Greenland

(Please note that I have been trying to profile one country per day in an effort to better educate myself about the world we live in. I am sharing the facts I find most interesting because like all bloggers I just assume that what interests me also interests you.)



- OK - the first thing to note about Greenland is their flag. You have to admit it is different. It seems more like the flag of a corporation like IKEA than a real country.

- From the CIA World Factbook - "The world's largest non-continental island, about 81% ice-capped, Greenland was granted self-government in 1978 by the Danish parliament. The law went into effect the following year. Denmark continues to exercise control of Greenland's foreign affairs."

- Greenland is 2,166,086 sq km in area (slightly bigger than three times the size of Texas). What is strange is when you look at most maps or globes - Greenland looks huge (and it is) but on these maps and globes Greenland appears to be bigger than Australia (or at least equal in size). In truth of fact - Australia is more than 3.5 times the size of Greenland.

- The population of Greenland is about 56.385. As noted elsewhere on this blog - that's less than Bermuda (which is 40 thousand times smaller than Greenland). I live in Worcester and we have more than three times the population of Greenland. It takes more votes to be Mayor of Worcester than it does to become the Prime Minister of Greenland.

- The national holiday is June 21st because it is the longest day of the year.

- The per capita GDP is about $20,000 and the ecomony of the country relies mostly on the fishing industry.

- Greenland does happen to be home to the World Ice Golf Championship. That's pretty cool.