Sermersooq (, da, sted med meget is, lit=place of much ice) is a municipality in

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

, formed on 1 January 2009 from five earlier, smaller municipalities. Its administrative seat is the city of Nuuk (formerly called Godthåb), the capital of Greenland, and it is the most populous municipality in the country, with 23,123 inhabitants as of January 2020.

Creation

The municipality consists of former municipalities of eastern and southwestern Greenland, each named after the largest settlement at the time of formation: * Ammassalik Municipality *

Ittoqqortoormiit Municipality Ittoqqortoormiit Municipality () was one of the two municipalities of East Greenland. Since 1 January 2009 it has been incorporated into the Sermersooq municipality. It encompassed an area of 235,000 km2 (91,000 sq mi) along the Den ...

Ivittuut Municipality Ivittuut , (old spelling Ivigtût) was a municipality (from 1951 until 2008), on the coast of Arsuk Fjord in southern Greenland. With an area of just 100 km2 (600 km2 according to other sources), it was the smallest municipality of Green ...

Nuuk Municipality Nuuk Municipality was one of the municipalities of Greenland until 31 December 2008. On 1 January 2009, it was merged with four other former municipalities into the new Sermersooq municipality. The central town was Nuuk. Other settlements within it ...

Paamiut Municipality Paamiut Municipality was a municipality in Greenland until 31 December 2008. Its area was mostly incorporated into the new Sermersooq municipality, while a part of the ice sheet including a few nunataks was incorporated into the new Kujalleq munici ...

Administrative divisions

Ammassalik area

Tasiilaq Tasiilaq, formerly Ammassalik and Angmagssalik, is a town in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland. With 1,985 inhabitants as of 2020, it is the most populous community on the eastern coast, and the seventh-largest town in Green ...

(Ammassalik) *

Kuummiit Kuummiit (Kalaallisut: ''Kuummiut'') is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland. Founded in 1915, it had 248 inhabitants in 2020. Geography The settlement is located on the eastern shore of the Ammassalik Fjord, ap ...

* Kulusuk (Kap Dan) *

Tiniteqilaaq Tiilerilaaq (formerly ''Tiniteqilaaq'') is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality, in southeastern Greenland. Its population was 96 in 2020. Population The population of Tiilerilaaq has decreased by 30 percent relative to the 1990 levels, ...

Sermiligaaq Sermiligaaq (old spelling: ''Sermiligâk´'') is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland. It is located near the Sermilik Fjord. Its population was 209 in 2020. In Kalaallisut, its name means "Beautiful Glacierfjord". ...

Isortoq Isertoq (West Greenlandic: ''Isortoq'') is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality, in southeastern Greenland. Its population was 64 in 2020. Population The population of Isertoq has decreased by nearly half relative to the 1990 levels, and ...

Ittoqqortoormiit area

* Ittoqqortoormiit (Scoresbysund) *

Itterajivit Itterajivit (also ''Ittaajimmiut'' or ''Igterajivit''), formerly Kap Hope, was a small village in the Sermersooq municipality in eastern Greenland. It was abandoned in late 2005.Kangilinnguit Kangilinnguit or Kangilínguit, formerly Grønnedal , is a settlement and location of a former naval base in Greenland's Sermersooq municipality, located at the mouth of Arsuk Fjord in southwestern Greenland. The settlement had 160 inhabitants in ...

(Grønnedal)

Nuuk area

* Nuuk (Godthåb) *

Kapisillit Kapisillit is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in southwestern Greenland. In 2020, the settlement had 52 inhabitants. ''Kapisillit'' means ''the salmon'' in the Greenlandic language ( da, laksen). The name refers to the belief that the ...

* Qeqertarsuatsiaat (Fiskenæsset)

Paamiut area

Paamiut Paamiut, formerly Frederikshåb, is a town in southwestern Greenland in the Sermersooq municipality. Geography Paamiut is located on the coast of Labrador Sea in the southern end of a small estuary called Kuannersooq ("Inlet"). History Pe ...

(Frederikshåb) *

Arsuk Arsuk is a village in the Sermersooq municipality in southwestern Greenland. It had 73 inhabitants in 2020. The name of the settlement means ''the beloved place'' in the Greenlandic language.

