Status

Polar bears live in 20 populations across the Arctic. About 60% live within or are shared by Canada. Polar bears are also found in the U.S. (Alaska), Russia, Greenland, and Norway (Svalbard).

Polar bears live in remote areas that are difficult and expensive to study. This makes monitoring them a challenge, both for single surveys and long-term studies.

For this reason, scientists don't have solid figures on the total number of polar bears worldwide. They lack data on some populations, specifically those in Russia and East Greenland.

Arctic Russia, aside from the Chukchi Sea population, is especially data deficient. Not only is it one of the most remote areas on the planet, it lacks basic infrastructure (roads and airfields) and logistical support (small aircraft). Polar Bears International is currently helping to fund studies that will erase some of Russia’s big blank spots.

Because of the expense and logistical difficulties of working in many Arctic locations, there are very few long-term studies of polar bear populations. But those with long-term data sets allow scientists to track changes over time. For example:

Canada's Western Hudson Bay population:

Based on an aerial survey in 2021, the population dropped by 27 percent in just five years, from 842 bears to 618, continuing the declining trend of the past 30 years. Previous aerial surveys showed a drop of 11 percent from 2011 to 2016. The population estimate is now roughly half of what it was in the 1980s, when studies using a different technique showed 1,200 bears.

Southern Beaufort Sea population (along the northern coast of Alaska and western Canada):

Plunged by about 40% over a 10-year study period from 2001-2010, dropping from about 1,500 to 900 bears. More recent population estimates are not yet available.

The number of polar bears worldwide is not increasing. Some populations are recovering after their numbers were vastly reduced by uncontrolled hunting in the 1960s, but that potential for growth is running head first into declining carrying capacity in some regions due to loss of sea ice habitat.

Related to this, residents of many communities in Hudson Bay are seeing more polar bears. These polar bears are increasingly getting into food caches, entering camps, and posing risks to communities and residents. The observation that “people are seeing more bears in and around sites of human activities” is real evidence of a change from the past conditions northern residents knew.

Western science-based knowledge/evidence shows that in the Hudson Bay system, polar bear body condition has been declining, bears are having fewer cubs, fewer cubs are surviving after birth, and the population size has declined.

These two different pieces of knowledge/evidence are easy to integrate: As malnourished bears spend more time on land for longer periods, more are venturing into settlements where they are looking for food, leading to increased polar bear-human conflicts. This is why we’ve stepped up conflict-reduction efforts, working to keep polar bears and people safe.