Gender, age and marital status

 

Summary table 2.1. Population by gender 1980-2013

 

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2013

Total

   49.785

   52.955

   55.567

   55.732

   56.110

   56.972

   56.452

     56.370

Male

   27.028

   28.778

   30.063

   29.706

   29.982

   30.322

   29.936

     29.838

Female

   22.757

   24.177

   25.504

   26.026

   26.128

   26.650

   26.516

     26.532

 

Procent

Male

54,3

54,3

54,1

53,3

53,4

53,2

53,0

52,9

Female

45,7

45,7

45,9

46,7

46,6

46,8

47,0

47,1

Source: Statistics Greenland http://bank.stat.gl/beest1

 

There are more males than females living in Greenland as 53 percent of total population is males. Generally there is a surplus of men in the working ages. Only in the oldest age groups women outnumbers men. This is primary due to a group of men, born outside Greenland. This group, attracted by work, consist of double as many men as women.

 

The Greenlandic population is young. 7 percent of the population is over 65 years and less than 1 percent has turned 80 years.

 

The dependency ratio shows the ratio between people out of the working ages and the number of people in the active ages.

 

When setting the working ages to 20-64 years, the ’dependency ratio’ by January 1st 2011 is calculated to 0.59. This mean, that for every 100 persons in the working ages, 59 persons, needs support. A view back in time shows, that the ’dependency ratio’ in 1979 was 0.89, that is a much higher ratio than today. Ever since the mid 1990s the ratio has been around 65 per 100 in work.

This, by the way, is pretty close to the world average when the working ages are counted as 15- 64 years. (see 2013 World Population Data Sheet Population Reference Bureau - www.prb.org)

 

Figure 2.1. Ratio of never-married, born in Greenland by age and gender. 1980 and 2013

Source: Statistics Greenland, http://bank.stat.gl/beest5

 

shows that over the past 30 years it has become more common to stay unmarried. This is even more outspoken for men than women.