Greenland

Greenland

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.^[17] 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.^[18][19] 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

The population is concentrated mainly on the southwest coast, strongly influenced by climatic and geographical factors, 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),^[24] Greenland is the least densely populated region in the world.^[25] Sixty-seven percent of its electricity production comes from renewable energy, mostly from hydropower.^[26]

The early Norse settlers named the island Greenland. In the Icelandic sagas, the Norwegian Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland with his father, Thorvald, who had committed manslaughter. With his extended family and his thralls (slaves or serfs), he set out in ships to explore an icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding a habitable area and settling there, he named it Grœnland (translated as "Greenland"), supposedly in the hope that the pleasant name would attract settlers.^[27][28][29] The Saga of Erik the Red states: "In the summer, Erik left to settle in the country he had found, which he called Greenland, as he said people would be attracted there if it had a favourable name."^[30]

The name of the territory in the Greenlandic language is Kalaallit Nunaat 'land of the Kalaallit'.^[31] The Kalaallit are the Greenlandic Inuit who inhabit the territory's western region.

In prehistoric times, Greenland was home to several successive Paleo-Inuit cultures known primarily through archaeological finds. The earliest entry of the Paleo-Inuit into Greenland is thought to have occurred about 2500 BC. From about 2500 BC to 800 BC, southern and western Greenland was inhabited by the Saqqaq culture. Most finds of remains from that period have been around Disko Bay, including the site of Saqqaq, for which the culture is named.^[32][33]

From 2400 BC to 1300 BC, the Independence I culture existed in northern Greenland. It was a part of the Arctic small-tool tradition.^[34][35][36] Towns, including Deltaterrasserne, appeared. About 800 BC, the Saqqaq culture disappeared and the Early Dorset culture emerged in western Greenland and the Independence II culture in northern Greenland.^[37] The Dorset culture was the first culture to extend throughout the Greenlandic coastal areas, in the west and the east. It lasted until the total onset of the Thule culture, in AD 1500. The people of the Dorset culture lived mainly by hunting whales and reindeer.^{[38][39][40][41]}

From 986, the west coast was settled by Icelanders and Norwegians, through a contingent of 14 boats led by Erik the Red. They formed three settlements—the Eastern Settlement, the Western Settlement, and the Middle Settlement—on fjords near the southwestern tip of the island.^[17][42] They shared the island with the late Dorset culture inhabitants, who occupied the northern and western parts, and later with those of the Thule culture, who entered from the north. Norse Greenlanders submitted to Norwegian rule in 1261 under the Kingdom of Norway.^[43] The Kingdom of Norway entered a personal union with Denmark in 1380, and from 1397 was a part of the Kalmar Union.^[44]

The Norse settlements, such as

Icelandic saga accounts of life in Greenland were composed in the 13th century and later, and are not primary sources for the history of early Norse Greenland.^[29] Those accounts are closer to primary for more contemporaneous accounts of late Norse Greenland. Modern understanding therefore mostly depends on the physical data from archeological sites. Interpretation of ice-core and clam-shell data suggests that between AD 800 and 1300 the regions around the fjords of southern Greenland had a relatively mild climate, several degrees Celsius warmer than usual in the North Atlantic^[46] with trees and herbaceous plants growing and livestock being farmed. Barley was grown as a crop up to the 70th parallel.^[47] The ice cores show that Greenland has had dramatic temperature shifts many times in the past 100,000 years.^[48] Similarly the Icelandic Book of Settlements records famines during the winters, in which "the old and helpless were killed and thrown over cliffs".^[46]

These Norse settlements vanished during the 14th and early 15th centuries.^[49] The demise of the Western Settlement coincides with a decrease in summer and winter temperatures. A study of North Atlantic seasonal temperature variability during the Little Ice Age showed a significant decrease in maximum summer temperatures beginning about the turn of the 14th century—as much as 6 to 8 °C (11 to 14 °F) lower than modern summer temperatures.^[50] The study also found that the lowest winter temperatures of the last 2,000 years occurred in the late 14th century and early 15th century. The Eastern Settlement was probably abandoned in the early to mid-15th century, during this cold period.

