Greenlandic Inuit

The Greenlandic Inuit (Greenlandic: kalaallit, Danish: Grønlandsk Inuit) are the indigenous and most populous ethnic group in Greenland.^[12] Most speak Greenlandic (Western Greenlandic, Kalaallisut) and consider themselves ethnically Greenlandic. People of Greenland are citizens of Denmark.

Approximately 89 percent of Greenland's population of 57,695 is Greenlandic Inuit, or 51,349 people as of 2012^[update].^[9] Ethnographically, they consist of three major groups:

• the Kalaallit of west Greenland, who speak Kalaallisut
• the Tunumiit of Tunu (east Greenland), who speak Tunumiit oraasiat ("East Greenlandic")
• the Inughuit of north Greenland, who speak Inuktun ("Polar Eskimo")

Historically, Kalaallit referred specifically to the people of Western Greenland. Northern Greenlanders call themselves Avanersuarmiut or Inughuit, and Eastern Greenlanders call themselves Tunumiit, respectively.^[13]

Today, most Greenlanders are bilingual speakers of Kalaallisut and Danish and most trace their lineage to the first Inuit that came to Greenland. The vast majority of ethnic Greenlanders reside in Greenland or elsewhere in the Danish Realm, primarily Denmark proper (approximately 20,000 Greenlanders reside in Denmark proper). A small minority reside in other countries, mostly elsewhere in Scandinavia and North America. There are though a number of Greenlanders and Greenlandic families whom today are multiracial, mostly due to marriages between Greenlanders and Danes as well as other Europeans.