Yukon wassplit from the Northwest Territories by a federal statute in 1898 as theYukon Territory. The current governing legislation is theYukon Act passed by the federal Parliament in 2002.[10] That act establishedYukon as the territory's official name, althoughYukon Territory remains in popular usage.Canada Post uses the territory's internationally approved postal abbreviation ofYT.[11] In 2021, territorial government policy was changed so thatThe Yukon is recommended for use in official territorial government materials.[12]
Although officially bilingual (English and French), the Yukon government recognizesFirst Nations languages.
The territory is named after theYukon River, the longest river in the Yukon. The name itself is from acontraction of the words in theGwich'in phrasechųų gąįį han, which means "white water river" and refers to "the pale colour" ofglacial runoff in the Yukon River.[13][14]
Historically, the name of the Yukon Territory has been abbreviated to "The Yukon" in informal speech. In 2003, the territorial government announced that the territory should be referred to as "Yukon", but the change in name sparked discussion amongst Yukoners. In the 2021 election, the leader of theYukon NDP,Kate White, campaigned on returning to using "The Yukon". Following the election, theYukon Liberal Party government announced that "The Yukon" would again be used by the government.[12]
Most of the territory is in the watershed of its namesake, the Yukon River, which flows across the territory in a northwesterly direction. The southern Yukon is dotted with a large number of large, long and narrow glacier-fed alpine lakes, most of which flow into the Yukon River system. The larger lakes includeTeslin Lake,Atlin Lake,Tagish Lake,Marsh Lake,Lake Laberge,Kusawa Lake andKluane Lake.Bennett Lake on theKlondike Gold Rush trail is a lake flowing into Nares Lake, with the greater part of its area within Yukon. Other watersheds in the territory include the Mackenzie River, thePeel Watershed and theAlsek–Tatshenshini, and a number of rivers flowing directly into the Beaufort Sea. The two main Yukon rivers flowing into the Mackenzie in the Northwest Territories are theLiard River in the southeast and thePeel River and its tributaries in the northeast.
Notable widespread tree species within the Yukon are theblack spruce andwhite spruce. Many trees are stunted because of the short growing season and severe climate.[16]
While the average winter temperature in the Yukon is mild by Canadian arctic standards, no other place in North America gets as cold as the Yukon during extreme cold snaps. The temperature has dropped down to −60 °C (−76 °F) three times, 1947, 1952, and 1968. The most extreme cold snap occurred in February 1947 when the abandoned town ofSnag dropped down to −63.0 °C (−81.4 °F).[17]
Unlike most of Canada where the most extreme heat waves occur in July, August, and even September, the Yukon's extreme heat tends to occur in June and even May. The Yukon has recorded 36 °C (97 °F) three times. The first time was in June 1969 whenMayo recorded a temperature of 36.1 °C (97 °F). 14 years later this record was almost beaten whenForty Mile recorded 36 °C (97 °F) in May 1983. The old record was finally broken 21 years later in June 2004 when the Mayo Road weather station, located just northwest ofWhitehorse, recorded a temperature of 36.5 °C (97.7 °F).[18]
Average daily maximum and minimum temperatures for selected locations in Yukon[18][19]
Long before the arrival of Europeans, the central and southern Yukon was populated by First Nations people, and the area escapedglaciation. Sites ofarcheological significance in the Yukon hold some of the earliest evidence of the presence of human habitation in North America.[20] The sites safeguard the history of the first people and the earliest First Nations of the Yukon.[20]
Thevolcanic eruption ofMount Churchill in approximately 800 AD in what is now the U.S. state of Alaska blanketed the southern Yukon with a layer ofash which can still be seen along theKlondike Highway, and which forms part of the oral tradition of First Nations peoples in the Yukon and further south in Canada.
Coastal and inland First Nations had extensive trading networks. European incursions into the area began early in the 19th century with thefur trade, followed bymissionaries. By the 1870s and 1880s, gold miners began to arrive. This drove a population increase that justified the establishment of a police force, just in time for the start of theKlondike Gold Rush in 1897. The increased population coming with the gold rush led to the separation of the Yukon district from the Northwest Territories and the formation of the separate Yukon Territory in 1898.
