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

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 *

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 (Ammassalik) * Kuummiit * Kulusuk (Kap Dan) * Tiniteqilaaq * Sermiligaaq * Isortoq

Ittoqqortoormiit area

* Ittoqqortoormiit (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 in ...

(Grønnedal)

Nuuk area

* Nuuk (Godthåb) * Kapisillit * Qeqertarsuatsiaat (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. The waters flowing around the western coastline of the municipality are that of Labrador Sea, 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, at the northern end of Fleming Fjord. 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 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 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 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