Country Facts - Denmark

The People

Nationality Dane(s)

Ethnic Composition

Scandinavian	91%
Inuit, Faroese, German, Turkish, Iranian, Somali	9%

Religious Composition

Evangelical Lutheran	95%
Protestant and Roman Catholic	3%
Other	2%

Languages Spoken

Danish, Faroese, Greenlandic (an Inuit dialect), German (small minority)
Note: English is the predominant second language

Education and Literacy

Schooling is compulsory for nine years and tuition is free through the university level. Adult literacy is 100 percent.

Labor Force

Total: 2.856 million (2000)
By occupation:

Services	79%
Industry	17%
Agriculture	4%

Geography

Land Mass Total

16,638 sq mi (43,094 sq km)
Note: Includes the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea and the rest of metropolitan Denmark, but excludes the Faeroe Islands and Greenland.

Land

16,368 sq mi (42,394 sq km)

Water

270 sq mi (700 sq km)

Land Boundaries

Total: 42 mi (68 km)

Border countries: Germany 42 mi (68 km)

Coastline

4,544 mi (7,314 km)

Maritime claim

Contiguous zone: 24 nm
Continental shelf: 656 ft (200 m) depth or to the depth of exploitation
Exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
Territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate/Weather

Temperate; humid and overcast; mild, windy winters and cool summers.

Terrain

Low and flat to gently rolling plains.

Elevation extremes

Lowest: Lamme Fjord 22ft (7 m)
Highest: Ejer Bavnehoj 567 ft (173 m)

Natural Resources

Petroleum, natural gas, fish, salt, limestone, stone, gravel and sand.

Land use

Arable land	56%
Permanent crops	0%
Other	44%

(1998)

Natural hazards

Flooding is a threat in some areas of the country (e.g., parts of Jutland, along the southern coast of the island of Lolland) that are protected from the sea by a system of dikes.

Environment - current issues

Air pollution, principally from vehicle and power plant emissions; nitrogen and phosphorus pollution of the North Sea; drinking and surface water becoming polluted from animal wastes and pesticides.

Geography Note

Denmark controls Danish Straits (Skagerrak and Kattegat) linking Baltic and North Seas; about one-quarter of the population lives in Copenhagen.

Demographics

Population

5,368,854 (July 2002)

Age structure

0-14 years:	18.7%	Male: 514,589	Female: 488,121
15-64 years:	66.4%	Male: 1,806,722	Female: 1,760,149
65 years and over:	14.9%	Male: 334,599	Female: 464,674

(2002)

Growth Rate

0.29% (2002)

Life Expectancy

76.91 years (2002)
female: 79.67 years
male: 74.3 years

GDP Per Capita

Purchasing power parity
US$28,000 (2001)

Infant Mortality

4.97 deaths/1,000 live births (2002)

Sex ratio

At birth:	1.06 male(s)/female
Under 15 years:	1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years:	1.03 male(s)/female
65 years and over:	0.72 male(s)/female
Total population:	0.98 male(s)/female

(2002)

Net migration rate

2.01 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002)

Economy & Trade

This thoroughly modern market economy features high-tech agriculture, up-to-date small-scale and corporate industry, extensive government welfare measures, comfortable living standards, a stable currency, and high dependence on foreign trade. Denmark is a net exporter of food and energy and has a comfortable balance of payments surplus. The government has been successful in meeting, and even exceeding, the economic convergence criteria for participating in the third phase (a common European currency) of the European Monetary Union (EMU), but Denmark, in a September 2000 referendum, reconfirmed its decision not to join the 11 other E.U. members in the euro. Even so, the Danish currency remains pegged to the euro. As 2003 commences, Denmark's biggest problems are similar to those of most of the rest of the E.U. A rigid labor market, declining foreign investment and an aging population that places a heavy burden on the tax system, all point towards stagnation. Until the future brightens for Denmark's neighbors, little can happen for this tiny economy.

Unemployment

5.3% (2000)

Inflation Rate

2.4% (2001)

Industries

Food processing, machinery and equipment, textiles and clothing, chemical products, electronics, construction, furniture and other wood products, shipbuilding.

Exports

US$52.4 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Imports

US$44.1 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Total Trade

Purchasing power parity
GDP US$149.8 billion (2001)

Top Export Partners

EU 65.9% (Germany 19.1%, Sweden 12.9%, UK 9.8%, France 5.0%, Netherlands 5.0%), US 5.9%, Norway 5.5% (2000)

Top Import Partners

EU 69.7% (Germany 21.1%, Sweden 12.3%, UK 8.6%, Netherlands 7.5%, France 5.2%, Italy 4.4%), US 4.1% (2000)

Top Exports

Machinery and instruments, meat and meat products, dairy products, fish, chemicals, furniture, ships, windmills

Top Imports

Machinery and equipment, raw materials and semimanufactures for industry, chemicals, grain and foodstuffs, consumer goods

Debt - external

US$21.7 billion (2000)

Economic aid

ODA, $1.63 billion (1999)

Fiscal Year:

Calendar year.

Business Workweek

	Monday - Friday	Saturday - Sunday
Offices	Monday to Thursday 8:30a.m. to 5:30p.m. Friday 8:30a.m. to 7p.m. Some offices advance the working schedule during summer	Closed
Retail	9a.m. to 5:30p.m. Some large retailers and department stores keep longer evening hours.	Saturday 9a.m. to noon.
Banks	9:30a.m. to 4p.m.	Closed
Government	9:30a.m. to noon and 1:30p.m. to 4p.m.	Closed

Holidays

Official Holidays

Holidays	2003	2004	2005
New Year's Day	January 1	January 1	January 1
Constitution Day, Father's Day, Bank Holiday	April 17	April 8	March 24
Holy Thursday, Maunday Thursday (Skær Thursday)¹	April 17	April 8	March 24
Good Friday	April 18	April 9	March 25
Easter²	April 20	April 11	March 27
Common Prayer Day	May	May 16	May 7
Ascension³	May 30	June 8	May 6
Whit Sunday (Pentecost)*¹	June 8	June 9	May 15
Whit Monday	June 9	June	May 16
Christmas Eve	December 24	December 24	December 24
Christmas Day*²	December 25	December 25	December 25
Second Day of Christmas	December 26	December 26	December 26
New Year's Eve	December 31	December 31	December 31

¹	Observed the Thursday before Easter. This feast commemorates the the institution of the Eucharist, and is one of the oldest rituals of Christian Holy Week. Maundy, or Holy Thursday also marks the beginning of Passover.
²	Easter, a Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the first Sunday after the full moon and the vernal equinox (fixed in the Gregorian calendar at March 21), and often observed with Good Friday and Easter Monday. In the West, Easter is predicted using the Gregorian calendar, while Eastern Orthodox Christians use the much older Julian calendar, and celebrate 13 days later.
³	The feast of Ascension takes place 40 days after Easter in both the Christian and Orthodox faiths and celebrates the ascent of Christ into Heaven.
*¹	The Christian feast of Pentecost, Whit Sunday or Whit Monday takes place 50 days after Easter, in observation of the day God came to the disciples through the Holy Ghost.
*²	Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. In A.D.320, Pope Julius I fixed the date at December 25 based on the Gregorian calendar. The Orthodox church calculates Christmas using the Julian calendar and celebrates 13 days later on January 7.

Country information used by permission of World Trade Press