Greenland

This article is about the Danish territory. For the island itself, see Geography of Greenland. For other uses, see Greenland (disambiguation).

Greenland
Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenlandic)
Grønland (Danish)
Autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark
Flag of Greenland
Flag
Official seal of Greenland
Coat of arms
Anthem:
"Nunarput, utoqqarsuanngoravit" (Greenlandic)
"You Our Ancient Land"
Kalaallit song:
"Nuna asiilasooq" (Greenlandic)
"The Land of Great Length"[a]
Location of Greenland
Location of Greenland
Sovereign stateKingdom of Denmark
Union with Norway1262
Danish-Norwegian recolonization1721
Cession to Denmark14 January 1814
Home rule1 May 1979
Further autonomy and self rule21 June 2009[2][3]
Capital
and largest city
Nuuk
64°10′N 51°44′W / 64.167°N 51.733°W / 64.167; -51.733
Official languagesGreenlandic[b]
Recognized languagesDanish, English, and other languages if necessary[b]
Ethnic groups
(2020[6])
Religion
Christianity (Church of Greenland)
Demonym(s)
  • Greenlander
  • Greenlandic
  • Danish
GovernmentDevolved government within a parliamentary constitutional monarchy
• Monarch
Frederik X
Mette Frederiksen
Julie Præst Wilche
Múte Bourup Egede
Mimi Karlsen
LegislatureFolketinget (Realm legislature)
Inatsisartut (Local legislature)
National representation
• Folketing
2 members
Area
• Total
2,166,086 km2 (836,330 sq mi)
• Water (%)
83.1[c]
Highest elevation
3,700 m (12,100 ft)
Population
• 2022 estimate
Neutral increase56,583[7] (210th)
• Density
0.028/km2 (0.1/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)2011 estimate
• Total
$1.8 billion[8]
• Per capita
$37,000
GDP (nominal)2020 estimate
• Total
DKK 20.1 billion[9]
$3.08 billion[10]
• Per capita
DKK 358,000[9]
$54,694[11]
Gini (2015)Steady 33.9[12]
medium
HDI (2010)Increase 0.786[13]
high · 61st
CurrencyDanish krone (DKK)
Time zoneUTC±00:00 to UTC-04:00
Date formatdd-mm-yyyy
Driving sideright
Calling code+299
Postal codes
39xx
ISO 3166 codeGL
Internet TLD.gl

Greenland (Greenlandic: Kalaallit Nunaat, pronounced [kalaːɬːit nʉnaːt]; Danish: Grønland, pronounced [ˈkʁɶnˌlænˀ]) is a North American island autonomous territory[14] of the Kingdom of Denmark.[15] It is the larger of two autonomous territories within the Kingdom, the other being the Faroe Islands; the citizens of both territories are full citizens of Denmark. As Greenland is one of the Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union, citizens of Greenland are European Union citizens.[16] The capital and largest city of Greenland is Nuuk.[16] Greenland lies between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It is the world's largest island,[d] and is the location of the northernmost point of land in the world – Kaffeklubben Island off the northern coast is the world's northernmost undisputed point of land, and Cape Morris Jesup on the mainland was thought to be so until the 1960s.

Though a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and Denmark, the colonial powers) for more than a millennium, beginning in 986.[18] Greenland has been inhabited at intervals over at least the last 4,500 years by circumpolar peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada.[19][20] Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century (having previously settled Iceland), and the 13th century saw the arrival of Inuit.

In the early 17th century, Dano-Norwegian explorers reached Greenland again. When Denmark and Norway separated in 1814, Greenland was transferred to the Danish crown, and was fully integrated in the Danish state in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark, which made the people in Greenland citizens of Denmark. In the 1979 Greenlandic home rule referendum, Denmark granted home rule to Greenland; in the 2008 Greenlandic self-government referendum, Greenlanders voted for the Self-Government Act, which transferred more power from the Danish government to the local Naalakkersuisut (Greenlandic government).[21] Under this structure, Greenland gradually assumed responsibility for a number of governmental services and areas of competence. The Danish government retains control of citizenship, monetary policy, and foreign affairs, including defence. Most residents of Greenland are Inuit.[22]

The population is concentrated mainly on the southwest coast, and the rest of the island is sparsely populated. Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the only permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica. With a population of 56,583 (2022),[23] Greenland is the least densely populated region in the world.[24] Sixty-seven percent of its electricity production comes from renewable energy, mostly from hydropower.[25]

