ABSTRACT
All Arctic states categorize their populations based on some aspect of identity in government data-collection efforts. These include identity according to race, ethnicity, ethnic origin, tribe, language, religion, nationality, citizenship, place of birth, or national origin. The approaches used by Arctic states to classify the identities of peoples vary considerably, and there have been significant changes in classification over time. The United States classifies people based on race, a trait based mostly on phenotypes or observable characteristics. Canada classifies people based on ethnic origin; this includes three groups of aboriginal peoples – Inuit, Métis, and First Nations. Greenland categorizes people based on place of birth. Iceland and the Faroe Islands have never classified people by identity. Norway, Sweden, and Finland all ceased recording ethnicity, including that of the Sámi, in the censuses after World War II. The Soviet Union settled on the concept of natsionalnost’ (ethnicity) to divide people into different groups, and it is still used in post-Soviet Russia. This chapter examines how the national statistical offices of the Arctic states categorize Arctic peoples, both currently and historically, and the uses of these classifications.
