11 Fresh Facts About Greenland

Greenland is the world’s largest island, but it’s not as big the Mercator map would have us believe. The widely reproduced map, created in 1569, suggests Greenland is roughly the same size as Africa when that continent is nearly 14 times larger. The ice-covered island is actually about a third of the size of Australia and a quarter of the size of the United States.

Greenland lies north and south of the Arctic Circle and about 500 miles from the North Pole. Its closest neighboring country is Canada (it’s 16 miles from Canada’s Ellesmere Island). Currently, you can fly to Greenland only from Iceland (its nearest European neighbor) and Denmark—but that will change as Greenland’s second international airport, which opened in November 2024 in Nuuk, begins accepting flights from Canada and the U.S. 

Read on for more about Greenland's captivating contrasts and fascinating features.

1. Greenland is the world’s least densely populated place.
2. Ice covers 80 percent of the land.
3. It’s part of North America.
4. It’s fraught with fjords.
5. A murderous Viking founded Greenland’s first European settlement.
6. Greenland experiences midnight sun and polar night.
7. Humans arrived in Greenland about 4500 years ago.
8. It’s illegal to import dogs to some areas of Greenland.
9. Greenland’s political status is complicated.
10. It’s ground zero for climate change research.
11. Greenland has played a key role in defense strategy since the Cold War.

Greenland is the world’s least densely populated place.

In the Greenlandic language, the name for Greenland is Kalaallit Nunaat, meaning “the land of the people.” In fact, fewer than 60,000 people call this large land mass home, earning Greenland the distinction of being the least densely populated place on our planet. 

Most residents live on the west coast in one of the major towns, with the rest residing in remote settlements such as Qassimiut, population 20. Nearly 17,000 Greenlanders make their home in Nuuk, the country’s capital, which has the only two traffic lights in the entire territory. The rugged, icy landscape means Greenland’s towns aren’t connected to each other by road, making air and sea the main modes of travel. 

Ice covers 80 percent of the land.

With an ice sheet second only to Antarctica’s in size, Greenland’s glacial land ice covers more than 700,000 square miles or approximately 80 percent of the island. The Greenland Ice Sheet has an average thickness of 5000 feet and a maximum of 10,000 feet, with most of the land underneath lying at or below sea level. The ice is constantly moving outward to outlying glaciers, such as Sermeq Kujalleq (also known as Illulissat Icefjord and Jakobshavn Isbrae), Greenland’s biggest and one of the world’s fastest-moving glaciers. Scientists have clocked its flow at up to 150 feet per day in summer. 

Much of the ice-free portion consists of mountainous coastal highlands, and agriculture is possible on roughly 1 percent of Greenland’s total area. Greenlanders and visitors can view the scenic, icy peaks from natural hot springs, which aren’t produced by volcanic activity, but rather by the friction between deep sections of the earth’s crust as they collide.

It’s part of North America.

Because Greenland shares tectonic ties with North America, it isn’t considered a continent. It’s an extension of the Canadian Shield, the above-sea portion of the continental plate under North America, and connected to it by a submarine ridge approximately 600 feet beneath the sea. Most of the Canadian Shield is composed of Precambrian rocks at least 1 billion years old.

It’s fraught with fjords.

If laid out in a straight line, Greenland’s coastline would run nearly 24,500 miles long, which is almost equivalent to Earth’s circumference. Its shores are deeply indented by hundreds of fjords on both sides of the island. The largest fjord system in the world is found at Scoresby Sund (Kangertittivaq) on the east coast, which features the world’s longest fjord, the Nordvest Fjord (Kangersik Kiattek [PDF]), extending inland for almost 200 miles. 

Greenland boasts three UNESCO World Heritage sites. Kujataa Greenland, at the island’s southern point, preserves Inuit and Norse farming heritage. On the west-central coast, Aasivissuit-Nipisat protects a plateau between the sea and the interior ice sheet that bears evidence of prehistoric human inhabitation. Ilulissat Icefjord in the west is where you can witness the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier calve icebergs into the sea.

A murderous Viking founded Greenland’s first European settlement.

We know Greenland is mostly made of ice, but 10th-century Icelanders listening to Erik the Red didn’t. Born in Norway, Erik Thorvaldsson lived in Iceland for an estimated 20 years before he was exiled for having vengefully murdered several of his neighbors. Instead of returning to Scandinavia, Erik decided to complete his three-year sentence abroad, exploring a large landmass to the west of Iceland discovered 100 years earlier by Norwegian sailor Gunnbjörn Ulfsson. 

Upon returning to Iceland, Erik spread the word about the place he had named Greenland in the hope of encouraging would-be settlers. His marketing ploy worked: Erik the Red earns historical credit for founding the first continuous European settlement in Greenland. Ironically, scientists say the island was quite verdant some 2.5 million years ago.

One of the best-preserved Norse ruins in Greenland, Hvalsey Church, can be seen near present-day Qaqortoq. Erik the Red also is known for fathering Leif Eriksson, the first European to arrive in North America.

Greenland experiences midnight sun and polar night.

