Gender, age and marital status
Summary table 1
Population by gender 1980-2012
|
|
1980 |
1985 |
1990 |
1995 |
2000 |
2005 |
2010 |
2012 |
|
Total |
49.785 |
52.955 |
55.567 |
55.732 |
56.110 |
56.972 |
56.452 |
56.749 |
|
Male |
27.028 |
28.778 |
30.063 |
29.706 |
29.982 |
30.322 |
29.936 |
30.041 |
|
Female |
22.757 |
24.177 |
25.504 |
26.026 |
26.128 |
26.650 |
26.516 |
26.708 |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
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 2011 World Population Data Sheet Population Reference Bureau - www.prb.org)
Figure 1
Ratio of never-married, born in Greenland by age and gender. 1980 and 2012
Source: Statistics Greenland, http://bank.stat.gl/beest5
Figure 1 shows that over the past 30 years it has become more common to stay unmarried. This is even more outspoken for men than women.
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 2 this is changing and only in the last 5 years the number og foreign citizens has risen by 83 percent.
Figure 2
Foreign citizens. 1977-2012
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 2012.
In summary table 2 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 50,340 or 89 percent of the population was born in Greenland.
Summary table 2
Population by own and parents place of birth. 2012
|
|
|
Both parents birthplace |
One parent born in Greenland/ Second parent |
|||
|
Place of birth |
Total |
Greenland |
Outside Greenland |
unknown |
Greenland |
unknown |
|
Total |
56.749 |
33.776 |
779 |
12.475 |
9.416 |
303 |
|
Greenland |
50.340 |
33.353 |
317 |
7.799 |
8.758 |
113 |
|
Outside Greenland |
6.409 |
423 |
462 |
4.676 |
658 |
190 |
Source: Statistics Greenland, http://bank.stat.gl/beeaao3
In summary table 2 the population additionally has been calculated by the parents birthplace. It is seen, that 43.495 (33.776 + 9.416+303) equal to 77 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 1967, when the system was introduced.
Summary table 3
Population with strong family ties to Greenland. 2012
|
|
|
Both parents birthplace |
One parent born in Greenland |
|
|
Place of birth |
Total |
Greenland |
Unknown |
Second parent born outside Greenland |
|
Total |
51.294 |
33.776 |
7.799 |
9.719 |
|
Greenland |
50.023 |
33.353 |
7.799 |
8.871 |
|
Outside Grenland |
1.271 |
423 |
.. |
848 |
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 51,294 persons has strong family ties to Greenland by 2012. 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).
Towns and Settlements
According to Asiaqs’ register of localities there are 92 active localities in Greenland by February 18th 2011. A locality can be a town(17), a settlement (62), farm(4), station(6)…
Until the municipal amalgamation January 1st 2009, there was only one city in each municipality, in which municipal administration was found. Following the merger of municipalities we call the old municipalities for districts. A municipality consists of several towns and settlements.
Through the 1960s the population grew rapidly in the towns. The towns absorbed both population growth and the exodus from the settlements. This trend continued over the last 30 years as the population in towns continues to rise while it declines in the settlements. Figure 5 shows total population in the towns 1979-2009. The towns in Nuuk, Qaanaaq and Tasiilaq have almost doubled their population during the period, while the population in Paamiut and Qasigiannguit has been reduced by 25 percent.
Figure 3
Population trends in towns 1977-2012
Source: Statistics Greenland, http://bank.stat.gl/beest3
Only the settlements in Upernavik and Ilulissat has experienced an increasing population. A number of settlements have been abandoned – partly or totally.
Figure 4
Population trends in settlements 1977-2012
Source: Statistics Greenland, http://bank.stat.gl/beest3