  1. ^ "03EM/01.25.01-50 Spørgsmål til Landsstyret: Hvornår fremsætter Landsstyret beslutning om Grønlands" [03EM/01.25.01-50 Questions to the Home Rule Government: When does the Home Rule Government make a decision on Greenland]. Government of Greenland. 7 October 2003. Archived from the original on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 13 December 2014.
  2. ^ a b (in Danish) TV 2 Nyhederne – "Grønland går over til selvstyre" Archived 9 August 2023 at the Wayback Machine TV 2 Nyhederne (TV 2 News) – Ved overgangen til selvstyre, er grønlandsk nu det officielle sprog. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  3. ^ "Self-rule introduced in Greenland". BBC News. 21 June 2009. Archived from the original on 25 April 2010. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  4. ^ (in Danish) Law of Greenlandic Selfrule Archived 8 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine (see chapter 7)
  5. ^ "Bekendtgørelse af ILO-konvention nr. 169 af 28. juni 1989 vedrørende oprindelige folk og stammefolk i selvstændige stater". Retsinformation.dk (in Danish). 9 October 1997. Archived from the original on 8 October 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference cia.gov was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Population of Greenland". Greenlandic Population as of 2022. Archived from the original on 4 August 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  8. ^ Greenland in Figures 2013 (PDF). Statistics Greenland. ISBN 978-87-986787-7-9. ISSN 1602-5709. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  9. ^ a b "DANMARKS NATIONALBANK" (PDF), www.nationalbanken.dk, archived (PDF) from the original on 16 December 2023, retrieved 16 December 2023
  10. ^ "Greenland | Data". data.worldbank.org. Archived from the original on 31 May 2023. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  11. ^ "GDP per capita (Current US$) - Greenland | Data". Archived from the original on 27 March 2023. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  12. ^ "Gini Index coefficient". CIA World Factbook. Archived from the original on 17 July 2021. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  13. ^ Avakov, Aleksandr Vladimirovich (2012). Quality of Life, Balance of Powers, and Nuclear Weapons (2012): A Statistical Yearbook for Statesmen and Citizens. Algora Publishing. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-87586-892-9. Archived from the original on 9 March 2024. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  14. ^ "Greenland: The world's largest island". Denmark.dk. Archived from the original on 20 December 2023. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  15. ^ * Dallen J. Timothy (6 November 2020). Tourism in European Microstates and Dependencies: Geopolitics, Scale and Resource Limitations. CABI. pp. 94–. ISBN 978-1-78924-310-9. OCLC 1162434605. Archived from the original on 10 June 2024. Retrieved 18 September 2022. This ....This change in governance also resulted in Greenland becoming an autonomous 'constituent country' in the Danish realm...
    • Benedikter, Thomas (19 June 2006). "The working autonomies in Europe". Society for Threatened Peoples. Archived from the original on 9 March 2008. Retrieved 3 June 2019. Denmark has established very specific territorial autonomies with its two island territories
    • Ackrén, Maria (November 2017). "Greenland". Autonomy Arrangements in the World. Archived from the original on 30 August 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019. Faroese and Greenlandic are seen as official regional languages in the self-governing territories belonging to Denmark.
    • "Greenland". International Cooperation and Development. European Commission. 3 June 2013. Archived from the original on 16 September 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2019. Greenland [...] is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark
  16. ^ a b "Greenland". The World Factbook. CIA. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
  17. ^ "Joshua Calder's World Island Information". Worldislandinfo.com. Archived from the original on 23 April 2011. Retrieved 6 September 2010.
  18. ^ The Fate of Greenland's Vikings Archived 11 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine, by Dale Mackenzie Brown, Archaeological Institute of America, 28 February 2000
  19. ^ "Saqqaq-kulturen kronologi". National Museum of Denmark. Archived from the original on 7 December 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  20. ^ Saillard J, Forster P, Lynnerup N, Bandelt HJ, Nørby S (2000). "mtDNA variation among Greenland Eskimos: the edge of the Beringian expansion". American Journal of Human Genetics. 67 (3): 718–26. doi:10.1086/303038. ISSN 0002-9297. PMC 1287530. PMID 10924403.
  21. ^ Greenland in Figures 2012 (PDF). stat.gl. ISBN 978-87-986787-6-2. ISSN 1602-5709. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 November 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
  22. ^ Mcghee, Robert (3 April 2015). "Thule Culture". Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  23. ^ "Population of Greenland". Archived from the original on 4 August 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  24. ^ "Population density (people per sq. km of land area)". The World Bank. Archived from the original on 5 June 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
  25. ^ "Vedvarende energi". Nukissiorfiit. Archived from the original on 10 June 2024. Retrieved 28 March 2023.


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