Urbanisation trend worries Greenland

Some 60 percent of Greenland’s population lives in one of its five biggest towns, and the number of inhabited places has dropped from 183 to 74. There is currently a risk that even more villages will be abandoned, Sermitsiaq writes.

Nuuk, Sisimiut, Ilulissat, Aasiaat and Qaqortoq towns are growing, while e.g. Kangerluk village near Qeqertarsuaq are amongst those running the risk of becoming fully abandoned. Last winter, a series of flats for rent were closed and the village risks becoming fully abandoned within five years, according to researcher Kåre Hendriksen at the Center for Arctic Technology at Denmark’s Technical University. He warrants better planning.

In some places, abandoning is caused by lack of infrastructure, including for business and industr. In other laces, lack of resources such as e.g. fish is the cause for abandonment. That makes framework conditions challenging and may lead to the villages raison d’etre disappearing altogether.