Greenland enjoys extreme solar environments above the Arctic Circle. From May to July, the summer sun doesn’t set for two months. And in the winter, the sun sets in October and doesn’t rise again until February, producing polar night (Kaperlak in Greenlandic) that boasts beautiful views of the aurora borealis but makes it harder to spot polar bears.

In 1983, Greenland established its national holiday on the year’s longest and lightest day. The summer solstice on June 21 marks a time of celebration and expressions of cultural identity, such as wearing the colorful national costume of beaded shawls, embroidered shorts, and thigh-high skin boots for women, and cloth anoraks, trousers, and boots (kamik) for men.  

Humans arrived in Greenland about 4500 years ago.

Archaeological evidence suggests that early polar hunters, the Saqqaq, used small islands as stepping stones to make their way east from Canada to western Greenland around 2500 BCE. That culture likely died out around 800 BCE, roughly the same time as the Dorset culture migrated to and then populated most of coastal Greenland until 1500 CE. Today’s Greenlandic Inuit are descendants of the Thule culture, which arrived about 1000 years ago in far northwestern Greenland and then spread across the island’s habitable coasts. Today, about 90 percent of the population is Inuit and identifies as Kalaallit (West Greenlanders), Inugguit (northwestern), or Iit (eastern). The remainder is mostly Danish. 

Having survived in Greenland for millennia, Inuit are known for their ability to adapt to the Arctic’s challenges. Many cultural traditions are woven into modern life and are probably familiar to non-Greenlanders. The language, which is closely related to Canada’s Inuit dialects, gives us words and concepts like kayak and igloo.

It’s illegal to import dogs to some areas of Greenland.

Sled dogs have been indispensable, and still are in some areas, for getting around the most remote regions of Greenland. Over the centuries, Inuit carefully bred husky-type dogs with the stamina, hardiness, and intelligence to follow human commands and pull sleds across treacherous ice. They are now recognized as a unique breed. To preserve their genetic heritage and working relationships with people, the government bans all other dogs from the region north of the Arctic Circle and in East Greenland. Any Greenland sled dog that strays from those regions is not permitted to go back.

In addition to dogs, Greenland is home to charismatic wildlife, such as Arctic foxes, reindeer, polar bears, and shaggy-coated musk oxen. More than 230 species of birds have been observed, including huge sea eagles and tiny snow buntings. Out in the water, whale watchers sight bowheads, minkes, belugas, and orcas, as well as seals and walruses. The luckiest tourists might glimpse an elusive narwhal.

Greenland’s political status is complicated.

Greenland’s colonial era (not including the Vikings) started in 1721 when Norwegian-Danish missionary Hans Egede landed near present-day Nuuk, founded a trading company, and introduced Lutheranism. (More than 90 percent of the modern population still belongs to the Lutheran church.) By 1776, the Danish government imposed a monopoly on all trade with Greenland, closing the coast to other nations and only reopening access in 1950. Denmark also governed the territory until 1979, when Denmark granted home rule after Greenlanders voted in favor of greater autonomy. While Greenland remained a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, home rule allowed the establishment of the Greenlandic Parliament and gave Greenlanders and Danes equal rights, among other powers.

Greenlanders voted in favor of self-rule in 2009, giving Greenland autonomy over its internal affairs, while Denmark continues to manage matters of foreign policy, security, and defense. But you’ll still pay for souvenirs with Danish kroner.

It’s ground zero for climate change research.

Greenland has a dynamic climate, featuring rapid weather changes that shift dramatically from sunny rays to blinding blizzards. Summer temperatures hover in the 40s Fahrenheit, while winter average temperatures range from 20°F in the south to -30 °F up north. Average annual precipitation is 75 inches down south and 2 inches in the north, classifying parts of the island as a polar desert. The giant ice sheet and its responses to global warming make Greenland a living laboratory for climate change research. 

In just one example of a multi-year project there, NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) mission sought to understand what was happening at the points where ice met sea. Greenland’s melting glaciers are a major source of sea level rise; if the entire ice sheet melted, global sea level would rise by more than 4.5 feet. Satellites images in 2012 revealed that 97 percent of the ice sheet showed signs of melting, and extreme high temperatures in 2016 caused glaciers to recede even faster. When OMG concluded in 2021, researchers found Greenland’s glaciers were disappearing six to seven times faster than they were 25 years earlier. The findings offer critical clues to how fast sea levels may rise over the next 50 years.

Greenland has played a key role in defense strategy since the Cold War.

When Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, the United States stepped in to protect Greenland from the Axis Powers, then returned control to Denmark in 1945. But the U.S. never really left. The 1951 Defense of Greenland agreement between the two countries allowed the U.S. to continue operating in the territory for defense purposes, leading to the creation of Thule Air Base (renamed Pituffik Space Base in 2023), the military’s northernmost base of operations.

In 1960, the U.S. Army built Camp Century, a site deep within the Greenland Ice Sheet. There, soldiers working on Project Iceworm attempted to carve 2500 miles of tunnels to secretly position nuclear intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) at the Soviet Union. However, officials realized the ice sheet wasn’t as stable as they thought it was, and abandoned the project in 1963. Most of it is still there.

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