Nearly half of Greenland's post-Little Ice Age area loss occurred since 2000

The Greenland Ice Sheet has retreated since its historical maximum position (generally during the Little Ice Age; LIA, ~1300-1850 CE), but the rate and spatial pattern of recession between the LIA maximum and the satellite era remain poorly constrained. Here, we reconstruct the first continuous Greenland‑wide maximum observable LIA ice extent to quantify margin change across three multi‑decadal periods. We find widespread retreat from the LIA to the 1980s (~ -13,800 km²; -132 km2 yr-1), near‑equilibrium conditions during 1980s-2000s (~1,000 km²; +33 km2 yr-1), and renewed retreat during 2000s-2022 (~ -11,800 km²; −577 km2 yr-1). Taken together, our analysis yields a cumulative ice loss of ~24,600 km² since the LIA and an approximately four-fold post‑2000 acceleration relative to earlier retreat. These results indicate a clear departure from post‑LIA adjustments captured by our reconstruction and provide a Greenland‑wide historical baseline for constraining and evaluating ice sheet models.