Denmark Population, People, Languages and Religions

By | January 21, 2022

Denmark Country Overview

Where is Denmark located? Denmark is a kingdom found in northern Europe. About a third of its total area consists of over 400 islands. Being part of Europe, it is not surprising that Denmark is also in the same time zone as Germany on the time zone map, which divides the countries into world time zones along the lines of longitude. This is called “Central European Time” (CET) and is 1 hour ahead of world time. (UTC +1). In summer there is a time difference of one hour in Denmark, which means that the time in summer is called “Central European Summer Time”. Then the time difference to the world clock is 2 hours.

Bordering Countries of Denmark

According to abbreviationfinder, Denmark is a small Scandinavian country located in Northern Europe, bordered by Germany to the south and Sweden to the east. To the north and west, Denmark is bordered by the North Sea, while to the southwest it is bordered by the Baltic Sea. The Faroe Islands are located in the North Atlantic Ocean, while Greenland is located in the Arctic Ocean.

Germany borders Denmark from its southernmost point to its westernmost point, covering a total of 68 kilometers of land border. This border has been in place since 1864 when it was established as part of an agreement between Prussia and Denmark. This border is heavily guarded with both countries maintaining a strong military presence along it.

Sweden shares a maritime border with Denmark, covering a total of 75 kilometers of coastline. This maritime boundary has been in place since 1645 when Sweden ceded control of Scania and Blekinge provinces to Denmark as part of an agreement ending their war over who controlled these regions.

The Faroe Islands are located approximately halfway between Iceland and Norway, approximately 400 kilometers north-northwest of Scotland’s Shetland Islands. The islands have been a self-governing part of Denmark since 1948 but remain relatively autonomous with their own language and culture.

Finally, Greenland is located northwest of Iceland across Davis Strait and Baffin Bay from Canada’s Nunavut region. It has been an autonomous part of Denmark since 1953 but retains significant autonomy over its own affairs with its own language, culture, government and economy.

Denmark National Flag

Population Distribution

As of 2023, the latest population of Denmark is 5,869,410, based on our calculation of the current data from UN (United Nations).

Total population 5,869,410
Population growth rate 0.48%
Birth rate 10.50 births per 1,000 people
Life expectancy
Overall 78.94 years
Men 76.54 years
Women 81.47 years
Age structure
0-14 years 16.57%
15-64 years 64.03%
65 years and above 19.42%
Median age 41.80 years
Gender ratio (Male to Female) 0.97
Population density 136.20 residents per km²
Urbanization 85.30%
Ethnicities
Danes (Scandinavians, Faroe Islands, Inuit); Proportion of foreigners 2015: 7.5%
Religions
Lutherans 95%, Other Protestants and Catholics (Roman Catholic) 3%, Muslims 2%
Human Development Index (HDI) 0.930
HDI ranking 11th out of 194

People in Denmark

The Danes

90 percent of Denmark’s residents are Danish. The remaining 10 percent include people from other Scandinavian countries (for example Sweden) and the “German minority”, who mainly live in the border area with Germany.

75 percent of the population belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Danish People’s Church and are therefore Protestants. There are few Catholics (0.6 percent) and Muslims (3 percent). Most of the Danes, namely 88 percent, live in the city.

Languages in Denmark

Danish is spoken in Denmark. Danish belongs to the Indo-European languages ​​and here again to the North Germanic (Nordic or Scandinavian) languages. Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are so similar that a Dane can understand a Norwegian without much problem – practical, right?

There are several dialects of Danish. So one speaks differently in Jutland (namely Jutisch) than on the islands, for example on Zealand and Funen (island Danish). Bornholm, the easternmost island in Denmark, also has a dialect: Bornholmisch or East Danish.

In Danish there are no umlauts (ie ä, ö, ü) and no “ß”. However, our “ä” corresponds to Æ in Danish (lower case: æ). Our “ö” corresponds to the slashed o: Ø (lowercase letter: ø). Then there is the “A” with a curl on top: Å (lower case: å). It replaced the double “aa” in a spelling reform in 1948. It is pronounced more like an “o”. The little ring stands for the “o”. Since 1948, nouns have also been written in Danish in lower case (as in English).