Factbox: Greenland: home to vast resources, 56,000 people but no motorbikes

TGX Energy & Resources

29/11/2014 15:21

COPENHAGEN, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Greenland's ruling Siumut 
Party has narrowly won a snap election in the island nation that 
is hoping for independence from Denmark, backed by wealth from 
its natural resources.     
    New leader Kim Kielsen will need to build a coalition to 
form a government to deal with a shrinking, fragile economy and 
reassure foreign investors. 
    The following are some facts about Greenland: 
     
    ** Total area is 2.2 million square kilometres (850,000 
square miles) with 44,000 km (27,000 miles) of coastline. Some 
80 percent of Greenland is covered by an icecap, representing 10 
percent of the world's fresh water. 
    ** GDP of 11.5 billion Danish crowns ($1.9 billion) in 2012 
plus a 3.6 billion Danish crown subsidy. Exports worth 2.8 
billion crowns, 5 billion crowns in imports. 
    ** The 2012 budget was 9.7 billion Danish crowns with just 
under 6 billion crowns spent on health, education and social 
welfare. 
     
    ** Population was 56,000 of which 17,000 live in the capital 
Nuuk. Men outnumber women by 3,000. 
    ** 25,500 people employed in 2012. By far the largest 
employer, with just under 10,000 workers, was the state. 
    ** In private industry, fishing was the highest employer, 
taking 14 percent of the workforce. In mining, the great hope 
due to vast untapped resources, 143 people were hired. 
    ** Aside from the 55,300 Danish citizens residing in 
Greenland the largest nationalities are from Iceland (177), 
Thailand (166) and the Philippines (130). 
    ** There were 76 students in 2012. Number of "dropouts" 
consistently above the number of new starters in education. 
    ** There are no roads between towns and settlements, no 
motorcycles and just 4,000 cars. However, there were 260,000 
domestic passenger plane trips in 2012. 
    ** Full mobile phone penetration with 60,000 mobiles. 
    ** Fishing is by far the largest domestic industry with 
prawns (50,000 tonnes) and halibut (24,000 tonnes) dominating. 
State-controlled Royal Greenland catches about half of the 
total. 
    ** The traditional industry had been whaling and Greenland 
still hunted about 3,000 whales in 2012 with porpoise whales 
accounting for 2,000.   
    ** While 3,000 reindeer were kept tame, there were just 98 
cows, 147 horses and no beehives in 2012, down from four. 
    
    Source: Statistics Greenland 
 
 (Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) 
 ((sabina.zawadzki@thomsonreuters.com; +45 33 96 96 50, +45 20 
54 86 88;)) 
 
Keywords: GREENLAND ELECTION/