Demographics of the Faroe Islands

Demographic features of the population of the Faroe Islands include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. The vast majority of the population are ethnic Faroese, of North Germanic descent. Ethnic Faroese are, in genetic terms, among the most homogenous groups ever found.



A 2004 DNA analysis revealed that Y chromosomes, tracing male descent, are 87% Scandinavian. The studies show that mitochondrial DNA, tracing female descent, is 84% Scottish/Irish.

Of the approximately 48,000 inhabitants of the Faroe Islands (16,921 private households (2004)), 98% are Danish realm citizens, meaning Faroese, Danish, or Greenlandic. By birthplace one can derive the following origins of the inhabitants: born on the Faroes 91.7%, in Denmark 5.8%, and in Greenland 0.3%. The largest group of foreigners are Icelanders comprising 0.4% of the population, followed by Norwegians and Poles, each comprising 0.2%. Altogether, on the Faroe Islands there are people from 77 different nationalities. The Faroe Islands have the highest rate of adoption in the world, despite a relatively high fertility rate of 2.6 children.

Faroese is spoken in the entire country as a first language. It is not possible to say exactly how many people worldwide speak the Faroese language.

The 2011 census, called Manntal, shows that 10% were not born in the Faroe Islands, but of these only 3% were born outside the Kingdom of Denmark. 6.5% of people older than 15 did not speak Faroese as their mother tongue. 33 persons said that they did not understand Faroese at all. According to the 2011 census, 45 361 Faroese people (people living in the Faroes) spoke Faroese as their first language and 1546 spoke Danish as their first language.

CIA World Factbook demographic statistics
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

Age structure

 * 0–14 years: 19.89% (male 5,214/female 4,878)
 * 15–24 years: 14.34% (male 3,738/female 3,538)
 * 25–54 years: 37.31% (male 10,252/female 8,676)
 * 55–64 years: 11.69% (male 3,054/female 2,878)
 * 65 years and over: 16.76% (male 4,111/female 4,391) (2017 est.)

Sex ratio

 * at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
 * 0–14 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
 * 15–24 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
 * 25–54 years: 1.18 male(s)/female
 * 55–64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
 * 65 years and over: 0.94 male(s)/female
 * total population: 1.08 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

Infant mortality rate
5.4 deaths/1,000 live births (2017 est.)

Life expectancy at birth

 * total population: 79.85 years (2012 est.)
 * male: 77.37 years
 * female: 82.50 years

Total fertility rate

 * 2.4 children born/woman (2012 est.)

Nationality

 * noun: Faroese (singular and plural)
 * adjective: Faroese

Ethnic groups
– Faroese

– Danes

Religions

 * Protestant Christianity, 97.54% in 2020

Languages
The official languages are Faroese (derived from Old Norse), and Danish.

According to the Faroese census of 2011, here is the breakdown of people in the Faroe Islands by language:


 * Faroese: 45,361 (93.9%)
 * Danish: 1,546 (3.2%)
 * Other Scandinavian languages, including Icelandic: 411 (0.9%)
 * Other European languages: 607 (1.3%)
 * Asian languages: 290 (0.6%)
 * Languages from the Middle East and North Africa: 40 (0.1%)
 * Other African languages: 31 (0.1%)
 * Sign language: 18 (0.04%)
 * No language: 41 (0.08%)

The percentages have been calculated based on the total number of respondents, which was 48,345 residents of the Faroe Islands who were asked to reply to the questions in November 2011.

Literacy
definition: NA total population: NA% male: NA% female: NA% note: similar to Denmark proper