Villages in Greenland

By Laali Berthelsen Verified Expert

There is a big difference between the places in Greenland.

We are 56,000 inhabitants in Greenland, 80% live in towns and the remaining 20% live in the villages of Greenland, which are over 60 places and are in total appr. 8,000 inhabitants.

School system

There are nurseries and kindergartens in the villages, but the schools only go to the 7th grade. Then you have to move to the nearest big town to complete primary school.
Since we are so few inhabitants in the country and the country is so large, we have three high schools spread across the country, Qaqortoq in the south, Nuuk in min, and Aasiaat in the northern part of Greenland. Thereafter many of them have to move to Denmark to take higher education. As you can see it is a lot of moving from childhood, which makes it hard for some to complete an education, but still the number of educated Greenlanders are increasing.

My office view in the summer - Ilulissat — My office view in the summer – Ilulissat

My education history

I am born and raised in the capital of Greenland Nuuk, so I finished primary school and then went to Idaho, USA for 3 months as an exchange student to learn English because we didn´t have English lessons till 7th grade. Then I returned and got a high school degree, and started traveling right after. I went to a language school in Nice, France, and traveled all over the world for a year, then moved to Denmark and got a service economy degree with tourism as a specialty.

Tourism is seasonal, which is why I have also completed health courses in between my travels, as a fitness instructor, personal trainer, nutritionist, and positive psychology supervisor.

I have worked with tourism science since 2008 and have traveled around the world through work and pleasure. Every summer I returned to Greenland which is the high season for tourism in most of the country. I mostly worked in Ilulissat as a local guide, but also on cruise ships and yachts as an expedition guide, which has taken me around the arctic, while my winter jobs were in China, Greece, and South Africa.

Village visits are the best

While working on ships I have visited many small villages, such as Itilleq that you see in the picture above and beneath. It is such a big difference from Nuuk where I am from which is a very busy town compared to the other towns and villages. There is more of a relaxed atmosphere and no traffic 😉

The locals love to have visitors and some even invites you to their home, or offers coffee outdoor in the sun 🙂

The man on the right side is politician and earlier prime minister of Greenland (2002-2009) He is born in this small village Itilleq with only appr.120 inhabitants.

We are all greenlanders — We are all Greenlanders

We are all the same and still very different

The top picture is Nuuk, which is growing very fast and has today appr. 19.000 inhabitants and you see constructions everywhere. While the picture on the left button is Narsaq, a smaller town in South Greenland. The two kids could both be Greenlanders, that’s how different we can be look twice. We are all the same and still very much different 🙂

Traditional and modern

Greenland today is a mixture of our traditional and modern living. We are still going hunting, enjoying nature but also like the rest of the world are we in development. I feel so lucky, that our pure nature with so many opportunities is right outside our door, while the rest of the world is open through traveling and also from our laptops and phones 😉

Transportation

Depending on where you live in Greenland the transportation can be different. Dogsled if you live in the north, during winter, snowmobile in winter, boat and ship most of Greenland all year (except winter in the north due to pack ice) and helicopter and flights all year.