Talk:Northernmost settlements

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"Northernmost settlements" ...you forgot Nord, Greenland

Etah links to the wrong Etah...disambiguation page needed?

[edit] Northernmost Town

So what is the world's northernmost incorporated setttlement? I see some tiny little settlements (with largely transient populations) listed, but a family of five is bigger than some of these. We're certainly not going to list a family home as a "settlement." So I'd think that determining the world's most northerly cities/towns/villages/incorporated areas is a better idea, unless some underlying definition can be agreed upon. My vote is for an incorporated settlement, or at the very least, a settlement with a permanent population. Based on this list of settlements, however, I'd happily say I've been to the world's northernmost city if I've been to Longyearben. Thoughts, anyone??? Goeverywhere 05:01, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

The world's northernmost incorporated settlement is likely to be Barrow, Alaska, as incorporation is a U.S. concept. Eugène van der Pijll 07:42, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

If we allow only U.S. places, the list does not much reflect the name "Northernmost settlements". BIL 08:39, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Which is why the list contains all settlements, incorporated or not. I'd guess that at least 10 places in this list claim to be the real northermost one, because the others are unincorporated/not permanent/abandoned/too small. Everyone will have to decide on the criterium to use for themselves. Eugène van der Pijll 08:57, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Incorporation may be a U.S. concept, but don't most countries have a "legal" definition of towns, cities, or villages? I guess I'm searching for the difference between a settlement without any sort of local government to a settlement with some form of municipal government. I agree, though, if we can't come up with that definition, then a thorough list allows everyone to decide for themselves. Goeverywhere 01:56, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Many countries have no legal definition of towns, cities, and villages, but have municipalities as lowest level of government that covers the whole country. These municipalities often do not correspond to a single settlement. As the entire area of these countries is divided into municipalities, you could say that their northernmost point is always in a municipality, even though there may not be a settlement there... For example, the northernmost point of the municipality of Qaanaaq lies at about 80 degrees north, even though the main settlement in the municipality lies 2.5 degrees to the south. Eugène van der Pijll 07:25, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

In Scandinavia a term is used "Tätort", appox. "Dense settlement", defined to have at least 200 residents with less than 200 m between neighbour residential houses. I see that these terms vary a lot between countries. Town is a term meaning "individually decided to be a town" in Scandinavia. It seems to be hard to find Wikipedia-appropriate terms BIL 09:12, 5 September 2006 (UTC)