[13][14][15] Inuvik was conceived in 1953 as a replacement administrative centre for the hamlet of Aklavik on the west of the Mackenzie Delta, as the latter was prone to flooding and had no room for expansion.

The school was built in 1959 and the hospital, government offices and staff residences in 1960, when people, including Inuvialuit, Gwichʼin (Dene) and Métis, began to live in the community.

While a winter only ice road through the Mackenzie River delta still connects Inuvik to Aklavik, southwest of Inuvik, the Tuktoyaktuk Winter Road, which ran northeast to Tuktoyaktuk, is no longer being built due to the opening in November 2017, of the Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH), which is open all year round.

This all collapsed in 1990 for a variety of reasons, including disappearing government military subsidies, local resistance to petroleum exploration, and low international oil prices.

The main language spoken in Inuvik is English, though schools teach and a handful of local people still speak Inuinnaqtun (Inuvialuktun), and Gwichʼin.

The 736 km (457 mi) Dempster Highway links Inuvik to the rest of Canada, providing relatively easy access to a wide variety of goods, and greatly reducing their cost.

[43] Many locals own small boats with outboard motors which are used to access family hunting and fishing camps or to visit Aklavik.

Summers are typically wetter and cool, with temperatures varying wildly throughout the months due to its peculiar location near the cold Arctic Ocean.

Unlike many other North American continental climates, Inuvik warms up very quickly during May and June due to the rapidly increasing day length, and that remaining snow cools down until May.

Inuvik has the Midnight Sun Mosque, North America's northernmost, which opened in November 2010 after being built in Winnipeg and moved 4,000 km (2,500 mi) by truck and barge.

[55] The Festival has hosted over 3,000 artists from across Canada's north, and from as far away as Japan and Australia over 31 years and is the largest annual tourism event in the Beaufort Delta.

Featuring on-site demonstrations, 50+ arts workshops, a 3,500-piece gallery, an outdoor carving village, an interactive artist studio zone, nightly cultural performances, northern film screenings, family activities and an Arctic fashion show, the Festival attracts visitors from around the world to travel the Dempster Highway to visit Inuvik and the Gwich'in and Inuvialuit Settlement Regions.

The annual Sunrise Festival happens on the second weekend of the new year, when the sun finally breaks the horizon after about thirty days of polar night.

Started in 1957, the event brings together thousands of people to participate in traditional games, watch the dog sled and snowmobile races and dance (jig) the night away in town.

Featuring the Roy 'Sugloo' Ipana Memorial Arena, with an NHL-sized ice surface; the Inuvik Curling Club with three sheets and a well-situated licensed lounge/viewing area; the Inuvik Pool, an award-winning Class B recreational pool with lane swimming, waterpark features including a two-story waterslide, hot tub, sauna and steam room; two squash courts; a multi-use community hall with stage; on-site business centre/production office; full building wireless; video-conferencing facility; on-site catering/kitchen; and meeting rooms for groups of 5 to 500.

The construction budget for the school exceeded $110 million, and it features modern technologies such as 'smartboards' and videoconferencing facilities as well as a large gym.

A distinct feature of Inuvik is the use of "utilidors" – above-ground utility conduits carrying water and sewage – which are covered by corrugated steel.

Inuvik was previously served by CHAK-TV, VHF channel 6, a CBC North television repeater of CFYK-DT (Yellowknife).

However, the dependence on this single trunk line occasionally causes widespread Internet outages during Dempster or Alaska Highway maintenance or construction.

[63] In 1988, the International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (IAU / WGPSN) officially adopted the name Inuvik for a crater on Mars, at 78.7° north latitude and 28.6° west longitude.