square kilometers of land in the far north should beviewed as a tremendous reserve for mankind, with fresh water, fresh air, and arelatively undisturbed nature.

Radical quantitative changes are occurring, however, even with regards to theacquisition and production of raw materials, which in the long run will leadeconomic activity away from the sub-Arctic and boreal regions. Hydroelectricinstallations will soon become museums, as they are replaced by nuclear powerplants. The boreal regions' great resource-softwood timber—will be graduallyreplaced by other raw materials; Japan already is producing millions of tons ofsynthetic paper. If the provision of raw materials in the future is actually changedin this way—and it's not certain that it will be-so will another importantinducement for permanent settlement of these northern regions disappear. It won'tbe necessary for agricultural production either, despite our present reluctance tothink so. Possibly, say the pessimists, environmentally-disruptive industries, es-pecially chemical plants, can advantageously be located in precisely these un-populated regions. In other words, it is entirely possible that the permanentlysettled residents of the northern circumpolar zones will decrease, while thetemporary population grows.

In a world where much is written and spoken about overpopulation and thegrowing lack of space, it is remarkable that a 19 million square kilometer region,which makes up almost one-eighth of the world's land area, isn't regarded as a morenatural reserve.

I have tried to present a little more optimistic slant to this depressing discussionof the global space problem, which fills modern geographic literature, by focusingattention on what one can call the forgotten north. That one so often forgets thesesparsely inhabited spaces is due partly to old misconceptions, partly to the moderntendency toward concentration (of settlement and decision-making) which we todayregard—I feel erroneously—as natural and immutable.

As environmental pollution increases in the industrial countries (and especiallyin the more southerly regions of those countries which control sectors of theextremely sparsely inhabited regions described here), these northern regions willbecome steadily more attractive for mankind. Especially in our time, man, with thehelp of technology, has entirely other means than hitherto to neutralize thegeographic obstacles in these areas.

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Accordingly, there still remains a vast reserve of land area in the northernhemisphere-approximately 50 times as large as Finland-which is inhabited by only13—14 million people. The sub-Arctic and boreal regions can offer one-if not ideal,at least a partially inhabitable less polluted environment than the temperate,soon-to-be-destroyed zone in which the so-called developed countries' populationsare currently concentrated.

' This region will be needed more in the future than it was previously. Thedepopulation of, for example, Finland's marginal areas, is only temporary.

So, one can ponder if one should believe that the world is only one world.That it is not. The world is divided among the still-important units we call states (inthis case, specifically Canada, the Soviet Union, and the United States) whichcontrol the use of land within their respective country's borders. In other words, weare a long way from a common "world village." To achieve an equalization ofpopulation density and a more equitable distribution of global resources remains forthe moment only a Utopian idea—but this does not mean that it is an incorrect idea.

Bibliography

Atlas Narodov Mira. Moskva: Izd. Akademii Nauk, 1964.Blüthgen, J. (1970). "Problems of definition and geographical differentiation of the

Subarctic with special regard to northern Europe. I verket," Ecology of thesubarctic regions. Paris: Unesco.

Harris, Ch. D. (1970). "Population of cities of the Soviet Union," Soviet Geography:Special Issue, May 1970. New York.

Hustich, I. (1966). "On the forest-tundra and the northern three-lines," AnnalesUniversitatis Turkuensis A II: 36.

Mattox, W. G. (1966). The Middle North at Wingspread. Inst. of Current WorldAffairs. Newsletters.

Shabad, Th. (1970). "1970 Census Results," Soviet Geography XI: 7. New York.Shabad, Th. (1971). "Ethnic Results of the 1970 Soviet Census," Soviet Geography

XII: 7.The Northwest Territories Today. A reference paper for the Advisory Commission

on the Development of Government in the Northwest Territories. Ottawa, 1965.

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