Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, is a hamlet nestled on Victoria Island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada. With a population of 1,760 in 2021, it is the largest settlement on Victoria Island. The hamlet is named after Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, but the traditional Inuinnaqtun name for the area is Ikaluktutiak or Iqaluktuuttiaq, meaning "good fishing place". The traditional language of the area is Inuinnaqtun, written using the Latin alphabet.
The first known people to occupy the area were the Pre-Dorset people, around 1800 BCE, about 4,000 years ago. They were seal and caribou hunters. The next group to enter the area were a Paleo-Eskimo peoples known as the Dorset, who arrived approximately 500 CE. They were the first known people to have fished for the Arctic char. The last of the Paleo-Eskimo people, who appeared here about 800 CE, were the Tuniit, and evidence of their living quarters can be seen close to Cambridge Bay.
The Thule people, ancestors of the modern Inuit, arrived in the area around 1250 CE from present-day Alaska. They built food caches and stone houses in the area and were noted for their sophisticated tools. About 500 years ago, around 1500 CE, the modern Inuit made an appearance. They made use of caches, hunted caribou and fished for char. They also hunted seal from the ice in winter and returned to the land in spring.
The first Europeans to reach Cambridge Bay were overland Arctic explorers led by Thomas Simpson in 1839. Another overland expedition led by John Rae reached Cambridge Bay in 1851, and the first ship to reach the bay was HMS Enterprise under Richard Collinson who wintered there in 1852/53.
Cambridge Bay is situated between Dease Strait and Queen Maud Gulf on the southeast coast of Victoria Island. To the north of the community is Tahiryuaq which flows into Wellington Bay via the Ekalluk River. The Ekalluk River is both an important commercial fishing and archaeological area. About 37 km west of the community lie the Finlayson Islands which were surveyed by Sir Richard Collinson on board HMS Enterprise during his search for the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin.
In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statistics Canada, Cambridge Bay had a population of 1,760 living in 571 of its 701 total private dwellings. The median age of the population in 2021 was 30.4 and 76.1% of the people were over 15. In 2021, 82.4% of the population were listed as Indigenous and 17.6% as non-Aboriginal.
Cambridge Bay is the location of the Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) campus. This multidisciplinary station is operated year-round by Polar Knowledge Canada, a federal agency. It is a keystone of Canada's Northern Strategy. Its mandate is to be a world-class research station in Canada's Arctic that is on the cutting edge of Arctic issues.
The Kitikmeot Inuit Association, Nunavut Impact Review Board, and Nunavut Planning Commission have offices in Cambridge Bay, as well as the Lands and Resources Department of Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated.
Cambridge Bay has several businesses including a Northern Store, the Ikaluktutiak Co-operative, a branch of the Royal Bank of Canada and a stand-alone Canada Post postal service. There are three taxi services, a modern health centre, the Kitikmeot Regional Health Centre, and a RCMP detachment in Cambridge Bay.
The only passenger services are through the Cambridge Bay Airport from which daily air service to Yellowknife, and to the other Kitikmeot Region communities with Canadian North. In 2012, the roads of Cambridge Bay were imaged for Google Street View by a tricycle fitted with a camera system.
Cambridge Bay has a polar climate, no month having an average temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) or higher, and is listed as ET on the Köppen climate classification. The sun is continuously below the horizon, polar night, from approximately 30 November to 11 January and above the horizon, midnight sun, 19 May to 22 July.
