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The village has around nine hundred residents, with a large Inuit majority. Unlike many communities in the Canadian Arctic, Sanikiluaq has kept Inuktitut as a living everyday language, and children are taught to read and write in the Inuktitut syllabary before the Latin alphabet. English is a second language for most adults.

The age range is young, with a median close to twenty-five years. Families are large by Canadian standards, with three to five children being common, and there is a strong fabric of extended kinship. Almost all surnames in the village belong to a few original families from the Belcher Islands.

The non-Inuit presence is limited to professionals on contract: staff from Nuiyak School, the health center, the RCMP station, the weather station, and administrative employees of the hamlet. These transient residents typically stay between one and three years before rotating to other northern communities.

The housing stock consists of wooden houses raised on stilts, designed for permafrost and extreme winds. The vast majority belong to the Nunavut Housing Corporation, rented to Inuit residents at a value proportional to family income. The waiting list for a unit can stretch for years, and family overcrowding is a chronic problem.

Professionals who move to Sanikiluaq almost always receive a furnished house from their employer, usually the Government of Nunavut, the Qikiqtani General health council, or the school district. These units are typically duplexes or triplexes near the administrative center of the village.

There is no Airbnb, no commercial hotel, and no significant private rental market. Those who arrive without housing arranged by their employer have practically nowhere to stay, except the hamlet guest house, reserved for official visits and itinerant doctors.

Nuiyak School is the only educational institution in the village, operated by Coral Harbour School Operations (part of the Nunavut school system). It serves from kindergarten through twelfth grade, with about two hundred and fifty students. The early years are entirely in Inuktitut, with a gradual transition to English.

There is no university or in-person college. Young people who want to pursue higher education must go to Iqaluit, Ottawa, Winnipeg, or Montreal, where Nunavut Sivuniksavut and Nunavut Arctic College maintain programs aimed at Inuit students. The Government of Nunavut offers scholarships and travel for these students.

Traditional learning programs (Land Skills) take students out to hunt, sew skins, build igloos, and learn from elders. These programs are an integral part of the curriculum, not extracurricular activities, and reflect the centrality of traditional knowledge to local identity.

Sanikiluaq has no street crime, robbery, or car theft as known in urban centers. The RCMP V Division maintains a permanent detachment of two to three officers. Most police incidents involve alcohol and domestic conflicts, more rarely hunting firearms used during moments of crisis.

The village faces the same structural challenges as most communities in the Canadian Arctic: high youth suicide rates, substance abuse, and intergenerational trauma linked to the residential school system. There is a regional crisis intervention line and an elders program supporting youth, but mental health resources are scarce.

Safety in the natural environment is the main concern for newcomers. Extreme cold, occasional polar bears, unstable sea ice, and storms require basic training before any activity outside the village. Residents never hunt or travel alone on the ice.

The village has a global reputation in Inuit art, with sculptures in local green and gray soapstone exported to galleries in Canada, the United States, and Europe. The work with eider duck skin and down, unique to the Belcher Archipelago, is considered living cultural heritage and produces valuable handcrafted parkas, mittens, and duvets.

The community calendar includes spring festivals tied to the end of the long winter, drum dancing and throat singing gatherings on special occasions, traditional Inuit games, and Anglican religious celebrations that blend hymns in Inuktitut with local practices.

Traditional cuisine is central to the village's identity: seal meat raw or cooked, eider duck, occasional beluga, Arctic char, mussels gathered under the ice, and Arctic berries in summer. Community meals after successful hunts gather the entire village at the recreation center.

The village has an almost entirely native Inuit population, with very low international immigration. The few residents born outside Canada are usually nurses, itinerant doctors, teachers, or researchers on one- to three-year contracts, mainly from the Philippines, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and India, professions that face chronic shortages in the Canadian Arctic.

There is no established immigrant community, no ethnic associations of its own, and no commerce aimed at immigrants. Those who arrive from outside integrate into village life through coworkers, the church, or involvement with host Inuit families.

For any consular needs, foreign residents must contact consulates in Ottawa or Montreal, since there is no foreign diplomatic representation in Nunavut. The Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated support cases of non-Inuit residents in more complex administrative situations.