Theories drawn from archeological excavations at Herjolfsnes in the 1920s suggest that the condition of human bones from this period indicates that the Norse population was malnourished, possibly because of soil erosion resulting from the Norsemen's destruction of natural vegetation in the course of farming, turf-cutting, and wood-cutting. Malnutrition may also have resulted from widespread deaths from pandemic plague;^[51] the decline in temperatures during the Little Ice Age; and armed conflicts with the Skrælings (Norse word for Inuit, meaning "wretches"^[45]). Recent archeological studies somewhat challenge the general assumption that the Norse colonization had a dramatic negative environmental effect on the vegetation. Data support traces of a possible Norse soil amendment strategy.^[52] More recent evidence suggests that the Norse, who never numbered more than about 2,500, gradually abandoned the Greenland settlements over the 15th century as walrus ivory,^[53] the most valuable export from Greenland, decreased in price because of competition with other sources of higher-quality ivory, and that there was actually little evidence of starvation or difficulties.^[54]

Other explanations of the disappearance of the Norse settlements have been proposed:

1. Lack of support from the homeland.^[51]
2. Ship-borne marauders (such as Basque, English, or German pirates), rather than Skrælings, could have plundered and displaced the Greenlanders.^[55]
3. They were "the victims of hidebound thinking and of a hierarchical society dominated by the Church and the biggest land owners. In their reluctance to see themselves as anything but Europeans, the Greenlanders failed to adopt the kind of apparel that the Inuit employed as protection against the cold and damp or to borrow any of the Inuit hunting gear."^[17][45]
4. That portion of the Greenlander population willing to adopt Inuit ways and means intermarried with and assimilated into the Inuit community.^[56] Much of the Greenland population is mixed Inuit and European ancestry. It was impossible in 1938 when Stefansson wrote his book to distinguish between intermarriage before the European loss of contact and after the contact was restored.
5. "Norse society's structure created a conflict between the short-term interests of those in power, and the long-term interests of the society as a whole."^[45]

The Thule people are the ancestors of the current Greenlandic population. No genes from the Paleo-Inuit have been found in the present population of Greenland.^[57] The Thule culture migrated eastward from what is now known as Alaska around 1000 AD, reaching Greenland around 1300. The Thule culture was the first to introduce to Greenland such technological innovations as dog sleds and toggling harpoons.

There is an account of contact and conflict with the Norse population, as told by the Inuit. It is republished in The Norse Atlantic Sagas, by Gwyn Jones. Jones reports that there is also an account of perhaps the same incident, of more doubtful provenance, told by the Norse side.

In 1500, King

After the Norse settlements died off, Greenland came under the de facto control of various Inuit groups, but the Dano-Norwegian government never forgot or relinquished the claims to Greenland that it had inherited from the Norse. When it re-established contact with Greenland in the early 17th century, Denmark-Norway asserted its sovereignty over the island. In 1721 a joint mercantile and clerical expedition led by Dano-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede was sent to Greenland, not knowing whether a Norse civilisation remained there. This expedition is part of the Dano-Norwegian colonisation of the Americas. After 15 years in Greenland, Hans Egede left his son Paul Egede in charge of the mission there and returned to Denmark, where he established a Greenland Seminary. This new colony was centred at Godthåb ("Good Hope") on the southwest coast. Gradually, Greenland was opened up to Danish merchants, but closed to those from other countries.

