Yakutsk is the capital and largest city of Sakha, Russia, located about 450 km south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one of Russia's most rapidly growing regional cities, with a population of 355,443 at the 2021 census. Yakutsk has an average annual temperature of −8.0 °C, winter high temperatures consistently well below −20 °C, and a record low of −64.4 °C. As a result, Yakutsk is the coldest major city in the world.