Greenland — map and facts

#### About Greenland Greenland is the world's largest island, situated between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans and forming an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Despite its vast size of over 2.1 million square kilometres, Greenland has a population of only around 56,000 people, making it one of the least densely populated territories on Earth. The capital, Nuuk, is home to roughly a third of the total population. The majority of inhabitants are Greenlandic Inuit, and the Greenlandic language, Kalaallisut, holds co-official status alongside Danish. Greenland has its own parliament, the Inatsisartut, and government, and exercises considerable self-governance, though Denmark retains responsibility for foreign affairs and defence. Discussions around full independence have grown increasingly prominent in recent years.

#### Geography and Landscape Approximately 80 percent of Greenland is permanently covered by the Greenland Ice Sheet, the second largest body of ice on Earth after the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The ice sheet reaches depths of up to three kilometres and contains enough frozen water to raise global sea levels by around seven metres if it were to melt entirely. The ice-free coastal fringe, particularly along the southwest, supports most of the human population and features dramatic fjords, tundra, and Arctic flora. The northeastern interior is protected as the Northeast Greenland National Park, the world's largest national park. Greenland's coastline is deeply indented with fjord systems of extraordinary scale, including the Ilulissat Icefjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

#### History Greenland has been inhabited for at least 4,500 years by successive waves of Arctic peoples, including the Saqqaq and Dorset cultures. The ancestors of the modern Inuit, the Thule people, arrived around 1000 CE and gradually displaced earlier inhabitants. Norse settlers led by Erik the Red established colonies on the southwestern coast around 985 CE, which survived for several centuries before disappearing, likely due to climate cooling and resource pressure. Danish-Norwegian contact was re-established in the eighteenth century, and Greenland became a Danish colony in 1814. It was incorporated as a Danish county in 1953 and achieved home rule in 1979. The Greenlandic self-government act of 2009 significantly expanded autonomy and recognised Greenlanders as a distinct people under international law.