The2021 census reported a Yukon population of 40,232.[21] With a land area of 474,712.64 km2 (183,287.57 sq mi), it had a population density of0.1/km2 (0.2/sq mi) in 2011, the highest among Canada's three territories.[22] Statistics Canada has estimated Yukon's 2024 population to be 46,948,[23] an increase of 17.5% from the 2016 census. This is the largest percentage increase for any Canadian province or territory.
According to the2021 Canadian Census the majority of the territory's population was of European descent, although it has a significant population ofFirst Nations communities across the territory. The 2021 Census examined the Yukon's ethnocultural diversity and immigration. At that time, 83.2% of residents were Canadian-born and 22.3% were of Indigenous origin. The most common countries of birth for immigrants were the Philippines (26.1%), the United States (9.8%), and the United Kingdom (9.7%). Among very recent immigrants (between 2016 and 2021) living in the Yukon, 56% were born in Asia.[24]
Visible minority and indigenous identity (2021):[24]
The most commonly reported mother tongue among the 39,840 single responses to the2021 Canadian census was English at 31,995 (80%)[24]. The second-most common was 1,455 (4%) for French.[24] Among the 1,355 multiple respondents, 440 of them (32%) reported a mother tongue of both English and French, while 785 (58%) reported English and a "non-official language" and 15 (1%) reported French and a "non-official language".[24]
The Yukon'sLanguage Act "recognizes the significance" of the territory's aboriginal languages in the Yukon, and permits their use in Legislative Assembly proceedings, although only English and French are available for laws and court proceedings.[25]
First Nations linguistic groups by tribes/clans[26]
The2021 Canadian census reported that 59.7% of Yukoners reported having no religious affiliation, thehighest percentage in Canada. The most frequently reported religious affiliation was Christianity, reported by 35.0% of residents, followed by Sikhism at 1.0%.[28]
A conveyor belt and cart outside of a mine tunnel in the Yukon. The economy of the territory has historically been centred around mining.
The Yukon's major industry is mining (lead,zinc, silver, gold,asbestos and copper). The federal government acquired the land from theHudson's Bay Company in 1870 and split it from theNorthwest Territories in 1898 to fill the need for local government created by the population influx of the gold rush. Thousands of these prospectors moved to the territory, ushering a period of Yukon history recorded by authors such asRobert W. Service andJack London. The memory of this period and the early days of theRoyal Canadian Mounted Police, as well as the territory's scenic wonders and outdoor recreation opportunities, makes tourism the second most important industry in the territory.
Manufacturing, including furniture, clothing, and handicrafts, follows in importance, along withhydroelectricity. The traditional industries oftrapping and fishing have declined. As of 2012, the government sector directly employs approximately 6,300 out of a labour force of 20,800, on a population of 27,500.[30][31]
On May 1, 2015, the Yukon modified its Business Corporations Act,[32][33][34] in an effort to attract more benefits and participants to its economy. One amendment to the BCA lets a proxy be given for voting purposes. Another change will allow directors to pursue business opportunities declined by the corporation, a practice off-limits in most other jurisdictions due to the inherent potential for conflicts of interest.[35] One of the changes will allow a corporation to serve as a director of a subsidiary registered in Yukon.[36] The legislation also allows companies to add provisions in their articles of incorporation giving directors blanket approval to sell off all of the company's assets without requiring a shareholder vote.[36] If provided for by a unanimous shareholders agreement, a corporation is not required to have directors at all.[37] There is increased flexibility regarding the location of corporate records offices, including the ability to maintain a records office outside of the Yukon so long as it is accessible by electronic means.[37]
A musher during the start of theYukon Quest dog sledding race in Whitehorse
The Yukon's Aboriginal culture is also strongly reflected in such areas as winter sports, as in theYukon Quest sled dog race. The modern comic-book characterYukon Jack depicts a heroic aboriginal persona. Similarly, the territorial government also recognizes that First Nations and Inuit languages plays a part in cultural heritage of the territory; these languages includeTlingit, and the less commonTahltan, as well as seven Athapaskan languages,Upper Tanana,Gwich'in,Hän,Northern Tutchone,Southern Tutchone,Kaska, andTagish, some of which are rare.[49]
Notable Yukon artists includeJim Robb andTed Harrison, whose paintings have become iconic for their depictions of historic and contemporary life and culture in the Yukon.[50]
With theKlondike Gold Rush, a number offolk songs from the Yukon became popular, including "Rush to the Klondike" (1897, written by W. T. Diefenbaker), "The Klondike Gold Rush", "I've Got the Klondike Fever" (1898), and "La Chanson du Klondyke".
