An autonomous territory of Denmark thousands of kilometers from the US is currently center stage in a geopolitical tussle.

US President Donald Trump says it's "unacceptable" that Greenland should not come under US control and has threatened tariffs on any countries who don't fall in line with his plans.

While the territory is geographically in North America, its relationship with Denmark means it is culturally and politically European.

Meanwhile, citizens and the governments of Denmark and Greenland are doing their best to resist Trump's overtures while Europe, China and Russia assess the importance of the vast, icy island to their interests.

So why is Greenland so important?

What is the strategic importance of Greenland?

While the latest threats of buying or invading Greenland are particular to Donald Trump's administration, the Danish territory has been key to US interests for much longer than that.

Then US Secretary of State William Seward raised the idea of annexing Greenland as far back as 1867 and the US occupied Greenland to ensure it didn't fall into the hands of Nazi Germany during World War II. The US currently operates the remote Pituffik Space Base, an air force base, in northwestern Greenland, which was built after the US and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland Treaty in 1951.

The island's position off the northeastern coast of Canada means many north American leaders have deemed it crucial to defense strategy. Russia, another country which lies partly in the Arctic Circle — the others are Canada, Norway, the US, and Denmark (through Greenland and the Faroe Islands) — has several bases in the Arctic and China declared itself a "near-Arctic state” in 2018 in an effort to obtain a toehold in the region.

How big is Greenland?

It's huge. Though the US, Russia, Canada and China are significantly larger, few other nations are, with Greenland about six times larger than Germany (roughly 2.17 million sq km vs. 357,000 sq km).

In fact, Greenland is more than half the size of the entire European Union and is the largest island in the world, with Australia, which would otherwise take that crown, considered a continent.

How populated is Greenland?

With just 56,000 inhabitants, Greenland is easily the most sparsely populated territory on earth, with about 0.14 people per sq km. 

The reason for this is its geography, with 80% of the country covered by an ice sheet formed approximately 3 million years ago rendering large swathes uninhabitable.

Over 65% of the population live in Greenland's five biggest settlements; Nuuk (the capital, 19,905 people), Sisimiut (5,485), Ilulissat (5,087), Qaqortoq (3,069) and Aasiaat (2,992).

An aging population means the number of Greenlanders is expected to drop below 50,000 by 2050, according to government data.

How is Greenland's climate changing?

Rapidly, as in the rest of the Arctic Circle. Climate change is causing temperatures to rise to such a point that the Ittoqqortoormiit weather station recorded temperatures of 14.3 degrees Celsius on May 19 last year, more than 13 degrees Celsius above the May average daily maximum temperature of 0.8 degrees Celsius.

As a result, the 2025 Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) found that the island's ice sheet had shrunk for the 29th year in a row. "On average, the Greenland Ice Sheet has lost approximately 140 billion tonnes of ice per year when we look at the entire data period [from 1985],” said Signe Hillerup Larsen from GEUS.

While the last few years have seen a slower loss than in the 2010s, 2025 data from US agency NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) showed this ice melt is causing  global sea level to rise by 0.03 inches (0.8 millimeters) per year.

This thinning of the Arctic ice is considered another key reason for the increase in interest in the territory, particularly from the US. It appears set to create a northwest passage for international trade which would likely mean the US would have to compete with Russia, China and other countries over access to Greenland's mineral resources.

What natural resources does Greenland have?

Greenland possesses at least 25 of the 34 raw materials considered critical by the European Union. While the territory has plenty of iron ore, graphite, tungsten, palladium, vanadium, zinc, gold, uranium, copper, and oil, the country's harsh geography, climate and limited infrastructure make much of this difficult to extract.

However, it is Greenland's rare earth elements (REEs) that are perhaps its most sought after commodity. The US does not have a reliable supply chain of REEs, which are used in all sorts of products, from electric vehicles and mobile phones to military radar and MRI scanners.

Currently about 60% of REEs are mined in China, which processes more than 90% of them. With with the EU and the US keen to decrease a reliance on China for such materials, Greenland is a key battleground.