You’ve seen it. That massive white blob sitting at the top of your classroom wall map, looking like it’s about to swallow Africa whole. If you’re looking for where is Greenland located on the world map, the answer is pretty straightforward, but the visual is actually a massive trick.
It’s way smaller than it looks. Seriously.
Greenland is a giant island—the biggest one on Earth, actually—tucked between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic. It sits right to the northeast of Canada and northwest of Iceland. If you’re looking at coordinates, you’re basically looking at $60^\circ$ to $83^\circ$ North and $11^\circ$ to $74^\circ$ West. But honestly, most of us just find it by looking for the biggest white patch in the north.
The Map Distortion Problem (No, it's not the size of Africa)
The Mercator projection. That’s the culprit.
Because we’re trying to flatten a round Earth onto a flat piece of paper, things near the poles get stretched out like crazy. On most maps, Greenland looks roughly the same size as Africa. In reality? Africa is fourteen times larger. You could fit Greenland into Africa about a dozen times and still have room for a few European countries.
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It’s actually about the size of Saudi Arabia. Still huge, but not "continent-sized" huge.
Most people get this wrong because their eyes trust the map more than the data. It’s actually closer to $2.16$ million square kilometers. If you want to see the real shape, you’ve gotta look at a globe or a Gall-Peters projection, which is way uglier but way more honest about size.
North America or Europe? It’s Complicated
Here is where things get weird. Geographically, Greenland is 100% part of North America. It sits on the North American tectonic plate. If you look at a map of the ocean floor, you’ll see it’s basically a massive extension of Canada’s shelf.
But politically? It’s European. Sorta.
It is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. This means that while they have their own local government (the Inatsisartut), their head of state is King Frederik X of Denmark. They use the Danish Krone. They speak Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) and Danish.
Where the People Actually Live
If you look at where is Greenland located on the world map, you’ll see a lot of white. That’s because about 80% of the island is buried under a massive ice sheet.
You can’t live in the middle. It’s a polar desert.
The population is tiny—only about 56,000 people. To put that in perspective, that’s fewer people than you’ll find in a mid-sized football stadium. Almost everyone lives on the rocky, ice-free coastal fringes, mostly in the southwest where the climate is slightly less "freeze-your-face-off."
- Nuuk: The capital. About 19,000 people live here. It’s the heart of everything.
- Sisimiut and Ilulissat: The next biggest spots, mostly known for fishing and tourism.
- Hans Island: A tiny rock between Greenland and Canada that the two countries "fought" over for decades by leaving bottles of whiskey and schnapps for each other. They finally split it in half in 2022.
The 2026 Geopolitical Mess
Right now, as we’re sitting in early 2026, Greenland is actually in the news for more than just ice. There’s been a ton of tension lately because the U.S. has been making noise again about "acquiring" the territory.
Just this week, on January 13, 2026, Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen had to stand up next to the Danish PM and basically tell the world, "We aren't for sale."
There’s a huge "Hands Off Greenland" protest happening today (January 17) in Nuuk and Copenhagen. Why does everyone want it? Because as the ice melts, the shipping routes open up, and the minerals underneath—gold, uranium, rare earth metals—are becoming easier to get to. It's a strategic goldmine.
Practical Insights for the Curious
If you're actually planning to go or just want to understand the place better, keep these things in mind:
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- Don't expect roads. You cannot drive between towns. There are no highways. You move by boat, plane, or dog sled.
- The "Green" name was a scam. Erik the Red named it "Greenland" basically as a marketing ploy to get people to move there. Most of it is white or gray rock.
- Check the time zones. Greenland is huge and spans four different time zones, though most of the population sticks to UTC-2.
- The Midnight Sun is real. If you go in the summer, the sun literally doesn't set. It’ll mess with your head.
If you want to truly grasp where it is, stop looking at the wall map. Open Google Earth, spin it to the top of the world, and look at how it bridges the gap between the Canadian Arctic and Scandinavia. That's the real Greenland.
Next Steps for You
- Compare the size: Go to "The True Size Of" website and drag Greenland over Africa or the US. It’ll blow your mind how much the map has been lying to you.
- Monitor the news: Keep an eye on the 2026 Arctic Council meetings; the outcome of these U.S.-Denmark talks will likely change how we view Arctic borders for the next fifty years.
- Plan a visit: If you’re going, fly into Kangerlussuaq or Ilulissat. Those are your main gateways, but book a year in advance—hotels are as scarce as trees.