Place of birth and citizenship

Until a few years ago less than 1 percent of the population had foreign citizenship. As can be seen in figure 3.1 this is changing and only in the last 5 years the number og foreign citizens has risen by 83 percent.

 

Figure 3.1. Foreign citizens. 1977-2013

Source: Statistics Greenland

 

We often split the population by birthplace with the categories ’born in Greenland’ and ’born outside Greenland’ as average considerations otherwise will hide important demographic differences between the groups. At the same time the proportion of people born outside Greenland has decreased from 18 percent in 1980 to 11 percent in 2013.

 

In summary table 3.1 the population has been tabulated by persons own ‘place of birth’ as well as parents ‘place of birth’. From the table it is seen that 50,101 or 89 percent of the population was born in Greenland.

 

Summary table 3.1. Population by own and parents place of birth. 2013

		Both parents birthplace			One parent born in Greenland/               Second parent
Place of birth	Total	Greenland	Outside Greenland	unknown	Greenland	unknown
Total	56.370	34.170	743	11.728	9.442	287
Greenland	50.101	33.750	317	7.159	8.776	99
Outside Greenland	6.269	420	426	4.569	666	188

Source: Statistics Greenland, http://bank.stat.gl/beeaao3

 

In summary table 3.1 the population additionally has been calculated by the parents birthplace. It is seen, that 43.899 (34.170 + 9.442+287) equal to 78 percent of the population has at least one parent born in Greenland. Our archives do not hold information on the parents birthplace for 1/4 of the population. This is either because the parents can’t be found in CPR (Danish register on persons), or because the live outside Denmark or Greenland or because they died prior to 1968, when the system was introduced.

 

Summary table 3.2. Population with strong family ties to Greenland. 2013

		Both parents birthplace		One parent born in Greenland
Place of birth	Total	Greenland	Unknown	Second parent born outside Greenland
Total	51.058	34.170	7.159	9.729
Greenland	49.784	33.750	7.159	8.875
Outside Grenland	1.274	420	..	854

Source: Statistics Greenland, http://bank.stat.gl/beeaao3

 

If at least one parent was born in Greenland, the person is said to have strong family ties to Greenland. This includes the persons, where both parents' birthplaces are unknown, if the person in question was born in Greenland. With this definition 51,058 persons has strong family ties to Greenland by 2013. This represents 90 percent of the total population. There is almost no difference in the proportion of people who have strong family ties (90 percent) compared to the proportion of persons born in Greenland (89 percent).