Godthåb in Greenland, c. 1878

Pictures of Greenland, c. 1863

When the union between the crowns of Denmark and Norway was dissolved in 1814, the Treaty of Kiel severed Norway's former colonies and left them under the control of the Danish monarch. Norway occupied then-uninhabited eastern Greenland as Erik the Red's Land in July 1931, claiming that it constituted terra nullius. Norway and Denmark agreed to submit the matter in 1933 to the Permanent Court of International Justice, which decided against Norway.^[59]

Greenland's connection to Denmark was severed on 9 April 1940, early in

Greenland had been a protected and very isolated society until 1940. The Danish government had maintained a strict monopoly of Greenlandic trade, allowing no more than small scale barter trading with British whalers. In wartime Greenland developed a sense of self-reliance through self-government and independent communication with the outside world. Despite this change, in 1946 a commission including the highest Greenlandic council, the Landsrådene, recommended patience and no radical reform of the system. Two years later, the first step towards a change of government was initiated when a grand commission was established. A final report (G-50) was presented in 1950, which recommended the introduction of a modern welfare state with Denmark's development as sponsor and model. In 1953, Greenland was made an equal part of the Danish Kingdom. Home rule was granted in 1979.

In 1867,

In 1973, there arose a border dispute between Denmark and Canada over the ownership of Hans Island, a small island located in Nares Strait directly between Greenland and the Canadian territory of Nunavut. The island remained in dispute until 2022, when both countries agreed to split the disputed island roughly in half.^[71]

In 1985, Greenland left the European Economic Community (EEC) upon achieving self-rule, as it did not agree with the EEC's commercial fishing regulations and an EEC ban on seal skin products.^[72] Greenland voters approved a referendum on greater autonomy on 25 November 2008.^[73][74] According to one study, the 2008 vote created what "can be seen as a system between home rule and full independence".^[75]

On 21 June 2009, Greenland gained self-rule with provisions for assuming responsibility for self-government of its judicial affairs, policing matters, and natural resources. Also, Greenlanders were recognised as a separate people under international law.^[76] Denmark maintains control of the territory's foreign affairs and defence matters, and upholds an annual block grant of 3.2 billion Danish kroner. As Greenland begins to collect revenues of its natural resources, however, the said grant will gradually be diminished; this is generally considered to be a step toward the territory's eventual full independence from Denmark.^[77] In 2012, Greenlandic was declared the sole official language of Greenland at a historic ceremony.^{[2][4][78][79][80]}

Greenland is the world's

Below the ice there is a series of canyons, the biggest called Greenland's Grand Canyon which was formed by flowing rivers of water from the repeated cycle of ice melting and new ice forming.^[87] Near the coast elevations rise suddenly and steeply.^[88]

The ice

All towns and settlements of Greenland are situated along the ice-free coast, with the population being concentrated along the west coast. The northeastern part of Greenland is not part of any municipality, but it is the site of the world's largest national park, Northeast Greenland National Park.^[90]

Polar explorer and anthropologist Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933), called the "father of Eskimology", was the first to explore the Greenland ice sheet by dog sled

Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen, (1872–1907) who died while commander of the 1906–1908 Denmark expedition, documenting vast areas of unexplored coastlines and fjords

At least four scientific expedition stations and camps had been established on the ice sheet in the ice-covered central part of Greenland (indicated as pale blue in the adjacent map): Eismitte, North Ice, North GRIP Camp and The Raven Skiway. There is a year-round station Summit Camp on the ice sheet, established in 1989. The radio station Jørgen Brønlund Fjord was, until 1950, the northernmost permanent outpost in the world.

The extreme north of Greenland, Peary Land, is not covered by an ice sheet, because the air there is too dry to produce snow, which is essential in the production and maintenance of an ice sheet.

In 2007, the existence of a new island was announced. Named "Uunartoq Qeqertaq" (English: Warming Island), this island has always been present off the coast of Greenland but was covered by a glacier. This glacier was discovered in 2002 to be shrinking rapidly, and by 2007 had completely melted away, leaving the exposed island.^[91] The island was named Place of the Year by the Oxford Atlas of the World in 2007.^[92] Ben Keene, the atlas's editor, commented:

In the last two or three decades, global warming has reduced the size of glaciers throughout the Arctic and earlier this year, news sources confirmed what climate scientists already knew: water, not rock, lay beneath this ice bridge on the east coast of Greenland. More islets are likely to appear as the sheet of frozen water covering the world's largest island continues to melt.^[93]

