Faroe Islands people · People in Faroe Islands
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People in Faroe Islands
People in Faroe Islands
The Faroes were colonized by Norwegians in the 9th century - according to history the first settler was Grímur Kamban, a Norwegian Viking who made his home in Funningur on Eysturoy in 825. The Faroese population has largely descended from these settlers. Recent DNA analyses have revealed that Y chromosomes, tracing male descent, are 87% Scandinavian. However, the studies also show that mitochondrial DNA, tracing female descent, is 84% Celtic.
Today the population is 48,511 (1st November 2010). About 19,870 people live in the metropolitan area which comprises Tórshavn, Kirkjubøur, Velbastaður, Nólsoy, Hestur, Koltur, Hoyvík, Argir, Kaldbak, Kaldbaksbotnur, Kollafjørður, Signabøur and Oyrareingir (Tórshavn Municipality). About 4,700 people live in Klaksvík, the second largest town in the islands. 4,750 people live in Suðuroy, the southernmost islands (1 January 2010) and 1330 people live on Sandoy island (1 January 2010).
Faroese is the national language, it is rooted in Old Norse.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Faroe Islands
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Faroe Islands Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.