The global population is probably in excess of 80,000 animals. The narwhals that summer in the Canadian High Arctic constitute the largest fraction, probably in excess of 70,000 animals (Innes et al. 2002; NAMMCO/JCNB 2005). In addition, some thousands of narwhals probably summer in the bays and fjords along the East Baffin Island coastline (NAMMCO/JCNB 2005). Another summering aggregation, centred in northern Hudson Bay, numbers about 3,500 animals (COSEWIC 2004). Two summering aggregations in West Greenland (Inglefield Bredning and Melville Bay) total over 2,000 animals (Heide-Jørgensen 2004; NAMMCO/JCNB 2005) and in East Greenland a rough estimate of the total number of animals in the summering aggregations is >1,000 (Gjertz 1991; NAMMCO/JCNB 2005). Surveys in Central West Greenland in late winter estimated 2,800 animals in 1998 and 1999 (Heide-Jørgensen and Acquarone 2002), however, these surveys covered unknown proportions of whales from different summering aggregations in West Greenland (likely Inglefield Bredning) and possibly Canada. Some areas in Canada with summering aggregations remain unsurveyed, although these likely contain small numbers.

The estimated generation length for the narwhal according to Taylor et al. (2007) is 24 years, which means that the 3-generation window is 1936-2008.

Unknown