Deaths
531 people died in 2021. That is 10 more than in 2020, when 521 people died. Table 3 shows the number of deaths in the municipalities by place of birth and sex
Table 3, Death in Municipalities by place of birth and sex. 2021
| Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hele landet | 268 | 228 | 496 | 28 | 4 | 32 | 298 | 233 | 531 |
| Kommune Kujalleq | 50 | 39 | 89 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 56 | 39 | 95 |
| Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq | 84 | 73 | 157 | 14 | 2 | 16 | 99 | 75 | 174 |
| Qeqqata Kommunia | 42 | 39 | 81 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 45 | 40 | 85 |
| Kommune Qeqertalik | 41 | 35 | 76 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 43 | 35 | 78 |
| Avannaata kommunia | 51 | 42 | 93 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 55 | 44 | 99 |
In Chart 7, the 531 deaths are broken down by year of birth. On 1 January 2021, there were 49 people, aged 90 and over, residing in Greenland. The number of Greenlandic-born who have ever turned 100 can be counted on 2 hands.
12 children died in their first 5 years of life, which forms the basis for calculating infant mortality, as shown in Chart 8.
The UN Sustainable Development Goal 3.2.1 focuses on reducing infant mortality to less than 25 per 1,000 live births by 2030. For 2021, infant mortality is estimated at: 14.1 per 1,000 live births
The UN’s Global Goal 4.3.4 focuses on reducing the number of deaths due to non-communicable diseases. The population registers contain no information on cause of death. Information on causes of death can be found in the National Medical Examiner’s Office’s cause of death register.
The population statistics are based on extracts from the National Population Register (CPR). Some deaths are registered long after they have occurred. Therefore, every year there is a small number of deaths that have actually taken place before the latest period. In 2021, there were thus 12 of the 531 deaths that had occurred before 2021. Conversely, there will be a number of deaths that occurred in 2021 that have not yet been registered.
For each death, a certificate must be completed, a copy of which is submitted to the National Board of Health. Here the certificates are categorized by manner of death. The categories ‘natural death’, suicide, homicide and accidents are used and for non-natural death the chosen method is also coded. After the end of the calendar year, the death certificates are sent to the Danish Health Data Authority, which codes the causes of death according to the international classification (ICD-10). Coding in the Danish Health Data Authority takes time, which is why the final cause of death statistics are not available until a few years later.
From 2021, Statistics Greenland and the National Board of Health have resumed a previous work routine, where the data sources are compared, in order to improve the quality of the statistics on deaths. Table 4 shows how many deaths are registered according to both sources, Statistics Greenland and the National Board of Health. For 2021, there are thus 531=521+10 deaths registered in Statistics Greenland s tables and 532=521+11 from the National Board of Health.
Table 4, Deaths as registered by Statistics Greenland an The National Bord of Health. 2021
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grønlands Statistik, Landslægeembedet | 431 | 423 | 434 | 430 | 457 | 499 | 482 | 506 | 485 | 521 |
| Landslægeembedet | 11 | 16 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 11 |
| Grønlands Statistik | 28 | 21 | 27 | 42 | 29 | 0 | 5 | 42 | 37 | 10 |
In table 5, deaths are distributed by manner of death, taken from the detailed manner of death table SUELDM1 in the Statistics Bank, which can also be distributed by gender, age, place of birth and district of residence for the period 1990 - 2021.
Table 5, Deaths by Manner of Death. 2021
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 442 | 439 | 451 | 444 | 468 | 500 | 484 | 511 | 488 | 532 |
| Natural Death | 378 | 360 | 381 | 366 | 384 | 426 | 421 | 427 | 417 | 445 |
| Accident | 15 | 23 | 15 | 23 | 28 | 25 | 14 | 32 | 24 | 25 |
| Suicide | 35 | 45 | 46 | 34 | 49 | 41 | 44 | 46 | 41 | 48 |
| Homicide | 6 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| Unknown | 8 | 5 | 6 | 18 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
Mortality
The average life expectancy for men and women, respectively, is calculated as the overall measure of the development in the population’s mortality. Life expectancy, also called the average life expectancy or residual life expectancy of newborns. The average life expectancy is calculated for each age, and describes the average remaining life expectancy for a person, given that age x has been achieved.
The calculation is made on the basis of age- and gender-specific mortality rates, from which a Lifetable is estimated. The Lifetable shows how a generation of 1,000 newborns is dying out. Chart 9 shows the survival curve for Greenland-born in Nuuk and the rest of the country by gender, respectively. Especially men living outside Nuuk lose many years of life already at a young age, by accidents and suicides.
For Greenland, mortality is calculated for 2- and 5-year periods, respectively, in order to reduce the influence of random calendar year effects.
It is generally seen that people born in Greenland on average live shorter lives than many of the countries we usually compare ourselves with, but still about 5 years longer than 20 years ago. Also in Greenland, women live on average 4 years longer than men. There is a big difference in the population’s average life expectancy when it is distributed by place of birth (born in or outside Greenland).
Chart 10a shows the average life expectancy in Nuuk / Outside Nuuk, for persons born in Greenland after 1999. It can be seen that the average life expectancy is calculated as longer for the third of the population living in Nuuk. Life expectancy for both men and women is on a par with life expectancy in the Northwest Territories / Nunavut, cf. Chart 10.b.
