A wide array of Inuit names describes their various age classes, sex, and condition. The ringed seal is the smallest pinniped in the Canadian Arctic. Newborn pups average 4.5 kg in weight and 65 cm in length. When one year old, they are about 70 per cent of their mature size. The average adult is 135 cm long and weighs about 70 kg.
Females tend to be slightly smaller than males.
Population estimates by aerial strip censusing indicate that ringed seal populations are stable. About one million live in Canadian waters and six million live elsewhere. This seal is found throughout the circumpolar regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Its preferred habitat consists of the leads, pressure ridges and polynyas in the land-fast ice of the Arctic Ocean. The offshore pack ice is used irregularly.