
KÅRE HENDRIKSEN, 2015
After the municipal reform in 2009 and an adjustment in 2018, when the northern municipality was divided into two, Greenland is administratively divided into five regional municipalities. As mentioned, there were 18 municipalities until 2009, some of which had less than 1,000 inhabitants. It provided proximity to citizens, at least in the towns, but also resulted in major challenges in relation to tax bases, public and private service levels and building and maintaining knowledge and competences, particularly in the social sector.
In connection with the local government reform, significant responsibilities were transferred to the regional municipalities from the Self-Government, not least in the social sector. A struggle is still seen to make ends meet financially and legislatively. The distance from towns that previously had their own town hall and their own administration, and the settlements not to forget, to the municipality’s main town and town hall is substantial both geographically, mentally and perhaps especially in a democratic sense.

ASIAQ, 2022
Local democracy is a struggle in settlements and towns which report to the main town of the municipality. Residents of Qaanaaq may find that they are ignored by the town hall in Ilulissat, more than 1,000 miles to the south. In Sermersooq, the main town of Nuuk is also the country’s capital, so the problem is reinforced for the municipality’s two towns and associated settlements in East Greenland. A physical journey from Ittoqqortoormiit to Nuuk is very costly and, although it takes place by plane and helicopter, it can easily take several days each way. Naalakkersuisut and the five major municipalities make great efforts to create equal social, economic and healthcare cohesion throughout the country.
The challenge did not diminish when the national association of Greenland’s municipalities, Kanukoka, was decommissioned in 2018, as a delayed response to the local government reform. Since then, Naalakkersuisut and the regional municipalities, typically represented by the mayor, have tried to gain common ground at political coordination meetings. The municipalities have a lot in common, but there are also major cultural, climatic, economic and geographical differences around the negotiating table, and it is often difficult to reach agreement. A Nordic model welfare society is not a simple thing to achieve in a country with a small population that lives scattered over an enormous area of great climatic and geographical variation.
Municipalities are large measured on their geographical extent. On the other hand, they are very small in terms of population figures. A third of the country’s population lives in Nuuk, but the town is, with its barely 20,000 inhabitants, one of the world’s smallest capitals.
The area of the municipalities includes the ice sheet, and this explains why the areas of Avannaata and Sermersooq are very large in comparison with the other municipalities, but also in a global perspective. Sermersooq is not only the largest municipality in the Unity of the Realm, but also one of the largest municipalities in the world.
More than 60 % of Greenland’s population live in the open-water towns of Nanortalik, Qaqortoq, Narsaq, Paamiut, Nuuk, Maniitsoq and Sisimiut on the southern west coast. The National Park in Northeast Greenland is outside the municipal subdivision and is administered by the Self-Government.
Town names in Greenland
The Greenland Place Names Committee was established in 1989, and during the 1990s the committee introduced official Greenlandic place names. The Greenland Self-Government Act made Greenlandic is the main language. In this context, the Greenlandic place name is always used, often supplemented by the Danish name in parentheses. The descriptions reflect the practice that has long been in place (though to a lesser extent now) of giving towns, settlements, neighbourhoods, roads, and other place names two names. For each town, the two names, if they exist, will be explained, e.g. for the town of Aasiaat (Egedesminde).
Further reading
- Avannaata Kommunia
- Kommune Kujalleq
- Kommune Qeqertalik
- Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq
- Locations with agriculture and sheep farming
- Population and demographics
- Qeqqata Kommunia
- Self-Government
- The Unity of the Realm and the Danish State
- Towns and settlements
Read more about the Municipalities and the towns in Greenland