Some controversy surrounds the history of the island, specifically over whether the island might have been revealed during a brief warm period in Greenland during the mid-20th century.^[94]

The northernmost point of land on Earth was long thought to be Cape Morris Jesup at the northern tip of mainland Greenland. However, in 1969 a Canadian team surveyed Kaffeklubben Island (latitude 83° 39′ 45″ N), which was first recorded in 1900 and first visited in 1921, and determined that its northernmost point is 750 m north of Cape Morris Jesup. It is thus the northernmost undisputed permanent land.^[95]

Other points have been claimed to be the northernmost point, with dispute over the title arising from

2012 NASA graphics show the extent of a then-record melting event

Potential equilibrium states of the ice sheet in response to different equilibrium carbon dioxide concentrations in parts per million, 2023^[99]

The Greenland ice sheet always loses some mass from ice calving at its coasts, but it used to balance this on average by the accumulation of snowfall.^[100] However, Greenland has been warming since around 1900,^[101] and starting in the 1980s, the losses became larger than the gains.^[102] After 1996, Greenland has not had a single year when it did not lose mass on average.^[103] In the 2010s, the Greenland ice sheet melted at its fastest rate during at least the past 12,000 years, and is on track to exceed that later in the century.^[104] In 2012, 2019 and 2021, so-called "massive melting events" occurred, when practically the entire surface of the ice sheet was melting and no accumulation took place.^{[105][106][107]} During the 2021 event, rain fell at Greenland's highest point for the first time in recorded history, an event so unexpected that the research station at the summit had no rain gauges for the occasion.^[108]

As with the ice loss elsewhere, the melting of Greenland contributes to sea level rise. Between 2012 and 2017, this melting added an average of 0.68 mm per year,^[109] equal to 37% of sea level rise from land ice sources (excluding thermal expansion of water from the continual increase in the ocean heat content).^[110] By the end of the century, the melting of Greenland alone will add between ~6 cm (2+1⁄2 in) if the temperature change is kept below 2 °C (3.6 °F), to around 13 cm (5 in) if the most intense climate change scenario with ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions is followed.^{[111]: 1302} Under this scenario, the worst case for Greenland melting could reach 33 cm (13 in) of sea level rise equivalent.^[112] The large quantities of fresh meltwater also affect the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) by diluting key currents, slowing it down.^[113][114] Due to this meltwater input, the circulation may even collapse outright with widespread detrimental effects, although research suggests this is likely only if the highest possible warming is sustained for multiple centuries.^[115][116]

Greenland's ice sheet has a volume of ~2,900,000 cubic kilometres (696,000 cu mi). This means that if it were all to melt, global sea level would increase by ~7.4 m (24 ft) from that event alone.^[117] However, it also means that it will take at least 1,000 years for the ice sheet to disappear even with very high rates of global warming,^[112] and in around 10,000 years under lower rates of warming which still cross the threshold for the ice sheet's disappearance.^[118][119] This threshold likely lies for between 1.7 °C (3.1 °F) and 2.3 °C (4.1 °F). Reducing the warming back to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) or lower above preindustrial levels (such as through large-scale carbon dioxide removal) would arrest the losses, but still cause greater ultimate sea level rise than if the threshold had never been exceeded.^[120] Further, 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) itself appears to commit the Greenland ice sheet to 1.4 m (4+1⁄2 ft) of sea level rise.^[121]

The island was part of the very ancient Precambrian continent of Laurentia, the eastern core of which forms the Greenland Shield, while the less exposed coastal strips became a plateau. On these ice-free coastal strips are sediments formed in the Precambrian, overprinted by metamorphism and now formed by glaciers, which continue into the Cenozoic and Mesozoic in parts of the island.

