All of Qikiqtaaluk's thirteen communities are located on tidal water and just under half of its residents live in Nunavut's capital and only city, Iqaluit (7,740.[4]).

The majority of the rest live in twelve hamlets—Arctic Bay (868[5]), Kinngait (1,441[6]), Clyde River (1,053[7]), Grise Fiord (129[8]), Sanirajak (848[9]), Igloolik (1,682[10]), Kimmirut (389[11]), Pangnirtung (1,481[12]), Pond Inlet (1,617[13]), Qikiqtarjuaq (598[14]), Resolute (198[15]) and Sanikiluaq (882[16]).

Like the majority of Canada's Inuit communities, the region's traditional foods include seal, Arctic char, walrus, polar bear, and caribou.

[citation needed] Iqaluit has the Astro Hill Complex, the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum and the Legislative Building of Nunavut and the Unikkaarvik Visitors Centre.

The distribution and mobility of Inuit changed as they expanded their traditional hunting and fishing routes to participate in the white fox fur trade.

The HBC dominated the fur trade under minimal supervision from the Canadian government, and some Anglican and Catholic missionaries who lived near remote northern hamlets.