Unprecedented international focus has been on Greenland during the first months of 2025 due to the expressed wish of United States President Donald Trump to acquire the island for security and economic reasons.
1.) What is there?
Greenland is viewed as having huge potential when it comes to mining. It is reported to possess the world’s eighth largest deposits of rare earths, which are crucial for producing wind turbines, electric motors, batteries and mobile phones. In addition, it has large reserves of lithium, cobalt, gold, rubies, diamonds, nickel, copper and other valuable minerals.
However, the mining industry has not yet taken off in any substantial way, and there are currently only a handful of relatively minor mining projects in operation.
The retreat of ice in Greenland, due to climate change, should theoretically facilitate mining, but there are other hurdles. The lack of sufficient infrastructure, tough climatic conditions, and its remoteness, all contribute to high costs and make the country relatively uncompetitive in this field. It also has high wages and comprehensive labour laws. Sophisticated laws on the protection of the environment are also often considered unattractive to mining companies. Oil and gas might be abundant in Greenlandic waters, but drilling has not been successful in recent years and is now banned for environmental reasons.
Chinese-owned companies have shown interest in Greenland’s riches, but little or nothing has materialised except for creating nervousness in Western capitals.
2.) Who rules it?
Inuits have lived for thousands of years in Greenland, but they had no state structures when Denmark (re)conquered the island in 1729. Earlier Nordic settlers had lived for almost half a millennium in Greenland before disappearing in the late Middle Ages. The US occupied Greenland during World War II and has since operated military bases on the island.
In 2009, Greenland officially became a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. The landmark agreement between Greenlandic authorities and the Danish government recognised the Greenlanders as a distinct people according to international law, giving them the right of secession from the Kingdom of Denmark, if a majority of the people so decides.
However, if that decision is taken they would have to considerably increase their revenues to compensate for the loss of Danish subsidies that amount to about $600 million annually, or around $10,000 per capita.
3.) What is NOT there?
Greenland does not boast a large population. Bigger projects in Greenland might require a considerable importation of workers, since the island’s population is only 57,000. It is roughly the same as the population of Bermuda, Andorra or the Marshall Islands. Indeed, towns such as Delray Beach City, Florida (USA), Neuilly-sur-Seine (France), and Vejle (Denmark) are of a similar size. The number of children born in China in less than a day and a half amounts to the entire population of Greenland.
4.) How big is it?
Technically the world’s biggest island, Greenland has an area of around 2.2 million square kilometers – as big as half of Europe or France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Iceland and Denmark combined. Indeed, Greenland is 50 times the size of Denmark.
About 80% of Greenland’s territory is covered by ice. Despite the domination of ice in Greenland, the ice-free part of the country alone is as big as Germany. When it comes to population density, there are only 0.0258 persons per square kilometre, compared to about 8,000 in Singapore, which has the biggest population density of any independent country.
5.) The UN and Greenland
After the creation of the United Nations in 1945, Greenland was put into the category of “non self-governing territories” due to pressure from the United States and France. Denmark reluctantly had to report to the world organization, but portrayed its rule of Greenland as a role model for colonial powers.
In a 1954 declaration submitted to the UN, Denmark stated that Greenlanders had freely agreed to become an integral part of the country and thus ceased to be the subject of scrutiny as a colony. However, the fact that Greenlanders were not consulted directly, was controversial at the time (see: here).
Denmark conducts foreign policy on behalf of Greenland. At the United Nations, it has been active in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
In 2014, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon travelled to Greenland to see first-hand the impacts of climate change and advocate for climate action. It culminated in the 2015 Paris agreement. However, Greenland only signed up for the Paris Agreement in 2023.
Greenland became a member of the European Economic Community (now the European Union) in 1973 along with Denmark, but after obtaining self-rule in 1979 it negotiated its withdrawal, which was effective as of 1985.