50 free Greenland trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Greenland is the world's biggest island, its least densely populated country and, lately, front-page news, and this quiz covers all of it. It starts with the map: which kingdom it belongs to, which continent it sits on, the 1.2 km border with Canada, the ice sheet that covers four-fifths of it and the mountain and northernmost speck of land at its extremes. Then it goes back through the Saqqaq and Thule peoples, Erik the Red's optimistic naming, the Norse who farmed there for 400 years and vanished, Hans Egede's mission and the founding of Nuuk. From there it covers the modern story: the wartime US occupation and 'Bluie' bases, the $100 million offer of 1946, Thule, Camp Century and the missiles hidden in the ice, the 1968 B-52 crash, home rule in 1979, leaving the EEC, self-rule in 2009 and the Trump-era Greenland crisis. There are questions on the language, the flag, the parliament, cryolite and rare earths, shrimp, the 500-year-old shark, the football team that cannot join FIFA and the day it rained on the summit. Easy questions suit anyone who can find it on a globe; the expert tier asks about Sermersooq and Paul-Emile Victor's three islands. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Greenland, its history, places and wildlife, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Besides Denmark proper and Greenland, what is the third constituent part of the Danish kingdom?
The Faroe Islands
Greenlanders are Danish citizens and therefore EU citizens, even though Greenland itself is not part of the EU.
Q 02What is Greenland's capital and largest city?
Nuuk
With about 20,000 people, more than a third of the whole territory, it is one of the world's smallest capitals.
Q 03Geographically, Greenland is part of which continent?
North America
Politically it was tied to Norway from 986 and later to Denmark, but it sits east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
Q 04Greenland shares a 1.2 km land border with Canada on which tiny piece of land in Nares Strait?
Hans Island
The 'whisky war' over the island ended in 2022 when the two countries agreed to split it roughly in half.
Q 05Which Norse explorer, exiled from Iceland, gave Greenland its name in the hope of attracting settlers?
Erik the Red
The Saga of Erik the Red says he chose it 'as he said people would be attracted there if it had a favourable name'.
Q 06What is Greenland's name in the Greenlandic language?
Kalaallit Nunaat
It means 'land of the Kalaallit', the principal Inuit group of the west coast.
Q 07Norse settlement of Greenland's west coast began in which year, with a fleet of 14 boats?
986
The settlers formed the Eastern, Western and Middle Settlements on fjords near the island's southwestern tip.
Q 08The Norse abandoned Greenland in the 15th century partly because the price of which export collapsed?
Walrus ivory
Competition from higher-quality elephant ivory undercut Greenland's most valuable product.
Q 09The Thule people, ancestors of today's Greenlanders, migrated east from which region around 1000 AD?
Alaska
They brought dog sleds and toggling harpoons and completely replaced the earlier Dorset culture.
Q 10Which Dano-Norwegian missionary arrived in Greenland in 1721 and founded what became its capital?
Hans Egede
He came looking for surviving Norse Christians and found none; the colony was called Godthåb, 'Good Hope'.
Q 11The 1814 treaty dissolving the Denmark-Norway union was signed in which city?
Kiel
Norway later tried to claim uninhabited eastern Greenland in 1931 and lost in court.
Q 12Which country occupied Greenland from April 1941 to protect it after Denmark fell to Germany?
The United States
Greenland paid for goods with mineral exports, and its bases were given a colour-coded name.
Q 13How much did Washington offer Denmark for Greenland in 1946?
$100 million
Denmark firmly refused; the offer would be worth about $1.7 billion today.
Q 21On 21 June 2009 Greenland gained self-rule. Which powers did Denmark keep?
Foreign affairs and defence
Greenlanders were also recognised as a separate people under international law.
Q 22What is Greenland's parliament called?
Inatsisartut
The name means 'Legislators'; the government is the Naalakkersuisut.
Q 23Since 2009, what has been the sole official language of Greenland?
Kalaallisut
Also simply called Greenlandic, it has about 57,000 native speakers, making it the largest of the Eskaleut languages.
Q 14What was the code name of the secret US plan to hide missile sites under the Greenland ice cap?
Project Iceworm
It was run from Camp Century between 1960 and 1966; Denmark only learned of it from declassified papers in 1997.
Q 15Camp Century, the US base dug into the ice sheet in 1959, was powered by what?
A nuclear reactor
Its 21 tunnels stretched three kilometres and it operated until 1967.
Q 16In January 1968 a US B-52 carrying four nuclear bombs crashed on the sea ice near which air base?
Thule
The bomber was flying an Operation Chrome Dome mission when it attempted an emergency landing.
Q 17The northernmost US military installation, in northwest Greenland, was renamed what in 2023?
Pituffik Space Base
It sits 1,210 km north of the Arctic Circle and has the world's northernmost deep-water port.
Q 18Greenland's status as a Danish colony ended with the Danish constitution of which year?
1953
It became an amt, a Danish county, and Greenlanders received Danish citizenship.
Q 19In which year did Greenland vote for home rule, gaining its own legislature?
1979
The referendum was held on 17 January and the law took effect on 1 May.
Q 20Greenland left the European Economic Community in 1985 largely because of a dispute over what?
Fishing regulations and a sealskin ban
Its people remain EU citizens through Denmark even though the territory is outside the EU.
Q 24Roughly what share of Greenland's population is Greenlandic Inuit?
About 90%
The rest is mostly Danish; genetics show modern Inuit descend from the Thule pioneers with about 25% European admixture.
Q 25With about 56,000 people, Greenland holds which world record?
Least densely populated country
Almost everyone lives on the ice-free southwest coast.
Q 26Roughly what proportion of Greenland is covered by its ice sheet?
About 80%
The sheet covers 1.76 million square kilometres and holds around 2.85 million cubic kilometres of ice.
Q 27If the entire Greenland ice sheet melted, by roughly how much would global sea level rise?
7.5 metres
Research suggests that would take at least 1,000 years even in the worst case.
Q 28What is Greenland's highest mountain, at about 3,700 m?
Gunnbjørn Fjeld
It stands in the Watkins Range of east Greenland; most of the island lies below 1,500 m.
Q 29Where was the Northern Hemisphere's record low of minus 69.6 °C measured in 1991?
Near the summit of the Greenland ice sheet
The capital's average daily temperature, by contrast, ranges from about -5 °C to 10 °C through the year.
Q 30Which speck of land off Greenland's north coast is the world's northernmost undisputed land?
Kaffeklubben Island
A 1969 Canadian survey found it lies 750 metres north of Cape Morris Jesup, long thought to be the tip of the world.