Executive power in the Yukon is formally vested in theTerritorial Commissioner,[51] who plays an analogous role to that of a provinciallieutenant governor. As guarantor ofresponsible government in the territory, the Commissioner generally acts on the advice of thePremier of Yukon, who commands the confidence of the electedLegislative Assembly. Unlike lieutenant governors, commissioners are not direct representatives of theKing but are instead appointed by the federal government.
Distribution of Yukon's eight municipalities by type
The vast majority of the Yukon's land mass isunorganized, with no defined municipal or otherwise supralocal level of government like in other parts of Canada.
For most individuals in the Yukon, though, local level governance is provided bymunicipalities. The Yukon's eightmunicipalities cover only0.2% of the territory's land mass[a] but are home to80.9% of its population.[56][57][58]
Municipal governments are created by the Yukon Government in accordance with theMunicipal Act of 2001.[59] Municipal governments provide "jurisdiction services, facilities, or things that a local government considers necessary or desirable for all or part of its community".[59] Classifications of municipalities under theMunicipal Act includecities andtowns.[59]Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon and its only city. The remaining seven municipalities are towns, of which four were villages that were continued as towns upon adoption of the 2001Municipal Act.[59]
The usage is somewhat confusing: according to the Municipal Act of 2001 villages are legally given the status of towns, but may call themselves villages in English. In French they are called villages, and the French word ville, which means town, is not used for them. Instead larger settlements are called ville and even bigger ones grande ville, apart from Dawson which is called a cité, and in English is also called a city.Keno City, though unincorporated, also bears city in its name.
In the 19th century, the Yukon was a segment ofNorth-Western Territory that was administered by theHudson's Bay Company, and then of the Northwest Territories administered by the federal Canadian government. It only obtained a recognizable local government in 1895 when it became a separatedistrict of the Northwest Territories.[60] In 1898, it was made a separate territory with its own commissioner and an appointed Territorial Council.[61]
Prior to 1979, the territory was administered by thecommissioner who was appointed by the federalMinister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. The commissioner had a role in appointing the territory'sExecutive Council, served as chair, and had a day-to-day role in governing the territory. The electedTerritorial Council had a purely advisory role. In 1979, a significant degree of power wasdevolved from the commissioner and the federal government to the territorial legislature which, in that year, adopted a party system ofresponsible government. This change was accomplished through a letter fromJake Epp, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, rather than through formal legislation.
In preparation forresponsible government, political parties were organized and ran candidates to theYukon Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1978. TheProgressive Conservatives won these elections and formed the first party government of the Yukon in January 1979. TheYukon New Democratic Party (NDP) formed the government from 1985 to 1992 underTony Penikett and again from 1996 underPiers McDonald until being defeated in 2000. The conservatives returned to power in 1992 underJohn Ostashek after having renamed themselves theYukon Party. TheLiberal government ofPat Duncan was defeated in elections in November 2002, withDennis Fentie of the Yukon Party forming the government aspremier. In 2003, the oldYukon Act was repealed and replaced by a newYukon Act, which continued the existing powers of the Yukon Government, and devolved additional powers to the territorial government such as control over land and natural resources.[62]
At the federal level, the Yukon is represented in theParliament of Canada by one member of Parliament (MP) and onesenator. MPs from Canadian territories are full and equal voting representatives and residents of the territory enjoy the same rights as other Canadian citizens. One Yukon MP,Erik Nielsen, served asDeputy Prime Minister underBrian Mulroney, while another,Audrey McLaughlin, was the leader of the federalNew Democratic Party (NDP) from 1989 to 1995.
