International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

Fig. 2.11-1. The
circumpolar Arctic
region, showing
total population
and proportion of
indigenous and
non-indigenous
populations.
(Map: K.W. Dahlmann,
Norwegian Polar Institute)
336
IPY 20 07–20 08
from an unprecedented health crisis, with the male
LE 0 less than 60 years. Among the northern regions,
the difference in LE 0 between Iceland and Koryakia,
Russia, is 29 years in men and 21 years in women.
A similar pattern is observed for infant mortality
rate. The lowest rates (below 5 per 1000 livebirths) are
observed in the Nordic countries (with little difference
between North and South). There is an intermediate
group consisting of northern Canada, Alaska and
Greenland, with the Russian regions having the
highest rates of infant mortality. There are substantial
disparities between the Alaska Native and Alaska allstate
rates, and Nunavut rate is almost three times
the Canadian national rate. The highest Arctic infant
mortality reported from the Evenki Autonomous
Region in Russia, is 13 times that of the Faroe Islands
(Fig. 2.11-2).
In general, substantial health disparities exist across
different circumpolar regions. In terms of disparities
between the Indigenous populations and the nation-
states to which they belong, two extremes can be
identified. In Scandinavia, the northern regions are
almost indistinguishable from the country-at-large in
terms of most health indicators. At the other extreme
are Greenland and the northern territories of Canada,
especially Nunavut, where the disparities with
Denmark and Canada, respectively, are substantial.
Alaska, as a state, tends not to differ much from the
all-race U.S.A. rates, but Alaska Natives generally fare
much worse than the State average. The health and
demographic crisis in Russia is evident – in certain
indicators, e.g. tuberculosis incidence, certain northern
regions are at particularly high risk, within a country
that is itself also at substantially elevated risk relative
to other circumpolar countries. Selected health and
demographic indicators have been compiled and
available as a Circumpolar Health Supplement (Young,
2008) or online at the Circumpolar Health Observatory
(www.circhob.circumpolarhealth.org).