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Nunavut


Nunavut  is the newest, largest, and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the boundaries had been contemplatively drawn in 1993. The creation of Nunavut resulted in the first major change to Canada's political map since the incorporation of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1949.
Nunavut comprises a major portion of Northern Canada, and most of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Its vast territory makes it the fifth-largest country subdivision in the world, as well as North America's second-largest (after Greenland). The capital Iqaluit (formerly "Frobisher Bay"), on Baffin Island in the east, was chosen by the 1995 capital plebiscite. Other major communities include the regional centres of Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay. Nunavut also includes Ellesmere Island to the far north, as well as the eastern and southern portions of Victoria Island in the west and Akimiski Island in James Bay far to the southeast of the rest of the territory. It is Canada's only geo-political region that is not connected to the rest of North America by highway.
Nunavut is the largest in area and the second least populous of Canada's provinces and territories. One of the world's most remote, sparsely settled regions, it has a population of 35,944, mostly Inuit, spread over an area of just over 1,750,000 km2(680,000 sq mi), the size of Western Europe. Nunavut is also home to the world's northernmost permanently inhabited place, Alert. A weather station farther down Ellesmere Island, Eureka, has the lowest average annual temperature of any Canadian weather station.
Geography
Nunavut covers 1,877,787 km2 (725,018 sq mi) of land and 160,935 km2 (62,137 sq mi) of water in Northern Canada. The territory includes part of the mainland, most of the Arctic Archipelago, and all of the islands in Hudson Bay, James Bay, and Ungava Bay, including the Belcher Islands, which belonged to the Northwest Territories. This makes it the fifth largest subnational entity (or administrative division) in the world. If Nunavut were a country, it would rank 15th in area.
Nunavut has land borders with the Northwest Territories on several islands as well as the mainland, Manitoba to the south of the Nunavut mainland, Saskatchewan to the southwest (at a single four-corner point), and a small land border with Newfoundland and Labrador on Killiniq Island and with Ontario in two small locations in James Bay: the larger located west of Akimiski Island, and the smaller around the Albany River near Fafard Island. It also shares maritime borders with Greenland and the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba.
Nunavut's highest point is Barbeau Peak (2,616 m (8,583 ft)) on Ellesmere Island. The population density is 0.019 persons/km2(0.05 persons/sq mi), one of the lowest in the world. By comparison, Greenland has approximately the same area and nearly twice the population.

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