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).