Northern Canada of Aboriginal inhabitants than any of Canada's provinces. There are also many more recent immigrants from around the world; of the territories, Yukon has the largest percentage of non-Aboriginal inhabitants, while Nunavut the smallest. The largest settlement in Northern Canada is the capital of Yukon, Whitehorse with 23,276 at the 2011 census. Second is Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, which contains 19,234 inhabitants. Third is Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, with 6,699. For hundreds of years, this area had been considered the largest 'uncivilized' area in the world. However, within the last 20 years, specifically in the last
Yellowknife Yellowknife began with the discovery of diamonds north of the city in 1991. The last of the gold mines in Yellowknife closed in 2004. Today, Yellowknife is primarily a government town and a service centre for the diamond mines. On April 1, 1999, its purview as capital of the NWT was reduced when the territory of Nunavut was split from the NWT. As a result, jurisdiction for that region of Canada was transferred to the new capital city of Iqaluit. Consequently, Yellowknife lost its standing as the Canadian capital city with the smallest population. Yellowknife is on the Canadian Shield,