Greenland is a North American island autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. 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. The capital and largest city of Greenland is Nuuk. Greenland lies between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It is the world's largest island, 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.
This is a demography of the population of Greenland including population density, ethnicity, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
The history of Greenland is a history of life under extreme Arctic conditions: currently, an ice sheet covers about eighty percent of the island, restricting human activity largely to the coasts. The first humans are thought to have arrived in Greenland around 2500 BCE. Their descendants apparently died out and were succeeded by several other groups migrating from continental North America. There has been no evidence discovered that Greenland was known to Norsemen until the ninth century CE, when Norse Icelandic explorers settled on its southwestern coast. The ancestors of the Greenlandic Inuit who live there today appear to have migrated there later, around the year 1200, from northwestern Greenland.
The Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark or National Church, sometimes called the Church of Denmark, is the established, state-supported church in Denmark. The supreme secular authority of the church is composed of the reigning monarch and Denmark's Parliament, the Folketing. As of 1 January 2024, 71.4% of the population of Denmark are members, though membership is voluntary.
Hans Poulsen Egede was a Dano-Norwegian Lutheran missionary who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland. He established a successful mission among the Inuit and is credited with revitalizing Dano-Norwegian interest in the island after contact had been broken for about 300 years. He founded Greenland's capital Godthåb, now known as Nuuk.
Nidaros, Niðarós or Niðaróss was the medieval name of Trondheim when it was the capital of Norway's first Christian kings. It was named for its position at the mouth of the River Nid.
Paul or Poul Hansen Egede was a Dano-Norwegian theologian, missionary, and scholar who was principally concerned with the Lutheran mission among the Kalaallit people in Greenland that had been established by his father, Hans, in 1721.
The Catholic Church in the Faroe Islands goes back to the year 999, when king Olav Tryggvason of Norway sent Sigmundur Brestisson on a mission to the islands with several priests. The islands became an independent diocese in 1111, but were officially reformed in 1537 and the last Catholic bishop was executed in 1538. After 1538, the Catholic Church was only revived in 1931 as a part of the bishopric of Copenhagen. The state church is now the Protestant Faroese People's Church.
The Catholic Church in the Nordic countries was the only Christian church in that region before the Reformation in the 16th century. Since then, Scandinavia has been a mostly non-Catholic (Lutheran) region and the position of Nordic Catholics for many centuries after the Reformation was very difficult due to legislation outlawing Catholicism. However, the Catholic population of the Nordic countries has seen some growth in the region in recent years, particularly in Norway, in large part due to immigration and to a lesser extent conversions among the native population.
The Catholic Church in Denmark is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. The Diocese of Copenhagen covers the whole of the country, as well as the Faroe Islands and Greenland, and as such is one of the geographically largest Catholic dioceses by area in the world.
The Diocese of Copenhagen is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church named after its episcopal see, the Danish national capital, Copenhagen and covers all Denmark. As in neighbouring provinces, none of the pre-Reformation bishoprics were re-established after Lutheranism became the new official state church in the 16th century). The diocese also covers two Danish overseas possessions, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. It is estimated that 36,000 (0.7%) out of the 5,516,597 inhabitants of the diocesan territory are Catholics.
The Catholic Church in Iceland is part of the Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope. The island is served by a single diocese, the Diocese of Reykjavík, having a total of seven parishes. As of 2015, the ordinary is bishop Dávid Bartimej Tencer. The diocese is directly subject to the Holy See.
Garðar was the seat of the bishop in the Norse settlements in Greenland. It is a Latin Catholic titular see, and was the first Catholic diocese established in the Americas.
The Church of the Faroe Islands, also known as the Faroese People's Church, is the established church and the largest religious organization in the Faroe Islands. It is an Evangelical Lutheran church, continuing the Lutheran tradition established during the Protestant Reformation. The church is one of the smallest state churches in the world. Prior to becoming independent on 29 July 2007, it was a diocese of the Church of Denmark, also a Lutheran church. As of 2024, 76.6% of Faroe Islanders belonged to the state church.
The Catholic Church in Greenland is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. There are very few Catholics in this overwhelmingly Protestant territory. There are 50 registered Catholics and only approximately 4 native Greenlander Catholics out of a population of 57,000. They are part of the only Catholic parish in Greenland, in Nuuk, the island's capital. The whole island is under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Christianity is a prevalent religion in Denmark; in January 2023, 72.1% of the population of Denmark were members of the Church of Denmark. According to a survey based on a sample 1,114, 25% of Danes believe Jesus is the son of God, and 18% believe he is the saviour of the world. Aside from Lutheranism, there is a small Catholic minority, as well as small Protestant denominations such as the Baptist Union of Denmark and the Reformed Synod of Denmark.
The Church of Greenland, consisting of the Diocese of Greenland is the official Lutheran church in Greenland under the leadership of the Bishop of Greenland. Paneeraq Siegstad Munk became Bishop in 2020.
Christ the KingChurch is a Catholic parish in the city of Nuuk, Greenland. It is the only Catholic church in Greenland. The parish uses the Latin rite and is under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Copenhagen. Although Catholicism arrived in Greenland around the year 1000, when the first churches were built on the island in the thirteenth century most of the settlers had left the scene or had died. After the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, the activities of the Catholic Church were limited, and the Lutheran Church of Denmark became the established church. Today, most of the congregation is made up of foreigners and a small group of locals. In 1980 the Little Sisters of Jesus established a small convent.
Vatnahverfi was a district in the Norse Greenlanders’ Eastern Settlement (Eystribyggð) and is generally regarded by archaeologists and historians as having the best pastoral land in the colony. The Norse settled Vatnahverfi in the late 10th century and farmed there for nearly 500 years before mysteriously disappearing from the district and the entirety of Greenland, likely at some point in the latter 15th century. Its name is roughly translated as “Lake District."
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