Greenland Census

Back to: Greenland

For the past several centuries Greenland has been under the rule of the kingdom of Denmark. Most records werecreated by the Danish government, including censuses. A census is a count and description of the population. Censuses have been taken by the Danish government primarily for population studies and taxation purposes.

Census records can provide personal information about family relationships, age, year of birth, description of property, religion, birthplace, and so forth. Census records are especially valuable because they list a large portion of the population. They can provide information where all or portions of other records are missing. Generally, you will find more complete family information in more recent censuses. Use the information with caution since some information may be incorrect.

You will find census records for the following years in Greenland: 1826-1828, 1834, 1840, 1845, 1850, 1855, 1860, 1870, 1901, 1911, 1921, 1925, and ever 5 years after 1925 except for 1940.

Availability
All censuses for Greenland are available at the National Archives [Rigsarkivet] in Copenhagen, Denmark. The 1901 census is available online at arkivalieronline.dk (http://www.sa.dk/ao/). An extracted index for the first ten census years is available at Dansk Data Arkiv. You can see what parishes are available by clicking in the county box and choosing "Grønland". Microfilmed versions of the censuses for Greenland are available at the Family History Library for the census years 1840-1921.

Census returns are arranged according to town, village, parish, and district.