Circumpolar peoples

Circumpolar peoples and Arctic peoples are umbrella terms for the various indigenous peoples of the Arctic region.

Approximately four million people are resident in the Arctic, among which 10 percent are indigenous peoples belonging to a vast number of distinct communities. They represent a minority with the exception of Greenland of which 90 percent of its population is composed of Inuit.

It is difficult to find an exact number of the indigenous peoples in the Arctic as states have a tendency to downplay the numbers. Moreover, each state has its own different methods to count its indigenous population. For instance, Russia excludes from the official status of "small peoples of the North" (Russian: "малые народы Севера" or "Коренные малочисленные народы Севера") every community that exceeds  50,000 people.^[1] They are therefore excluding from the definition certain numerically large indigenous communities like the Komi peoples, Karelians or Yakuts.^[2]