Do People Live in the Polar Ice Caps? No Permanent Residents

No one permanently lives on the polar ice caps themselves. The environments are too extreme: −40°C to −60°C winters, months of darkness, no liquid water, no soil, no food sources.

Arctic (North Pole — Sea Ice)

• No land at the Pole — only shifting sea ice (2–3 m thick).
• Coastal settlements exist on surrounding lands (Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia) — Indigenous (Inuit, Yupik, Sámi, Nenets) and non-Indigenous.
• Research stations on ice: Russian North Pole drifting stations (NP-1 since 1937); temporary, months-long.
• Military / commercial: Submarines, icebreakers, ice runways (Barneo camp, seasonal).

Antarctic (South Pole — Ice Sheet on Land)

• Continent covered by 2–4 km ice sheet.
• No permanent residents. Only seasonal research stations (summer ~5,000; winter ~1,000).
• Major stations: McMurdo (US, 1,200 summer), Amundsen-Scott South Pole (US), Vostok (Russia), Concordia (FR/IT), Rothera (UK), Halley (UK), Neumayer (DE), Syowa (JP), Great Wall (CN), etc.
• Governed by Antarctic Treaty (1959): Science, peace, no sovereignty, no mining.

Why Not?

• Physiological limits (cold, altitude, UV).
• Logistical impossibility (all supplies flown/shipped in).
• Legal framework (Antarctic Treaty; Arctic Ocean law of the sea).

People live near the ice caps (Arctic coasts), not on them.