Svalbard and Jan Mayen

These islands are near the top of the world.

They are covered in snow and ice for much of the year.

Svalbard is a group of islands in the Arctic Ocean, far north of the Arctic Circle. The biggest island is Spitsbergen. Glaciers and snowfields cover nearly 60 percent of the land.

Jan Mayen is a single island about 500 kilometers east of Greenland, crowned by a tall volcano called Beerenberg. Both places belong to Norway. In 1920 a treaty gave Norway possession of Svalbard and gave other countries equal rights to its minerals.

Britannica places Svalbard between 10° and 35° E and 74° and 81° N, about 930 km north of Tromsø. Its nine main islands include Spitsbergen (39,044 km²), Nordaustlandet, Edgeøya, Barentsøya, Prins Karls Forland, Kvitøya, Kong Karls Land, Bjørnøya (Bear Island) and Hopen. A treaty of 9 February 1920 settled earlier competing claims by granting Norway possession while giving various European and other countries mineral rights on an equal basis.

Jan Mayen lies in the Greenland Sea about 500 km east of Greenland. It is roughly 56 km long and 373 km² in area, the peak of a submarine volcanic ridge, and has no harbors. Norway annexed it on 8 May 1929.

Longyearbyen is the main town. Its houses are bright colors.

Snowy mountains rise all around it.

Longyearbyen is Svalbard's main town and the center of its government. In the photo, red, green and brown houses stand on a snowy valley floor below white mountains. Svalbard's airport opened in 1975.

Other settlements include Ny-Ålesund, a research town, Barentsburg and Hornsund. Inside a mountain near Longyearbyen is the Global Seed Vault, finished in 2008, which can store about 4.5 million seed samples.

Longyearbyen is the administrative center (Britannica). Statistics Norway counts the population of Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund, a research town on Spitsbergen founded in 1916 (Wikidata), together with Barentsburg and Pyramiden and with Hornsund; its tables cover Norwegian, Russian and Polish settlements. The Svalbard Science Centre (2006) houses the Norwegian Polar Institute, the Svalbard Museum (1979) and the University Centre in Svalbard (1993), which Britannica calls the world's northernmost institute of higher education. The airport opened in 1975.

Norway began building the Global Seed Vault inside a mountain on Spitsbergen in 2006 with funding from other countries; it was completed in early 2008 and can hold some 4.5 million seed samples. The photo shows Longyearbyen's houses on a snowy valley floor below steep, snow-covered mountains.

Glaciers are rivers of ice. Svalbard has many of them.

In summer, tiny flowers and thick moss grow in the valleys.

Folding and faulting of the rocks made Svalbard's mountains, and many of its glaciers reach the sea. Long, narrow bays called fjords cut into the west and north coasts. The highest point is Newtontoppen on Spitsbergen, about 1,713 meters high.

Temperatures range from about 15 °C in summer to −40 °C in winter. Pack ice blocks most of the coasts for much of the year, but a branch of the warm North Atlantic Drift keeps a passage open along the west coast. The tallest mountain of all is Beerenberg, a volcano on Jan Mayen, 2,277 meters high. The photo shows a rocky mountain on Prins Karls Forland rising from calm water.

Folding and faulting gave Svalbard its mountains; glaciers and snowfields cover nearly 60% of the land, many glaciers reach the sea, and the west and north coasts of Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet are cut by fjords, though Spitsbergen also has large ice-free valleys. Newtontoppen is about 1,713 m (Wikidata; Britannica gives 1,717 m). A branch of the North Atlantic Drift moderates the climate and keeps a passage open along the west coast in most months, while pack ice blocks most other shores except for a few months; temperatures run from about 15 °C to −40 °C. There are no trees apart from the tiny polar willow and dwarf birch; lichens, mosses and flowers such as purple saxifrage, one of the first to bloom in spring, make up the tundra.

Jan Mayen's northeast is the Beerenberg volcano (2,277 m), the territory's highest point; its south is low and hilly, and its climate foggy and stormy, from about −32 °C in December to 10 °C in July. The photo shows Prins Karls Forland.

Polar bears walk and swim among the sea ice.

Walruses rest together on the beaches.

Polar bears have been protected in Svalbard since 1973. They are strong swimmers: in 2005, scientists tracked a female that swam about 70 kilometers across a fjord in 24 hours. The bear in the photo is leaping between ice floes off Spitsbergen.

Walruses were protected in 1952, when only a few hundred were left; by 2012 there were about 3,900. Only three land mammals live in Svalbard: Svalbard reindeer, Arctic foxes and a small vole that was probably brought in animal feed. In summer, huge numbers of seabirds nest on the bird cliffs.

The Norwegian Polar Institute lists 19 marine mammal species in Svalbard waters, including polar bears, walruses, five seals and 12 whales; polar bears, walruses, narwhals, belugas and bowhead whales stay all year. Polar bears, protected since 1973, were estimated in 2004 at nearly 3,000 for Svalbard and Franz Josef Land together; in 2005 a tracked female crossed Storfjorden, about 70 km, in 24 hours. Walruses, protected in 1952 when only a few hundred remained, were estimated at 2,500 in 2006 and 3,900 in 2012. The photo shows a polar bear leaping between floes off Spitsbergen.

The only land mammals are the Svalbard reindeer, the Arctic fox and the sibling vole, probably introduced in animal fodder; introduced muskoxen and hares died out. Seabirds carry nutrients from the sea to their cliffs (a pair of little auks adds about 1 kg of droppings a season), which is why the slopes below are so green. On Jan Mayen, Britannica notes a little tundra where a few foxes live.

About 2,900 people live in Svalbard.

Scientists come here to learn about the Arctic.

Statistics Norway counted 2,933 people in Svalbard on 1 July 2026: 2,504 in Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund, 419 in Barentsburg and Pyramiden, and 10 in Hornsund. About 889 of the people in Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund had come from other countries.

Svalbard has no Indigenous inhabitants. People came first to hunt whales, later for coal, and many scientific expeditions have used Svalbard as a base. On Jan Mayen, the only people are those who work at its station.

Statistics Norway's settlement table for 1 July 2026 gives 1,615 residents of Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund registered on the mainland and 889 from abroad (2,504 in all), 419 in Barentsburg and Pyramiden, and 10 in Hornsund, a total of 2,933. The Population Register of Svalbard covers everyone in Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund planning to stay more than six months, but not Barentsburg or Hornsund, whose figures come separately.

Britannica notes that Svalbard has no Indigenous inhabitants and a population that changes with the seasons. The islands' importance moved from whaling, which had declined by 1800, to coal, and many polar expeditions have used Svalbard as a base. Jan Mayen is uninhabited apart from the personnel of its station.