# Who owns Antarctica?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-owns-antarctica/49140>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 9, 2001, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-owns-antarctica/49140 "2001-01-09T12:18:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-owns-antarctica/49140/1 "2001-01-09T12:18:30Z")

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Well, who does? On an atlas or globe it’s just labeled “Antarctica”. Is it free for the taking because no one in their right mind would live there, or do some countries actually own land there?

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**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-owns-antarctica/49140/2 "2001-01-09T12:38:31Z")

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This question had been dealt with a few times already. There’s a decent explanation in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=45492).

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**Author:** ![bare](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bare/32/471_2.png) [@bare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bare)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-owns-antarctica/49140/3 "2001-01-09T12:39:21Z")

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The simple answer is no one “owns” Antarctica. Last I heard there were seven countries that claimed a slice of the continent, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina,UK, France, and I think Norway.

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**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-owns-antarctica/49140/4 "2001-01-09T13:14:03Z")

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IIRC  
I think Chile has a small colony there. This is not a research station, therte are schools and public services and the garbage dump is an iceberg that breaks off peridiocaly.