Hooray for Nunavut Day!

Nunavut means “our land” in the Inuit language of Inuktitut.

Nunavut is Canada’s youngest jurisdiction in every sense of the word. The territory celebrates 27 years of existence today, 50 years after Canada welcomed Newfoundland and Labrador.

In the second quarter of 2026, 42,215 people called Nunavut home, up 45% from 1999, the year the territory was born. By way of comparison, Canada’s population grew by 31% over this period.

The population of Nunavut is also Canada’s youngest by far, with a median age of 27.1 years as of July 1, 2025, compared with the national median of 40.6 years.

Let’s look at the various ways you can celebrate Nunavut Day today.

Over half of people living in Nunavut during the 2021 Census reported Inuktut languages as their mother tongue, and 23,285 people reported speaking Inuktitut regularly at home. 

In 2022, over one in four Inuit (29.0%) aged 15 years and over living in Nunavut made clothing or footwear in the past 12 months, while just under one in five (18.0%) made carvings, drawings, jewellery or other kinds of artwork.

Although Nunavut Day is a public holiday, many of the 770 businesses with employees will remain open.

If you happen to be in Nunavut during this public holiday, why not go shopping at one of the 91 retail trade businesses in the territory or go to one of the 22 food and drinking places? You can make a day of it by visiting one of the two scenic and sightseeing transportation businesses in the territory or taking in one of the three heritage institutions with employees.

July through September is the high tourist season in Nunavut. In the summer of 2025, non-Nunavut residents took 22,800 trips to the territory. Just over two-thirds of visitors to the territory in the summer of 2025 arrived by air, while the remainder disembarked from a cruise ship.

Approximately 8,600 visitors arriving by commercial air reported attending a business meeting, conference or seminar, while 8,200 visitors reported sightseeing during their trip.

Tourism is an important part of the Nunavut economy during the summer months, with visitors spending $46.1 million while visiting the territory. Most of this money was spent on accommodations ($31.9 million) and food and beverages ($8.3 million).