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where is the north pole located

The geographic North Pole is located at the very top of the Earth, at latitude 90° North, in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, under shifting sea ice rather than on land.

Quick Scoop: Where is the North Pole located?

When people ask “where is the north pole located,” they usually mean the Geographic (or “True”) North Pole, but there are actually a few different “north poles.”

1. Geographic (True) North Pole

  • Exact spot where Earth’s axis of rotation meets its surface in the Northern Hemisphere.
  • Coordinates: 90∘90^\circ 90∘ North; longitude can be considered any value because all lines of longitude meet there.
  • Sits in the Arctic Ocean, on pack ice, above deep water (over 4,000 m / about 13,000–14,000 ft).
  • Nearest land: usually said to be Kaffeklubben Island, off northern Greenland, about 700 km (430 miles) away.
  • Nearest permanently inhabited place: Alert, on Ellesmere Island in Canada, about 817 km (508 miles) away.

Because it’s on drifting sea ice, you can’t build a permanent marker or town right on the Geographic North Pole—any flag or pole would slowly move with the ice.

2. Magnetic North Pole

This is the “north” your compass points toward, and it’s not the same as the Geographic North Pole.

  • Defined by Earth’s magnetic field lines dipping vertically into the surface.
  • Located far south of the Geographic North Pole and has been wandering for nearly two centuries.
  • In the early 21st century it was north of Canada’s Queen Elizabeth Islands and has kept moving toward the Arctic Ocean and Russia, at tens of kilometers per year.

So if you stand exactly at the Geographic North Pole with a compass, it won’t simply point to “north” in the intuitive way you might expect.

3. Geomagnetic North Pole

There is also a more abstract “geomagnetic north,” based on a simplified model of Earth’s overall magnetic field.

  • Represents the northern end of Earth’s idealized magnet, not a single pinpoint like the geographic pole.
  • Currently lies on or near Ellesmere Island in northern Canada, some distance away from both the Geographic and Magnetic North Poles.

This is mainly important for space physics, auroras, and modeling the global magnetic environment.

4. A quick mental picture

Imagine a spinning globe:

  • The stick through the globe : where it exits at the top is the Geographic North Pole, out in the Arctic Ocean on floating ice.
  • The bar magnet inside : its “north end” doesn’t line up perfectly with that stick; its surface intersection is near the Magnetic and Geomagnetic North Poles, currently in and around the high Canadian Arctic and Arctic Ocean.

That’s why the answer to “where is the north pole located” depends on whether you mean the planet’s spin axis, your compass, or Earth’s magnetic field model.

TL;DR

  • Where is the North Pole located?
    • Geographic North Pole: 90° N, in the middle of the Arctic Ocean on drifting sea ice, roughly 450 miles (725 km) north of Greenland.
* Magnetic/geomagnetic poles: in the high Arctic around northern Canada and the Arctic Ocean, and they move over time.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.