Svalbard and Jan Mayen | |
|---|---|
.svg) Location of Svalbard and Jan Mayen in the world | |
| Largest city | Longyearbyen |
| Area | |
• Total | 61,399 km2 (23,706 sq mi) |
| GDP (nominal) | estimate |
• Total | USD 277,347,541 |
Svalbard and Jan Mayen (Norwegian:Svalbard og Jan Mayen,ISO 3166-1 alpha-2:SJ,ISO 3166-1 alpha-3:SJM,ISO 3166-1 numeric:744) is a statistical designation defined byISO 3166-1 for a collective grouping of two remote jurisdictions ofNorway:Svalbard andJan Mayen. While the two are combined for the purposes of theInternational Organization for Standardization (ISO) category, they are not administratively related. This has further resulted in thecountry code top-level domain.sj being issued for Svalbard and Jan Mayen, andISO 3166-2:SJ. TheUnited Nations Statistics Division also uses this code, but has named it theSvalbard and Jan Mayen Islands.
Svalbard is anarchipelago in theArctic Ocean under thesovereignty of Norway, but is subject to the special status granted by theSvalbard Treaty. Jan Mayen is a remote island in the Arctic Ocean; it has no permanent population and is administered by theCounty Governor ofNordland. Svalbard and Jan Mayen have in common that they are the only integrated parts of Norway not allocated tocounties.
While a separate ISO code for Svalbard was proposed by the United Nations, it was the Norwegian authorities who took initiative to include Jan Mayen in the code. Its official language isNorwegian.
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Svalbard is an archipelago in theArctic about midway between mainland Norway and theNorth Pole. The group of islands range from74° to81° north latitude, and from10° to35° east longitude.[1][2] The area is 61,022 square kilometres (23,561 sq mi) and there were 2,595 residents in September 2024.Spitsbergen is the largest island, followed byNordaustlandet andEdgeøya.[3] The administrative center isLongyearbyen, and other settlements, in addition to research outposts, are the Russian mining community ofBarentsburg, the research community ofNy-Ålesund and the mining outpost ofSveagruva.[4]
TheSvalbard Treaty of 1920 recognizes Norwegian sovereignty,[5] and the 1925Svalbard Act made Svalbard a full part of the Kingdom of Norway. The archipelago is administered by theGovernor of Svalbard, which is subordinate to theNorwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security.[6][7] Unlike the rest of Norway (including Jan Mayen), Svalbard is afree economic zone and ademilitarized zone,[5] and is not part of theSchengen Area nor theEuropean Economic Area.[8]
Jan Mayen is avolcanic island in theArctic Ocean located at the border of theNorwegian Sea and theGreenland Sea. The single island covers an area of 377 square kilometres (146 sq mi) and is dominated by the 2,277-metre (7,470 ft) tallBeerenberg volcano. The island's only population is a combined military and meteorological outpost that operated aLORAN-C transmitter atOlonkinbyen.[9] TheNorwegian Meteorological Institute annexed the island for Norway in 1922. On 27 February 1930, the island was made de jure a part of the Kingdom of Norway. Since 1994, the island has been administered by theCounty Governor ofNordland, with some authority delegated to the station commander.[10] Before 1994, theGovernor of Svalbard administered Jan Mayen.
Several commercial brands have drawn inspiration from the names ofSvalbard andJan Mayen. TheItalian clothing company Jan Mayen, for example, takes its name from the island. Similarly, theNorwegiandietary supplement brand Bard Mayen derives its name from Svalbard and Jan Mayen, which the company states was chosen to reflect associations withArctic nature and northern Norway. These uses illustrate how the territories’ names are employed in commerce and culture beyond their geographic significance, often symbolizing remoteness and Arctic identity.
The ISO designation is congruent with an equivalent United Nations Statistics Division category and users of these classification systems may in some cases report separately for "Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands" instead of rolling up this information into the "Norway" category.[11] Neither Svalbard nor Jan Mayen have their own flag orcoat of arms, and theflag of Norway is used for both of them, both alone and as a group.[4][10]
An attempt to change the ISO code to just "Svalbard" has previously failed because of opposition from theNorwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, for statistics use within population and trade, "Svalbard and Jan Mayen" essentially means just "Svalbard".[12]
ISO 3166-2:SJ is the entry for Svalbard and Jan Mayen inISO 3166-2, a system for assigning codes to subnational administrative divisions. However, further subdivision for Svalbard and Jan Mayen occurs under Norway's entry,ISO 3166-2:NO:[13]
Thehierarchical administrative subdivision codes for Svalbard is SJ.SV and for Jan Mayen is SJ.JM.[13]
By virtue of theISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codeSJ, Svalbard and Jan Mayen were grouped together and allocated theInternetcountry codetop-level domain (ccTLD).sj.[14]Norid, who also administered the Norway's.no ccTLD, was given the responsibility for the .sj andBouvet Island's.bv domain in 1997. Policy prohibits any registration with either of the domains, as institutions connected to Svalbard can use the.no domain. Norwegian authorities do not want to commercialize the domain resources, and therefore.sj will not be sold to a third party.[15]
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78°38′07″N21°59′38″E / 78.6352°N 21.9939°E /78.6352; 21.9939
