The 8 Coldest Permanently Inhabited Places on Earth

I honestly feel like I’m qualified to write this because I start complaining the second the temperature drops below 50°F. However, the people living in these places are on a whole different level of “built different.” We’re talking about towns where “chilly” means your eyelashes literally freeze together. Also, “cold” means your car tires turn into square blocks of rubber if you park for too long.

These aren’t just research stations where scientists hang out for a few months. Oh no, these are actual towns with schools, post offices, and grocery stores. People live, work, and raise kids in temperatures that would break a normal person. So, let’s explore the coldest permanently inhabited places on Earth.

Oymyakon, Russia (The Pole of Cold)

If there’s a final boss of cold, it’s Oymyakon. It’s a small village in Siberia, and it holds the record for the coldest permanently inhabited place on Earth. In the winter, the average temperature is around -58°F, but it has dropped as low as -96°F.

People here deal with “ice fog,” which is so thick you can’t see your own hand. Because the ground is permafrost, you can’t have indoor plumbing (pipes would just explode), so outhouses are the norm. And get this: people have to keep their cars running 24/7 in the winter. If the engine stops, the oil freezes solid and the car is basically a paperweight until spring.

Yakutsk, Russia (The Coldest City)

While Oymyakon is a village, Yakutsk is a full-blown city with over 300,000 people. It’s the regional capital, and it is built entirely on permafrost. Most of the buildings are on stilts. That way, the heat from the house doesn’t melt the ground and cause the whole thing to sink.

Walking through the market in Yakutsk is a trip. You don’t need freezers because the air is the freezer. Fish are sold standing upright in crates like frozen popsicles, and meat is carved with saws. The locals have this “Siberian uniform” of heavy fur and multiple layers. It makes everyone look like a fluffy bear, but honestly, it’s the only way to survive there.

Eureka, Canada (The Top of the World)

Eureka is a tiny research base and weather station on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada. While it only has a handful of permanent residents (mostly scientists and staff), it’s technically “inhabited” year-round.

What makes Eureka so brutal isn’t just a one-time cold snap, it’s the average temperature. It’s the coldest place in North America on an annual basis. There is zero sunlight for months at a time in the winter. The “summer” is basically a few weeks where it might—just might—hit 40°F. It’s so far north that trees can’t grow. Instead, it’s just rocks, ice, and the occasional muskox wondering why humans decided to live there.

Norilsk, Russia (Industrial Ice)

We talked about Norilsk being an “industry town” before, but it also happens to be one of the most freezing places on the planet. It’s the northernmost city in the world with more than 100,000 people. It’s covered in snow for about 270 days a year.

Because it’s so industrial and isolated, the cold feels even grittier there. The wind is the real killer; it whips between the high-rise apartment blocks like a razor. To get to work, people often have to wait for “convoys” of buses. If a single bus breaks down in a blizzard, it’s a life-or-death situation. It’s a city that exists purely for nickel mining. But you’d have to pay me a lot more than a miner’s salary to stay through one of those winters.

Denali National Park, Alaska (The High Cold)

Okay, so the park itself is huge, but the small communities near and within Denali deal with some of the most extreme cold in the U.S. Because of the elevation and the inland location, it gets way colder than coastal spots like Anchorage.

In the depths of winter, it’s common to see temperatures hit -40°F or lower. The air gets so dry and still that sounds carry for miles. Residents here are the ultimate “off-grid” types—people who chop their own wood and track their own food. It’s a stunningly beautiful place. However, it’s the kind of beauty that will kill you if you forget your gloves inside for ten minutes.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (The Coldest Capital)

Most people don’t realize that Mongolia is actually one of the coldest countries on Earth. Ulaanbaatar holds the title of the “Coldest National Capital City.” While it gets hot in the summer, the winter is a long, freezing slog where it regularly stays below -20°F.

The city is tucked into a valley, which creates a “temperature inversion.” Basically, the cold, heavy air gets trapped at the bottom, and all the smoke from the traditional “ger” (yurt) districts—where people burn coal and wood to stay alive—gets trapped too. It’s a mix of extreme cold and intense air quality issues. This makes it a very tough place to live during the long Mongolian winter.

Fraser, Colorado (The Icebox of the Nation)

Let’s give some love to the lower 48! Fraser is famously in a “feud” with International Falls, Minnesota, over who gets to call themselves the “Icebox of the Nation.” Located high in the Rockies, Fraser has a bizarre microclimate where cold air flows down from the surrounding peaks. It then settles in the flats.

Even in the summer, it can drop below freezing at night. It’s a place where you can go skiing in the morning. You still need a heavy parka to go to the grocery store in July. It’s not “Siberia cold,” but for the continental U.S., it’s about as close as you’re going to get to living in a freezer year-round.

International Falls, Minnesota (The Humidity Freeze)

And of course, we have to mention the other Icebox. International Falls sits right on the border with Canada, and it’s famous for being the coldest “city” in the contiguous United States.

The cold here hits differently because of the moisture from the surrounding lakes. It’s a damp, bone-chilling cold that seeps through your clothes. They embrace it, though—they have a “Frozen Film Festival” and celebrate their status as the place where car companies go to “cold-test” their new models. If a car can start in an International Falls January, it can start anywhere.