In the east and west of Greenland there are remnants of flood

The paleontology of East Greenland is specially rich, with some of the early tetrapods such as the Acanthostega and Ichthyostega from the Devonian^[124] and unique Triassic animals such as the phytosaur Mystriosuchus alleroq^[125] and the dinosaurs Issi saaneq^[126] and tracks.^[127]

Greenlandic Muskoxen at King Oscar Fjord

The Greenland Dog was brought from Siberia around 1000 AD

Greenland is home to two ecoregions:

The terrestrial vertebrates of Greenland include the

As of 2009, 269 species of fish from over 80 different families are known from the waters surrounding Greenland. Almost all are marine species with only a few in freshwater, such as Atlantic salmon and charr.^[132] The fishing industry is the primary industry of Greenland's economy, accounting for the majority of territory's total exports.^[133]

Birds, particularly seabirds, are an important part of Greenland's animal life; they consist of both

In contemporary times, elections are held at municipal, national (Inatsisartut), and kingdom (Folketing) levels.

Greenland is a self-governing entity within the

The party system was dominated by the social-democratic

The non-binding 2008 referendum on self-governance favouring increased self-governance and autonomy was passed winning 76.22% of the vote.^[144]

In 1985,

Greenland's

Formerly consisting of three counties comprising a total of 18 municipalities, Greenland abolished these in 2009 and has since been divided into large territories known as "municipalities" (Greenlandic: kommuneqarfiit, Danish: kommuner): Sermersooq ("Much Ice") around the capital Nuuk and also including all East Coast communities; Kujalleq ("South") around Cape Farewell; Qeqqata ("Centre") north of the capital along the Davis Strait; Qeqertalik ("The one with islands") surrounding Disko Bay; and Avannaata ("Northern") in the northwest; the latter two having come into being as a result of the Qaasuitsup municipality, one of the original four, being partitioned in 2018. The northeast of the island composes the unincorporated Northeast Greenland National Park. Pituffik Space Base is also unincorporated, an enclave within Avannaata municipality. As a territorial concession granted to the United States in perpetuity, it is administered by the United States Space Force. During its construction, there were as many as 12,000 American residents but in recent^{[clarification needed]} years the number has been below 1,000.^{[citation needed]}

Greenland does not have its own military. As a territory of Denmark, the

In 1995, a political scandal in Denmark occurred after a report revealed the government had given tacit permission for nuclear weapons to be located in Greenland, in contravention of Denmark's 1957 nuclear-free zone policy.^[153][69] The United States built a secret nuclear powered base, called Camp Century, in the Greenland ice sheet.^[154] On 21 January 1968, a B-52G, with four nuclear bombs aboard as part of Operation Chrome Dome, crashed on the ice of the North Star Bay while attempting an emergency landing at Thule Air Base.^[155] The resulting fire caused extensive radioactive contamination.^[156] One of the H-bombs remains lost.^[157][158]

The single most important factor in the Greenlandic economy is financial aid from Denmark, mainly in the form of the bloktilskud [da]. In 2024, the bloktilskud to Greenland was 4.3 billion kr, in of itself amounting to a third of the island's total public revenue.^[159] On top of this, the Danish state covered the expenses for i.a. judiciary and defence, which together were estimated to amount to over 1 billion kr.^[160]As of 2019^[update] it subsidises Greenland with 4.3 billion kr. annually,^[161] up from 3,6 billion kr. in 2009.^[162] The bloktilskud alone accounted for around a third of the total public revenue in Greenland.^[159]

The Greenlandic economy is highly dependent on fishing. Fishing accounts for more than 90% of Greenland's exports.^[163] The shrimp and fish industry is by far the largest income earner.^[164]

Greenland is abundant in minerals.

Electricity has traditionally been generated by oil or diesel power plants, even if there is a large surplus of potential hydropower. There is a programme to build hydropower plants. The first, and still the largest, is Buksefjord hydroelectric power plant.

