Deaths
524 people died in 2024. That is 9 less than in 2023, when 533 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. 2024
| Female | Male | Total | Female | Male | Total | Female | Male | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | 199 | 292 | 491 | 2 | 31 | 33 | 201 | 323 | 524 |
| Kommune Kujalleq | 33 | 39 | 72 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 33 | 43 | 76 |
| Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq | 73 | 95 | 168 | 2 | 18 | 20 | 75 | 113 | 188 |
| Qeqqata Kommunia | 32 | 56 | 88 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 32 | 63 | 95 |
| Kommune Qeqertalik | 24 | 43 | 67 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 43 | 67 |
| Avannaata kommunia | 37 | 59 | 96 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 37 | 61 | 98 |
In Chart 7, the 524 deaths are broken down by year of birth. On 1
January 2025, there were 48 people, aged 90 and over, residing in
Greenland. The number of Greenlandic-born who have ever turned 100 can
be counted on 2 hands.
10 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 2023(cohort
2018), infant mortality is estimated at: 9.77 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 2024, there were thus 6 of the 524 deaths that had
occurred before 2024. Conversely, there will be a number of deaths that
occurred in 2024 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.
Table 4, Deaths as registered by Statistics Greenland an The National Bord of Health. 2024
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statistics Greenland, National Board of Health | 423 | 434 | 430 | 457 | 499 | 482 | 506 | 487 | 521 | 514 |
| National Board of Health | 16 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 18 |
| Statistics Greenland | 21 | 27 | 42 | 29 | 0 | 5 | 42 | 35 | 10 | 11 |
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 - 2022.
Table 5, Deaths by Manner of Death.
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 439 | 451 | 444 | 468 | 500 | 486 | 512 | 492 | 529 | 532 |
| Natural Death | 360 | 381 | 366 | 384 | 426 | 423 | 428 | 421 | 441 | 446 |
| Accident | 23 | 15 | 23 | 28 | 25 | 14 | 32 | 24 | 25 | 35 |
| Suicide | 45 | 46 | 34 | 49 | 41 | 44 | 46 | 41 | 48 | 42 |
| Homicide | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 6 |
| Unknown | 5 | 6 | 18 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 3 |
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).
