Talk:List of northernmost settlements

Northernmost settlements

"Northernmost settlements" ...you forgot Nord, Greenland

Etah links to the wrong Etah...disambiguation page needed?

Northernmost Town

So what is the world's northernmost incorporated setttlement? I see some tiny little settlements (with largely transient populations) listed, but a family of five is bigger than some of these. We're certainly not going to list a family home as a "settlement." So I'd think that determining the world's most northerly cities/towns/villages/incorporated areas is a better idea, unless some underlying definition can be agreed upon. My vote is for an incorporated settlement, or at the very least, a settlement with a permanent population. Based on this list of settlements, however, I'd happily say I've been to the world's northernmost city if I've been to Longyearben. Thoughts, anyone??? Goeverywhere 05:01, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

The world's northernmost incorporated settlement is likely to be Barrow, Alaska, as incorporation is a U.S. concept. Eugène van der Pijll 07:42, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

If we allow only U.S. places, the list does not much reflect the name "Northernmost settlements". BIL 08:39, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Which is why the list contains all settlements, incorporated or not. I'd guess that at least 10 places in this list claim to be the real northermost one, because the others are unincorporated/not permanent/abandoned/too small. Everyone will have to decide on the criterium to use for themselves. Eugène van der Pijll 08:57, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Incorporation may be a U.S. concept, but don't most countries have a "legal" definition of towns, cities, or villages? I guess I'm searching for the difference between a settlement without any sort of local government to a settlement with some form of municipal government. I agree, though, if we can't come up with that definition, then a thorough list allows everyone to decide for themselves. Goeverywhere 01:56, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Many countries have no legal definition of towns, cities, and villages, but have municipalities as lowest level of government that covers the whole country. These municipalities often do not correspond to a single settlement. As the entire area of these countries is divided into municipalities, you could say that their northernmost point is always in a municipality, even though there may not be a settlement there... For example, the northernmost point of the municipality of Qaanaaq lies at about 80 degrees north, even though the main settlement in the municipality lies 2.5 degrees to the south. Eugène van der Pijll 07:25, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

In Scandinavia a term is used "Tätort", appox. "Dense settlement", defined to have at least 200 residents with less than 200 m between neighbour residential houses. I see that these terms vary a lot between countries. Town is a term meaning "individually decided to be a town" in Scandinavia. It seems to be hard to find Wikipedia-appropriate terms BIL 09:12, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Skarsvåg on mainland Norway?

I'm just wondering what the criteria for mainland is. Skarsvåg, Finnmark, Norway is classified as the Northernmost settlement in mainland Norway, but Skarsvåg is located on the island of Magerøya. --Haakoo (talk) 06:57, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Article doesn't seem to say this now, but I assume the editor who put that in meant northernmost excluding Svalbard. Fenix down (talk) 09:02, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

Merge

Just realised the other day that there are two of these lists covering the same ground. Seeing as this list has the greater scope I think it would be best to merge the two. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 03:09, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

I would say merge but look to establish what the cut off point is. Northernmost settlements uses 70^o but Northernmost cities and towns uses 68^o. Both arbitrary, but the round number of 70 seems to sit better with me, so perhaps just bring in the two tables for cities >100k and 250k to replace the >50k one here? Fenix down (talk) 09:01, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

I would say not to merge the two topics because they are different things. There may be settlements farther north than official towns and cities, and if I were traveling, I'd like to know the information on both - as individual pieces of information, not a hodgepodge of somewhat similar information. User:Macs417 21:15, 24 December 2012 (CST)

There's a bit of a problem with that though. First there is no one worldwide standard definition of what is a town. For example in Canada and the US individual regions provide their own definitions. So using the Canadian territorial definitions there should be nothing listed at Northernmost cities and towns with the exception of Inuvik. There is nothing in the town article to indicate what goes on in Norway so it is not clear if Longyearbyen which is not listed at List of towns and cities in Norway is one or not. In Denmark they use by to cover villages, cities and towns. So is Qaanaaq or Upernavik a town? Upernavik is listed at List of cities and towns in Greenland as a town but Qaanaaq as a settlement. The section on Russia in the town article suggest that in general to be a town it must have more than 12,000 people. A look at Khatanga, Russia, Tiksi and Belushya Guba would indicate they are not towns. So from the top ten on the Northernmost cities and towns you might be left with two. Upernavik and Barrow, Alaska. That woul;d not help the reader much as there would be quite a few inhabited places missing. Also all the places listed in Northernmost cities and towns would also be listed here as they are settlements as well. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 21:23, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

I think the "Cities and Towns" list is meaningless without some meaningful, universal criteria for what constitutes "city" and "town" (i.e., entry on the list). E.g., why are Wainwright and Artic Bay on the Towns list, but not Pond Inlet? Two lists, one of active, public settlements >= 70° (or Arctic circle, or whatever) with a second list for the inactive or non-public places might make sense. However, that latter list would be small, so I favour merger. Tbayboy (talk) 02:47, 28 June 2013 (UTC)

Russian northernmost settlement

Pevek Russian nothernmost arctic port town. Why you forgot that too? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.42.231.70 (talk) 18:58, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

Dikson, another Russian arctic port town, is further up north compared to Pevek. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.97.72.162 (talk) 09:43, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

Public settlement?

What does this mean? I assume it's intended to separate military outposts from other communities. I'm not sure that Wandel Dal Settlements would qualify as public, though, as it is within a national park. Public can access it, yes, but I don't think that someone could actually settle there. The ancient Inuit settlements could qualify as "public", if that has any meaning for 2400 BC. — Preceding unsigned comment added by DanTrent (talk • contribs) 00:37, 6 September 2014 (UTC)

Deadhorse, Alaska

The North American road network does extend north slightly beyond Deadhorse to Prudhoe Bay, AK; at least Google Maps is able to generate routings to that location. Should the list be revised to indicate this? -- Bistropha (talk) 04:09, 18 August 2018 (UTC)

Longyearbyen distinction

I find it interesting that Longyearbyen is described as "Northernmost settlement with a permanent population of over 1,000". That's unnecessarily conservative. It's actually the northernmost settlement with a permanent population of over 75, or with any population over 200. Would anybody be opposed if I took a zero off of that statement? It also appears to be the northernmost place to be continuously occupied for more than 70 years (actually 110+ years), as most other sites were established at the start of the cold war (1950s). Nerfer (talk) 02:38, 5 May 2019 (UTC)