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 of foreign citizens has risen 1 to 2 percent of the population.

 

Figure 3.1. Foreign citizens. 1977-2016

Source: Statistics Greenland, http://bank.stat.gl/beest6

 

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 10,8 percent in 2016.

 

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 49,826 or 89,2 percent of the population was born in Greenland.

 

Summary table 3.1. Population by own and parents place of birth. 2016

		Both parents birthplace			One parent born in Greenland/ Second parent
Place of birth	Total	Greenland	Outside Greenland	unknown	Greenland	unknown
Total	55.847	35.210	710	10.448	9.185	294
Greenland	49.826	34.703	302	6.184	8.531	106
Outside Greenland	6.021	507	408	4.264	654	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 44.689 (35.210 + 9.185+294) equal to 80 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 3.2. Population with strong family ties to Greenland. 2016

		Both parents birthplace		One parent born in Greenland
Place of birth	Total	Greenland	Unknown	Second parent born outside Greenland
Total	50.873	35.210	6.184	9.479
Greenland	49.524	34.703	6.184	8.637
Outside Grenland	1.349	507	0	842

Source: Statistics Greenland

 

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 50,873 persons has strong family ties to Greenland by 2016. This represents 91 percent of the total population. There is almost no difference in the proportion of people who have strong family ties (91 percent) compared to the proportion of persons born in Greenland (89 percent).