Living in Greenland

Around 56,600 people were living in Greenland in 2022. Most of the towns and settlements are located on Greenland’s west coast. The four most populated towns are Nuuk, with around 19,300 inhabitants, Sisimiut, with around 6,100 inhabitants, Ilulissat, with around 5,000 inhabitants, and Qaqortoq, with around 3,100 inhabitants in 2022.

Greenland’s educational system is influenced by the system of the Nordic countries. This means that in general education is free in Greenland and childcare enjoys a very high degree of public funding.

Preschool institutions and kindergartens are available in the towns and major settlements.

Primary schools are available in all towns and most settlements. The secondary school system provides both a general high school (high school degree) (GU), a technical (HTX) and commercial upper secondary education programme secondary schools (HHX).

The university of Greenland, ”Ilisimatusarfik”, is located in Nuuk. The university provides tertiary education in a wide spectrum of both profession-oriented and more general social science and humanities/arts-oriented courses of study. Sanaartornermik Ilinniarfik (Tech College Greenland/KTI) is located in Sisimiut and offers education for building and construction workers as well as arctic engineering at bachelor level in cooperation with the Danish Technical University (DTU).

The healthcare system consists of a national hospital in Nuuk, Queen Ingrid’s Hospital, which provides the more specialized treatment. The healthcare system is divided into five regions, each with its own regional hospital. In addition, towns and settlements have healthcare centres.
Individuals with temporary residence in Greenland are entitled to sickness benefits according to specific rules. For more detailed rules, please follow this link: The right to healthcare services in Greenland | Nordic cooperation (norden.org). It is recommended that you check if you are entitled to sickness benefits in case of acute illness. The national health service recommends that you take out travel insurance to cover any medical costs that you are not entitled to.

It is illegal to expose women or men to direct or indirect discrimination on the grounds of gender.

In job advertisements, employers may not state that they are looking for, or prefer, applicants of a specific gender. Employers must offer equal pay and working conditions. Employers may not dismiss an employee because the employee has demanded equal pay or terms of remuneration. There is a general prohibition against gender discrimination, including a ban on dismissal of employees because of pregnancy, parental leave, or adoption.

Every effort must be made to ensure equal gender representation when appointing members of boards.

See the Equal Opportunities Act etc. (ligestillingsloven m.m.) on the Greenland Equality Board (Ligestillingsråd) website: http://nali.gl/da/

Transportation in Greenland is very similar to the Azores, Seyschelles, Northern Canada and Alaska. Due to the climate and geography, Greenland has no railroads or roads to connect towns and settlements. Passengers and goods are transported by sea or air only. Most towns have paved roads and cars, while smaller towns and settlements usually have gravel or dirt roads. Bigger towns have busses and most of the towns have taxies.

The biggest airport capable of handling international flights in Greenland is Kangerlussuaq Airport, which is situated along the centre of the west coast in the Kangerlussuaq settlement. Other airports currently capable of handling international flights with smaller airplanes are Nuuk Airport, Ilulissat Airport, Narsarsuaq Airport in West Greenland as well as Kulusuk Airport and Nerlerit Inaat Airport in East Greenland. Air Greenland and Icelandair, among others, fly to Greenland.

The Government of Greenland has established the limited company Kalaallit Airports A/S, which has been tasked with establishing international airports with longer airstrips in Nuuk and Ilulissat and a new regional airport in Qaqortoq. For more information on the new airport plans in Greeland, please visit Forside - Kalaallit Airports Gruppen (kair.gl).

The new airports will in the future create better access for passengers in and out of Greenland, thus creating a basis for a noticeable development in tourism. Tourists can fly directly to the final destinations, the tickets are expected to be cheaper, and considerable travel time will be saved compared to today.

The majority of goods going to and from Greenland are transported by sea, why ports and harbours constitute a major part of Greenland’s infrastructure. Sikuki Nuuk Harbour A/S handles operations in Nuuk whereas the company Royal Arctic Line A/S handles all operation in other towns and KNI A/S in settlements.

Royal Arctic Line A/S offers a variation of routes between towns and settlements in Greenland. Amongst these are direct routes to Iceland, Faroe Islands, Sweden as well as Aarhus in Denmark from where most import/export are carried out before being transported on to other countries.

Royal Arctic Line’s joint services with the Icelandic shipping company Eimskip started in 2020. Since then it became easier to do business with the rest of the world with Royal Arctic Line sailing to more ports, thus creating connections to other route nets, including Eimskip’s route net which stretches from the Nordic countries over Europe to North America and Canada.

For more information please visit www.sikuki.gl and for information regarding other harbors at www.royalarcticline.com

Air Greenland | Fly to Greenland | Air Greenland COM
Forside - Kalaallit Airports Gruppen (kair.gl)
Home - Royal Arctic Line
Sikuki Nuuk Harbour A/S