In Denmark the tuberculosis (TB) incidence rates per 100.000 individuals per year have decreased from 162 in the 1920s to 6. Greenland is a highly endemic country for TB with an incidence rate that parallels that of India. Nine per cent of the Greenlandic children are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The global TB burden of disease is levelling off - even showing a small reduction in the estimated annual incidence rates. Drug resistance and HIV co-infection as well as diabetes pose great challenges in achieving the WHO/Stop TB partnership goals set out for 2015 and 2050.