Yukon
territory of Canada
Yukon (, Canadian French: [jukõ]) is a territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada's westernmost and smallest territory by land area. As of the 2026 second quarter estimates Yukon had a population of 48,493, the most of the territories. Whitehorse, the territorial capital, is the largest city in northern Canada.
Yukon was split from the Northwest Territories by a federal statute in 1898 as the Yukon Territory. The current governing legislation is the Yukon Act passed by the federal Parliament in 2002. That act established Yukon as the territory's official name, although Yukon Territory remains in popular usage. Canada Post uses the territory's internationally approved postal abbreviation of YT. In 2021, territorial government policy was changed so that The Yukon is recommended for use in official territorial government materials.
Although officially bilingual (English and French), the Yukon government recognizes First Nations languages.
At 5,959 metres (19,551 feet), Yukon's Mount Logan, in Kluane National Park and Reserve, is the highest mountain in Canada and the second-highest on the North American continent (after Denali in the U.S. state of Alaska).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Yukon” as territory of Canada. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as territory of Canada. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2009. VIAF identifies the subject as 125708410. The Library of Congress control number is n79141229. Authority coordinates are 60.721, -135.053. 2 of 7 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2026, 1898, 2002 and 2021.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Yukon”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Yukon primary sources, Yukon archive and Yukon research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Yukon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.