A substantial minority of the territory's population isFirst Nations. Anumbrella land claim agreement representing 7,432 members of fourteen different First Nations was signed with the federal government in 1993. Eleven of the fourteen Yukon First Nations have negotiated and signed comprehensive land claim and self-government agreements. The fourteen First Nations speak eight different languages.
The territory once had anInuit settlement, located onHerschel Island off theArctic Ocean coast. This settlement was dismantled in 1987 and its inhabitants relocated to the neighbouring Northwest Territories. As a result of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement, the island is now a territorial park and is known officially as Qikiqtaruk Territorial Park, Qikiqtaruk being the name of the island inInuvialuktun.
Before modern forms of transportation, the rivers and mountain passes were the main transportation routes for the coastalTlingit people trading with the Athabascans of theChilkoot Pass andDalton Trail, as well as the first Europeans.
The railway ceased operation in the 1980s with the first closure of theFaro mine. It is now run during the summer months for the tourism season, with operations betweenCarcross and Skagway, Alaska.[78]
From the Gold Rush until the 1950s, riverboats plied the Yukon River, mostly between Whitehorse and Dawson City, with some making their way further to Alaska and over to theBering Sea, and other tributaries of the Yukon River such as theStewart River. Most of the riverboats were owned by the British-Yukon Navigation Company, an arm of theWhite Pass and Yukon Route, which also operated anarrow-gauge railway betweenSkagway, Alaska, and Whitehorse.
^ab"yukonais, yukonaise".Usito - le dictionnaire (in French).Université de Sherbrooke. August 30, 2025. RetrievedSeptember 4, 2025.yukonais, yukonaise ouyukonnais, yukonnaise[jukɔnɛ,jukɔnɛz] : adjectif et nom : Du Yukon. [Nuance:] Nom (avec une majuscule) : Un Yukonais, une Yukonaise. [yukonais, yukonaise oryukonnais, yukonnaise : adjective and noun : From (the) Yukon. [Modified form:] Noun (with a capital letter) : A Yukoner.]
^"Dear Sir, I have great pleasure in informing you that I have at length after much trouble and difficulties, succeed[ed] in reaching the 'Youcon', or white water River, so named by the (Gwich'in) natives from the pale colour of its water. ..., I have the honour to Remain Your obt Servt,John Bell"Hudson's Bay Company Correspondence toGeorge Simpson from John Bell (August 1, 1845),HBC Archives, D.5/14, fos. 212-215d, also quoted in,Coates, Kenneth S. & Morrison, William R. (1988).Land of the Midnight Sun: A History of the Yukon. Hurtig Publishers. p. 21.ISBN0-88830-331-9. RetrievedOctober 16, 2017.
^In Gwich'in, adjectives, such aschoo [big] andgąįį [white], follow the nouns that they modify. Thus,white water ischųų gąįį [water white].White water river ischųų gąįį han [water white river].Peter, Katherine (1979).Dinjii Zhuh Ginjik Nagwan Tr'iłtsąįį: Gwich'in Junior Dictionary(PDF). Univ. of Alaska. pp. ii (ą, į, ų are nasalized a, i, u), xii (adjectives follow nouns), 19 (nitsii orchoo [big]), 88 (ocean =chųų choo [water big]), 105 (han [river]), 142 (chųų [water]), 144 (gąįį [white]). RetrievedOctober 16, 2017.
^"Boundary Facts". International Boundary Commission. Archived fromthe original on June 11, 2011. RetrievedOctober 18, 2011.Length of boundary by province – Yukon- 1,210 km or 752 miles
^"Yukon Communities". Yukon Government: Department of Community Services. November 7, 2013. Archived fromthe original on January 16, 2014. RetrievedJanuary 15, 2014.
^abcd"Municipal Act"(PDF). Government of Yukon. 2002. RetrievedJanuary 6, 2014.
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