There are also plans to build a large aluminium smelter, using hydropower to create an exportable product. It is expected that much of the labour needed will be imported.^[166]

The

Greenland suffered an economic contraction in the early 1990s. Since 1993, the economy has improved. The Greenland Home Rule Government (GHRG) has pursued a tight fiscal policy since the late 1980s, which has helped create surpluses in the public budget and low inflation. Since 1990, Greenland has registered a foreign-trade deficit following the closure of the last remaining lead and zinc mine that year. In 2017, new sources of ruby in Greenland have been discovered, promising to enhance the gemstone industry in Greenland and add a new export.^[168]

Air transport connects Greenland internally and with other

A 1-lane dirt road designed primarily for all-terrain vehicles (secondarily for bicycles and hiking), is under construction between Kangerlussuaq and the town of Sisimiut (Holstensborg). As of June 2023, the road was scheduled for completion in 2024.^[170] A news report in Sermitsiaq declared the road itself to be completed already in September 2021,^[171] but maintenance work and mud problems^[172] have caused delays. There are plans to extend the road to a 2-lane gravel road, but a date for its construction start has not been announced.^[173]

Nuuk Airport is the hub and international gateway for international and domestic airline passenger transport. Air Greenland is the flag carrier of Greenland. Additionally, Icelandair provides year-round services to Greenlandic airports. Seasonal and charter flights are also offered by other airlines.^[174][175] Kangerlussuaq Airport (SFJ)^[176] was until 2024 the main international gateway to Greenland, but is far from the vicinity of the larger metropolitan capital areas.^[177] Ilulissat Airport (JAV)^[178] is a domestic airport that also serves international flights to Iceland and is under reconstruction and expansion to enable larger aircraft to serve the airport by 2026.^[179]

There are a total of 13 registered civil airports and 47 helipads in Greenland; most of them are unpaved and located in rural areas. The fourth-longest runway is at

Sea passenger transport is served by several coastal ferries. Arctic Umiaq Line makes a single round trip per week, taking 80 hours each direction.^[180]

Cargo freight by sea is handled by the shipping company Royal Arctic Line from, to and across Greenland. It provides trade and transport opportunities between Greenland, Europe, and North America.

Tourism increased significantly between 2015 and 2019, with the number of visitors increasing from 77,000 per year to 105,000.^[181] One source estimated that in 2019 the revenue from this aspect of the economy was about 450 million kroner (US$67 million). Like many aspects of the economy, this slowed dramatically in 2020 and into 2021, due to restrictions required as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic;^[182] one source describes it as being the "biggest economic victim of the coronavirus" (the overall economy did not suffer too severely as of mid-2020, thanks to the fisheries "and a hefty subsidy from Copenhagen").^[183] Greenland's goal for returning tourism is to develop it "right" and to "build a more sustainable tourism for the long run".^[184]

In 2021, Greenland had a population of 56,421.^[185] That year, 18,800 people resided in the capital city Nuuk. Nearly all Greenlanders live along the fjords in the south-west of the main island, which has a relatively mild climate, especially considering the high latitude upon which it lies.^[186] Whereas the majority of the population lives north of 64°N in colder coastal climates, Greenland's warmest climates such as the vegetated area around Narsarsuaq are sparsely populated.

The majority of the population is Lutheran. The historically important Moravian Brothers (Herrnhuters) were a congregation of faith, in a Danish context based in Christiansfeld in South Jutland, and partially of German origin, but their name does not signify they were ethnic Moravians (Czechs).

In terms of country of birth, the population is estimated to be of 89.7%

A 2015 wide genetic study of Greenlanders found modern-day Inuit in Greenland are direct descendants of the first Inuit pioneers of the Thule culture who arrived in the 13th century, with approximately 25% admixture of the European colonisers from the 16th century. Despite previous speculations, no evidence of Viking settlers predecessors has been found.^[187]

