In the 1880 United States Census, Ivan Petrof recorded 702 residents in nine villages on the island.

Noted persons who have visited Nunivak include journalist Jon Lee Anderson, photographer Edward S. Curtis, Anne Makepeace, anthropologist Margaret Lantis, and the artist Muriel Hannah.

Noted conservationist and outdoorsman Steven Rinella aired an episode of his television show Meat Eater in 2015 where he experienced a muskox hunt and explored the history and culture of the island and its people.

The people of Nunivak Island still depend to a large degree on subsistence hunting, and also commercial fishing and industrial work on the mainland.

Much of its surface consists of widespread, thin flows of pahoehoe lava from small shield volcanoes, which spread over sedimentary rock of the Cretaceous period.

Volcanic eruptions took place during 5 periods of activity beginning 6.1 million years ago.

Most of the volcanic field was formed during the two most recent eruptive periods during the Pleistocene ending about 300,000 years ago.

Dense summer-breeding rookeries are found on all shores of the island, and in inland tundra lakes.

Prehistorically, Nunivak was home to a modest herd of caribou, but these were exterminated after the introduction of firearms in the late 19th and early 20th century.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service introduced reindeer (the smaller Eurasian caribou) and musk oxen onto the island in the 1930s and 1940s.

The muskoxen are most valued for their wool, or qiviut, which is collected after the animals shed in springtime for spinning into yarn, with one skein sometimes selling for $100.