Geography

The municipality is located in south-central and eastern Greenland, with an area of . As of 2018, it is the largest municipality in the world by area, following the split of the former Qaasuitsup. As of January 2013 its population was 17,498. In the south, it is flanked by the Kujalleq municipality, with the border running alongside

Alanngorsuaq Fjord Alanngorsuaq Fjord, also known as Coppermine Bay ( da, Kobberminebugt), is a fjord in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland. At the mouth of the fjord the coastline of southwestern Greenland turns to the east towards Qaqortoq. Geograp ...

. The waters flowing around the western coastline of the municipality are that of

Labrador Sea The Labrador Sea (French: ''mer du Labrador'', Danish: ''Labradorhavet'') is an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean between the Labrador Peninsula and Greenland. The sea is flanked by continental shelf, continental shelves to the southwest, northwest, ...

, which to the north narrows down to form Davis Strait separating the island of Greenland from

Baffin Island Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is , slightly larger than Spain; its population was 13,039 as of the 2021 Canadia ...

. In the northwest, the municipality is bordered by the Qeqqata municipality, and further north by the Qeqertalik and

Avannaata Avannaata (, da, Det Nordlige, lit=The Northern) is a municipality of Greenland created on 1 January 2018 from the bulk of the former Qaasuitsup municipality. It encompasses an area of 522,700 km2 and has 10,726 inhabitants. Geography In ...

municipalities. The latter two borders however run north–south through the center ( 45° West

meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

) of the

Greenland ice sheet The Greenland ice sheet ( da, Grønlands indlandsis, kl, Sermersuaq) is a vast body of ice covering , roughly near 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is sometimes referred to as an ice cap, or under the term ''inland ice'', or its Danish equiva ...

( kl, Sermersuaq) − and as such are free of traffic. In the north the municipality is bordered by the

Northeast Greenland National Park Northeast Greenland National Park ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaanni nuna eqqissisimatitaq, da, Grønlands Nationalpark) is the world's largest national park and the 10th List of largest protected areas in the world, largest protected area (the only large ...

beyond

Cape Biot Cape Biot ( da, Kap Biot) is a headland in the Greenland Sea, Northeast Greenland, Sermersooq municipality. History This headland was named "Cape Biot" by William Scoresby (1789 – 1857) in 1822 to honour physicist, astronomer and mathematician ...

, at the northern end of

Fleming Fjord Fleming Fjord is a fjord in King Christian X Land, eastern Greenland. Administratively it lies in the Sermersooq Municipality. History This fjord was named "Fleming Inlet" by British explorer William Scoresby (1789 – 1857) after Scottish scholar ...

. In the east, near the settlement of Ittoqqortoormiit, the municipal shores straddle the

Kangertittivaq Scoresby Sound (Danish: ''Scoresby Sund'', Greenlandic: ''Kangertittivaq'') is a large fjord system of the Greenland Sea on the eastern coast of Greenland. It has a tree-like structure, with a main body approximately Greenland Sea The Greenland Sea is a body of water that borders Greenland to the west, the Svalbard archipelago to the east, Fram Strait and the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Norwegian Sea and Iceland to the south. The Greenland Sea is often defined as p ...

. The southeastern shores are bordered by the Anorituup Kangerlua fjord of the Irminger Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Politics

Sermersooq's municipal council consists of 19 members, elected every four years.

Municipal council

Transport

Sermersooq is one of two municipalities straddling the western and eastern sides of the island, but is the only municipality where settlements on both coasts are connected via scheduled flights from Nuuk Airport to Kulusuk Airport and Nerlerit Inaat Airport and reverse, operated year-round by Air Greenland. There are also local flights between Nuuk and

Paamiut Airport Paamiut Airport ( kl, Mittarfik Paamiut) is an airport located northeast of Paamiut, a town in the Sermersooq municipality in southwestern Greenland. It was built in 2007, replacing the old heliport. It is the only airport between Nuuk and Narsar ...

on the west coast.

Language

''Kalaallisut'', the West Greenlandic dialect is spoken in the towns and settlements of the western coast.

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

is also in use in the bigger towns. Tunumiit oraasiat, the East Greenlandic dialect, is spoken on the eastern coast.

References

{{Regions of Denmark Municipalities of Greenland Populated places established in 2009