World Affairs
- 891
- 269
- Origin
- Axis Group
Date of Event:
Jan 31, 2025
Almost half of Danish people now consider the US to be a considerable threat to their country and the overwhelming majority oppose Greenland leaving to become part of the US, new polling has found.
The research by YouGov, shared exclusively with the Guardian, comes after weeks of tension between Denmark, Greenland and the US over Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that he plans to take control of the autonomous territory, which is part of the Danish kingdom.
The Arctic island, which has a population of 57,000 people, was formerly ruled as a colony by Denmark, which continues to control its foreign and security policy. Trump’s interest in Greenland comes at a time of growing momentum for its pre-existing independence movement.
The poll of just over 1,000 people in Denmark, conducted between 15 and 22 January, found that 46% considered the US to be either “a very big threat” or “a fairly big threat” to Denmark.
This is higher than the number who said they considered North Korea or Iran a threat – of which 44% and 40% did respectively. But the threat of Russia remains considerably higher; 86% of respondents said they considered Moscow a threat.
Of those surveyed, 78% said they would oppose Greenland being sold to the US, but 72% said the final decision should be Greenland’s, not Denmark’s.
The research by YouGov, shared exclusively with the Guardian, comes after weeks of tension between Denmark, Greenland and the US over Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that he plans to take control of the autonomous territory, which is part of the Danish kingdom.
The Arctic island, which has a population of 57,000 people, was formerly ruled as a colony by Denmark, which continues to control its foreign and security policy. Trump’s interest in Greenland comes at a time of growing momentum for its pre-existing independence movement.
The poll of just over 1,000 people in Denmark, conducted between 15 and 22 January, found that 46% considered the US to be either “a very big threat” or “a fairly big threat” to Denmark.
This is higher than the number who said they considered North Korea or Iran a threat – of which 44% and 40% did respectively. But the threat of Russia remains considerably higher; 86% of respondents said they considered Moscow a threat.
Of those surveyed, 78% said they would oppose Greenland being sold to the US, but 72% said the final decision should be Greenland’s, not Denmark’s.
