Demographics of Greenland

This is a demography of the population of Greenland including population density, ethnicity, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Populations
the resident population of Greenland was estimated at 56,699, an increase of 90 (0.2%) compared to the corresponding figure the previous year.

Values do not sum to 100% because there were 64 inhabitants living outside the five municipalities, which include residents in the unincorporated Northeast Greenland National Park. Nuuk is the most populous locality in Greenland with 19,872 inhabitants, which is about 35% of Greenland's total population.

Life expectancy at birth
total population: 71.25 years male: 68.6 years female: 74.04 years (2012 est.)

Ethnic groups
The population of Greenland consists of Greenlandic Inuit (including mixed-race persons), Danish Greenlanders and other Europeans and North Americans. The Inuit population makes up approximately 85–90% of the total (2009 est.). 6,792 people from Denmark live in Greenland, which is 12% of its total population.

In recent years, Greenland experienced a significant increase in immigration from Asia, especially from the Philippines, Thailand, and China.

Languages
The only official language of Greenland is Greenlandic. The number of speakers of Greenlandic is estimated at 50,000 (85–90% of the total population), divided in three main dialects, Kalaallisut (West-Greenlandic, 44,000 speakers and the dialect that is used as official language), Tunumiit (East-Greenlandic, 3,000 speakers) and Inuktun (North-Greenlandic, 800 speakers). The remainder of the population mainly speaks Danish; Inuit Sign Language is the language of the deaf community.

Religion


The nomadic Inuit were traditionally shamanistic, with a well-developed mythology primarily concerned with propitiating a vengeful and fingerless sea Goddess who controlled the success of the seal and whale hunts.

The first Norse colonists were pagan, but Erik the Red's son Leif was converted to Catholic Christianity by King Olaf Trygvesson on a trip to Norway in 990 and sent missionaries back to Greenland. These swiftly established sixteen parishes, some monasteries, and a bishopric at Garðar.

Rediscovering these colonists and spreading the Protestant Reformation among them was one of the primary reasons for the Danish recolonization in the 18th century. Under the patronage of the Royal Mission College in Copenhagen, Norwegian and Danish Lutherans and German Moravian missionaries searched for the missing Norse settlements and began converting the Inuit. The principal figures in the Christianization of Greenland were Hans and Poul Egede and Matthias Stach. The New Testament was translated piecemeal from the time of the very first settlement on Kangeq Island, but the first translation of the whole Bible was not completed until 1900. An improved translation using the modern orthography was completed in 2000.

Today, the major religion is Protestant Christianity, mostly members of the Lutheran Church of Denmark. While there is no official census data on religion in Greenland, the Lutheran Bishop of Greenland Sofie Petersen estimated that 85% of the Greenlandic population were members of its congregation in 2009. Estimates in 2022 put the figure at 93%.

Spiral case
In the 1960's and 70's, Greenland was subject to one of the most impactful eugenics programs ever implemented. At least 4,500 Inuit women were involuntarily implanted with IUD's without their knowledge or consent - about half the fertile population at the time. Within a generation, the birthrate declined by 50%, which led to multigenerational demographic effects. Public officials at the time blamed the decline in birthrate on poverty and cultural trends, but the extent of the involuntary program became public only in 2022 in an investigation known as the spiral case.