Migrations
Each person can make none, one or more migrations in one or more calendar years during their lifetime. Calculated as gross movements, it is therefore the number of migrations that is calculated, but when immigration is subtracted from emigration, the net movement is referred to as the number of net immigrated persons.
During the past 30 years, there have been a total of
69,762 immigrations to Greenland. In the same period, 80,710 emigrations
took place. This means that 10,948 people have emigrated net,
corresponding to 365 on average, each year.
| 1998 | 2003 | 2008 | 2013 | 2018 | 2023 | total | average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | -515 | -341 | -639 | -447 | -198 | -281 | -10.948 | -378 |
| Born in Greenland | -420 | -327 | -651 | -334 | -266 | -453 | -11.016 | -380 |
| Born in Denmark/Faroes | -161 | -48 | -75 | -111 | -51 | -69 | -1.818 | -63 |
| Born outside the Danish Kingdom | 66 | 34 | 87 | -2 | 119 | 241 | 1.886 | 65 |
Migrations 2010-2023
Considering the age distribution of immigration and emigration after
2010 by place of birth, there are 2 quite different patterns. What is
common, however, is that virtually no one immigrates or emigrates over
the age of 70, which is naturally due to the fact that there are only
very few in those ages.
After-school stays in Denmark leave
their mark on hikes for 16-18 year olds. The large net emigration
surplus for Greenlandic-born children under the age of 5 are born to
mothers who were themselves born outside Greenland.
Remigrations 1995 - 2023
Many migrations are of a temporary nature as they are followed by a
migration in the opposite direction after a shorter or longer period of
time, the so-called return migrations.
Chart 13a: About 3/5
of an emigration cohort who were born in Greenland re-immigrate within 5
years.
Chart 13b: About 1/5 of an immigration cohort who were
born outside Greenland continue to live in Greenland after 5 years.
In the StatBank there is a detailed table where return migrations can
be broken down by sex and age. Chart 14 shows the emigration cohorts
from 2014-2018 as one and how many have returned within the first 5
years.
Virtually everyone who goes on an after-school stay in
Denmark moves back to Greenland within 1 to 3 years.