Largest cities or towns in Greenland 2020 estimate[188]
	Rank	Name	Municipality	Pop.	Rank	Name	Municipality	Pop.
Nuuk Sisimiut	1	Nuuk	Sermersooq	18,326	11	Nanortalik	Kujalleq	1,185	Ilulissat Aasiaat
	2	Sisimiut	Qeqqata	5,582	12	Upernavik	Avannaata	1,092
	3	Ilulissat	Avannaata	4,670	13	Qasigiannguit	Qeqertalik	1,081
	4	Aasiaat	Qeqertalik	3,069	14	Qeqertarsuaq	Qeqertalik	839
	5	Qaqortoq	Kujalleq	3,050	15	Qaanaaq	Avannaata	646
	6	Maniitsoq	Qeqqata	2,534	16	Kangaatsiaq	Qeqertalik	520
	7	Tasiilaq	Sermersooq	2,063	17	Kangerlussuaq	Qeqqata	508
	8	Uummannaq	Avannaata	1,407	18	Kullorsuaq	Avannaata	453
	9	Narsaq	Kujalleq	1,346	19	Ittoqqortoormiit	Sermersooq	345
	10	Paamiut	Sermersooq	1,308	20	Kangaamiut	Qeqqata	293

About 12% of the population speak Danish as a first or sole language. These primarily are Danish immigrants, many of whom remain the first and only language for those in Nuuk and other larger towns. Debate about the roles of Greenlandic and Danish in the country's future is evolving. While Greenlandic was dominant in all smaller settlements, most of the multi ethnic Inuit ancestors spoke Danish as a second language. In larger towns, especially Nuuk, this Danish group was more important for social matters. English is another important language for Greenland now taught from the first school year.[191]

West Greenland has long been the most populous area of the island and home to its de facto status as the official Greenlandic language. Although around 3,000 people speak

The nomadic Inuit were traditionally shamanistic, with a well-developed religion primarily concerned with appeasing a vengeful and fingerless sea goddess called Sedna who controlled the success of the seal and whale hunts.^[197]

The first

Education is organised in a similar way to Denmark. There is ten year mandatory primary school. There is also a secondary school, with either work education or preparatory for university education. There is one university, the University of Greenland (Greenlandic: Ilisimatusarfik) in Nuuk. Many Greenlanders attend universities in Denmark or elsewhere.

The public school system in Greenland is, as in Denmark, under the jurisdiction of the municipalities: they are therefore municipal schools. The legislature specifies the standards allowed for the content in schools, but the municipal governments decide how the schools under their responsibility are run. Education is free and compulsory for children aged seven to 16. The financial effort devoted to education is now very important (11.3% of GDP). Section 1 of the Government Ordinance on Public Schools (as amended on 6 June 1997) requires Greenlandic as the language of instruction.

Education is governed by Regulation No. 10 of 25 October 1990 on primary and lower secondary education. This regulation was amended by Regulation No. 8 of 13 May 1993 and Regulation No. 1 of 1 March 1994. Under Regulation No. 10 of 25 October 1990, linguistic integration in primary and lower secondary schools became compulsory for all

About 100 schools have been established. Greenlandic and Danish are taught there. Normally, Greenlandic is taught from kindergarten to the end of secondary school, but Danish is compulsory from the first cycle of primary school as a second language. As in Denmark with Danish, the school system provides for "Greenlandic 1" and "Greenlandic 2" courses. Language tests allow students to move from one level to the other. Based on the teachers' evaluation of their students, a third level of courses has been added: "Greenlandic 3". Secondary education in Greenland is generally vocational and technical. The system is governed by Regulation No. 16 of 28 October 1993 on Vocational and

Higher education is offered in Greenland: "university education" (regulation no. 3 of 9 May 1989); training of journalists, training of primary and lower secondary school teachers, training of social workers, training of social educators (regulation no. 1 of 16 May 1989); and training of nurses and nursing assistants (regulation no. 9 of 13 May 1990). Greenlandic students can continue their education in Denmark, if they wish and have the financial means to do so. For admission to Danish educational institutions, Greenlandic applicants are placed on an equal footing with Danish applicants. Scholarships are granted to Greenlandic students who are admitted to Danish educational institutions. To be eligible for these scholarships, the applicant must be a Danish citizen and have had permanent residence in Greenland for at least five years. The total period of residence outside Greenland may not exceed three years.

