Comment 1 for bug 1396294

Note that this behavior was implemented as designed (Inkscape being a
document-centric application). 'File > Close' (Ctrl+W) closes the
current document window, and if it is the last open window, the
application quits.

Due to popular demand, the next major version of Inkscape (0.91) will
open a new empty document if the last open document is closed with 'File
> Close' (Ctrl+W) (instead of quitting the application). The behavior of
'File > Quit' (Ctrl+Q) remains unchanged - it will close all open
document windows and quit the application.

Linking as duplicate to bug #170550.