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The city is located on Frobisher Bay on the southwest part of Baffin Island, in the Arctic Ocean to the east of the territory's mainland, and to the north of Hudson Bay. Inhabitants of Iqaluit are called Iqalummiut (singular, Iqalummiuk).
Begun as an American airbase in World War II, the population of the city of Frobisher Bay increased rapidly during the construction of the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW line, a system of radar stations, see NORAD) in the 1950s. On January 1, 19871987 is a common year starting on Thursday. Events January January 1 Nunavut's capital changes it name to Iqaluit from Frobisher Bay. January 3 Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. January 4 An Amtrak train, the name of this municipality was officially changed from "Frobisher Bay" to "Iqaluit", which means "place of many fish" in Inuktitut.
Iqaluit has the distinction of being the smallest Canadian capital city in terms of population and the only capital that cannot be accessed from the rest of Canada via a highwayA highway is a major road within a city, or linking several cities together. It includes roads known as interstate highway, freeway, motorway and autobahn, where a full description varies by country. Generally, a highway is a road which has multiple lanes.
According to the 2001 Statistics Canada census:
| Population: | 5,236 (+24.1% from 1996) |
| Land area: | 52.34 kmē |
| Population density: | 100.0 people/kmē |
| Median age: | 28.3 (males: 28.6, females: 27.9) |
| Total private dwellings: | 2,105 |
| Median household income: | $69,650 |