Denmark

Country Overview

Denmark is located in northern Europe on the Jutland Peninsula. The nation includes 1400 islands with 78 being inhabited. This includes the island of Zealand that is home to the capital Copenhagen.

There are more bikes than cars in Copenhagen.

Overall, the country is about twice the size of the state of Massachusetts and has about 5.9 million residents. This is not including Denmark’s territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland. These two special autonomous regions are not part of the European Union and are both self governing.

Denmark is one of the three Scandinavian countries, joining Sweden and Norway. The country borders Germany to the south, the Baltic Sea to the west and the North Sea to the east. Its land was formed by glaciers and is mainly flat with some rolling hills.

The nation has a rich history from the Vikings to its royalty, which is the oldest monarchy in Europe. Queen Margrethe II has reigned as Denmark’s monarch for over 50 years. Today Denmark is a constitutional monarchy and its government is headed by the prime minister. The country has been part of the European Union since 1973.

Language

Danish is the official language of the country. Minority languages include Faroese, Greenlandic (an Inuit dialect) and German. English is the predominant second language since students are taught it from a young age.

Ethnic Groups

Danish (includes Greenlandic (who are predominantly Inuit) and Faroese) 85.6%, Turkish 1.1%, other 13.3% (largest groups are Polish, Syrian, Romanian, German, and Iraqi) (2022 est.)

Weather

Denmark’s weather is milder than may be expected for its northern European location. The warm water of the Gulf Stream help modulate the climate.

Møllestien, Aarhus, Denmark

In general, here are average conditions you’d expect in the summer months in Copenhagen:

Currency

Denmark is one of the European Union nations that does not use the euro. The national currency is the krone. One Norwegian Krone (NOK) equals about 0.09 U.S. cents.

Religion

Here is a breakdown of religions from 2019 based on the CIA World Factbook:

Evangelical Lutheran (official) 74.7%, Muslim 5.5%, other/none/unspecified (denominations of less than 1% each in descending order of size include Roman Catholic, Jehovah’s Witness, Serbian Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Baptist, Buddhist, Church of Jesus Christ, Pentecostal, and nondenominational Christian) 19.8% (2019 est.)