Nuuk Godthåb |
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City | ||||||||||||||
Nuussuaq district of Nuuk with the Sermitsiaq mountain in the background
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Location within Greenland | ||||||||||||||
Coordinates: 64°10′30″N 51°44′20″W / 64.17500°N 51.73889°WCoordinates: 64°10′30″N 51°44′20″W / 64.17500°N 51.73889°W | ||||||||||||||
State | Denmark | |||||||||||||
Constituent country | Greenland | |||||||||||||
Municipality | Sermersooq | |||||||||||||
Founded | 29 August 1728 | |||||||||||||
Incorporated | 1728 | |||||||||||||
Government | ||||||||||||||
• Mayor | Asii Chemnitz Narup (Inuit Ataqatigiit) | |||||||||||||
Area | ||||||||||||||
• City | 690 km2 (265 sq mi) | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 5 m (16 ft) | |||||||||||||
Population (2016) | ||||||||||||||
• City | 17,316 (Largest in Greenland) | |||||||||||||
• Metro | 18,040 (including Qeqertarsuatsiaat and Kapisillit) | |||||||||||||
City and metropolitan population is co-extensive, the entire Metro area belongs to Nuuk City | ||||||||||||||
Demonym(s) | Nuummioq | |||||||||||||
Time zone | Western Greenland Standard (UTC−03:00) | |||||||||||||
• Summer (DST) | Western Greenland Daylight (UTC−02:00) | |||||||||||||
Postal code | 3900 |
Nuuk (Greenlandic pronunciation: [nuːk]; Danish: Godthåb) is the capital and largest city of Greenland and the municipality of Sermersooq. It is the seat of government and the country's largest cultural and economic centre. The major cities closest to the capital are Iqaluit and St. John's in Canada and Reykjavík in Iceland. Nuuk contains almost a third of Greenland's population, and also has the tallest building in Greenland. Nuuk is the seat of government for the Sermersooq municipality. In January 2016, it had a population of 17,316, making it one of the smallest capital cities in the world by population (though by far not the smallest).
Nuuk is the Kalaallisut word for "cape". It is so named because of its position at the end of the Nuup Kangerlua fjord on the eastern shore of the Labrador Sea. Its latitude, at 64°10' N, makes it the world's northernmost capital, located only a few kilometres farther north than the Icelandic capital Reykjavík. Since 2009, the city bus service Nuup Bussii provides city transport services in Nuuk for the new Sermersooq municipality, linking the town centre with the outlying districts and neighborhoods of Nuussuaq, Qinngorput, as well as Qernertunnguit in Quassussuup Tungaa. In 2012 the buses transported more than 2 million passengers around the city of Nuuk. The campus of the University of Greenland, hosting Statistics Greenland, and the main holdings of the Public and National Library of Greenland is located at the northern end of the district, near the road to the Nuuk Airport.