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 ...

, formed on 1 January 2009 from five earlier, smaller municipalities. Its administrative seat is the city of

Nuuk Nuuk (; da, Nuuk, formerly ) is the capital and largest city of Greenland, a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of government and the country's largest cultural and economic centre. The major cities from other coun ...

(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 Gre ...

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

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 Gree ...

(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 Sermilik ( da, Egede og Rothes Fjord) is a fjord in eastern Greenland. It is part of the S ...

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 Ittoqqortoormiit (East Greenlandic: ; West Greenlandic: ''Illoqqortoormiut'' ), formerly known as Scoresbysund, is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in eastern Greenland. Its population was 345 as of 2020 and has been described as one o ...

(Scoresbysund) * Itterajivit

Ivittuut area

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 i ...

(Grønnedal)

Nuuk area

(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 Qeqertarsuatsiaat, formerly Fiskenæsset or Fiskernæs, is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in southwestern Greenland, located on an island off the shores of Labrador Sea. Its population was 169 in 2020. History Kikertarsocitsiak o ...

(Fiskenæsset)

Paamiut area

* Paamiut (Frederikshåb) * Arsuk

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. Geogra ...

. 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 shelves to the southwest, northwest, and northeast. It ...

, which to the north narrows down to form

Davis Strait Davis Strait is a northern arm of the Atlantic Ocean that lies north of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. To the north is Baffin Bay. The strait was named for the English explorer John ...

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) 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 equi ...

( 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 largest protected area (the only larger protected areas all consist mostly of sea) ...

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 scho ...

. In the east, near the settlement of

, the municipal shores straddle the Kangertittivaq fjord, which opens to the cold

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 a ...

. The southeastern shores are bordered by the

Anorituup Kangerlua Anorituup Kangerlua, also known as Anoritoq or Anortek Fjord, is a fjord in King Frederick VI Coast, southern Greenland. Geography This fjord marks the border between the Sermersooq municipality to the north and the Kujalleq municipality to th ...

fjord of the

Irminger Sea The Irminger Sea is a marginal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered to the west by southern Greenland, to the north by Iceland and the Denmark Strait, to the east by the Reykjanes Ridge (a northern part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge), ...

in the

North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

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 Nuuk Airport ( kl, Mittarfik Nuuk; da, Godthåb Lufthavn; is an airport serving Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. The airport is a technical base and focus city for Air Greenland, the flag carrier airline of Greenland, linking the capital with s ...

to Kulusuk Airport and Nerlerit Inaat Airport and reverse, operated year-round by

Air Greenland Air Greenland A/S (formerly named Grønlandsfly), also known as Greenlandair, is the flag carrier airline of Greenland, owned by the Greenlandic Government. It operates a fleet of 32 aircraft, including 1 airliner used for transatlantic and ch ...

. There are also local flights between Nuuk and Paamiut Airport on the west coast.

Language

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