The rate of

In the 1960s and 1970s, at a time when the population was increasing, 4,500 Greenland Inuit women and girls (roughly half of all fertile females) were fitted with intrauterine devices (IUDs) by Danish doctors. Sometimes girls (as young as 12) were taken directly from school to have these devices inserted, without parents' permission being sought. The procedure was also carried out on some Inuit girls at boarding schools in Denmark. On 30 September 2022, the Danish Health Minister, Magnus Heunicke, confirmed that a two-year investigation would try to find out what decisions led to the practice and how it was carried out.^[213] Greenlandic doctors also carried out the same illegal procedures on several Inuit women after Greenland took control of its health care system in 1991.^[214]

Greenlandic culture is a blending of traditional Inuit (

The history of Greenlandic painting began with Aron von Kangeq, who depicted the old Greenlandic sagas and myths in his drawings and watercolours in the mid-19th century. In the 20th century, landscape and animal painting developed, as well as printmaking and book illustrations with sometimes expressive colouring. It was mainly through their landscape paintings that Kiistat Lund and Buuti Pedersen became known abroad. Anne-Birthe Hove chose themes from Greenlandic social life. There is a museum of fine arts in Nuuk, the Nuuk Art Museum.

Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa (KNR) is the public broadcasting company of Greenland. It is an associate member of Eurovision and an associate member of the Nordvision network. Nearly one hundred people are directly employed by this company, which is one of the largest in the territory.^[218] The city of Nuuk also has its own radio and television station. The city of Nuuk also has a local television channel, Nanoq Media, which was created on 1 August 2002. It is the largest local television station in Greenland, reaching more than 4,000 households as receiving members, which corresponds to about 75% of all households in the capital.^[219]

Only two newspapers are published in Greenland, both of which are distributed nationally. The Greenlandic weekly Sermitsiaq is published every Friday, while the online version is updated several times a day. It was distributed only in Nuuk until the 1980s. It is named after the mountain Sermitsiaq, located about 15 km (9.5 mi) northeast of Nuuk. The bi-weekly Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten (AG) is the other newspaper in Greenland, published every Tuesday and Thursday in Greenlandic as Atuagagdliutit and in Danish as Grønlandsposten. The articles are all published in both languages.

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Greenland has a successful, albeit small, music culture. Some popular

The drum is the traditional Greenlandic instrument. It was used to perform traditional drum dances. For this purpose, a round drum (qilaat) in the form of a frame made of driftwood or walrus ribs covered with a polar bear bladder, polar bear stomach or walrus stomach was used. The drumming was not done on the membrane, but with a stick from underneath the frame. Simple melodies were sung for this purpose.

The drum dance used to serve two functions. One was to drive away fear on long, dark winter nights by making faces and trying to make others laugh. Disputes were also settled with the drum. If someone had misbehaved, he was challenged with the drum. People would gather at certain powerful places and take turns beating the drum and singing to it. They tried to ridicule the other person as much as possible. The spectators expressed with their laughter who was the winner and who was therefore the guilty one.

The drum could also be used by shamans for ritual conjurations of spirits.

After the arrival of

The national dish of Greenland is suaasat, a soup made from seal meat. Meat from marine mammals, game, birds, and fish have a large role in the Greenlandic diet. Due to the glacial landscape, most ingredients come from the ocean.^[220] Spices are seldom used besides salt and pepper.^[221] Greenlandic coffee is a "flaming" dessert coffee (set alight before serving) made with coffee, whiskey, Kahlúa, Grand Marnier, and whipped cream. It is stronger than the familiar Irish dessert coffee.^[222]

Sport is an important part of Greenlandic culture, as the population is generally quite active.

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• Outline of Greenland
• Faroe Islands
• Åland (Finland)
• Svalbard (Norway)