Denmark is a really small country and I have met a lot of people who didn’t even know where Denmark is. I have met people who believed that Denmark is the capital of Ikea. It is not. It is a small country in Scandinavia, above Germany, next to Great Britain, Sweden and below the tip of Norway, but this is not the time to bore you with boring facts, instead I have gathered some fun facts about Denmark, which you might not know!

1. We have three letters in our alphabet which are not found in the English – Æ, Ø and Å

2. It is very flat here. The tallest point in Denmark is 170 meters high (a hill called Møllehøj), but we do have a place called Sky Mountain (146 m high) – Mount Everest go home 😉

3. Denmark is the longest uninterrupted monarchy in Europe

4. You can’t be further away from the ocean than one hour (up to 52 km)

5. The best restaurant in the world is in Copenhagen and it is called Noma (update: Noma lost its title after this post was written)

6. A Dane invented Lego

Danmark i billeder

7. We have the oldest and the second oldest amusement park in the world – they are called Bakken and Tivoli

8. We have the oldest film making company in the world – Nordisk film

9. It can actually get warm here (during summer is usually between 20-35°C) 😉

10. It rains almost every other day – 170 days a year

11. Dannebrog, our flag, is the oldest state flag in the world still in use by an independent nation – it has been acknowledged since 1219

12. Health care is free

13. Education is also free-  we even receive money/SU from the government to live for while studying

14. A Dane, H. C. Andersen, wrote The Little Mermaid, but in the original story she dies in the end. He also wrote the story that inspired Frozen

elsk aarhus

15. Denmark has been awarded 14 Nobel prizes and with 5.6 million that is one of  the highest per capita ratio in the world

16. Denmark is one of the least corrupt countries in the world (together with Sweden, Finland and New Zealand)

17. Denmark became the first country to legalise same-sex unions in 1989 (same-sex marriage was not granted until 2012)

18. There are actually sharks living in our waters – 14 species have been documented, but up to 17 species might actually be living here

19. Denmark has 444 islands, but only 76 of them are inhabited

20. We were the first country to legalise porn in 1969

21. We have the most visited forest in Europe – Riis skov in Aarhus

gaderne i aalborg centrum

22. We are 5.6 million people in Denmark and we produce about 29 million pigs a year

23. We are the world’s leading producers of windmills – we have actually installed more than 90 % of the world’s offshore wind turbines and 28 % of our energy supply is produced by wind mills

24. We have some of the finest drinking/tap water in the world

25. Danes tend to say “we” when one of us has accomplished something big 😉


More on Denmark and Europe

34 Comments

  • Hej,
    Fin og hyggelig lille samling af fakta vedr. vort skønne land! Bare synd at der er en del sjuske- og stavefejl i den. “Nobel price” hedder jo Nobel prize, og der er flere andre.
    Hvis du sender mig en kladde, så retter jeg det gerne igennem. 🙂

    • Mange tak. Jeg er glad for at du kunne lide det 🙂 ups, det var da vist en lille smutter, det er hermed rettet. Tak for hjælpen

  • All I can say is that ( I wish that someday before I die I could come see everything in Denmark for myself) but unless I hit the power ball lottery it will always be just a dream. Thanks for sharing these facts with me and God bless.

    • I hope your dream will come true one day 🙂 Denmark doesn’t have to be expensive to travel around. There is a lot of Danes on couchsurfing and free shelters in nature 🙂 but of course the plane ticket might be expensive 😉

  • Not to mention that danes pay the largest tax in the world. Up to 80% when income tax, duty and vat is included…

    • Sure, we do day high taxes, but I think that is known by a lot of people 😉 but we do also get a lot for our taxes and it is proven that in the end we do not pay much more than Americans because of all the free benefits we get from it 🙂

  • I have bad asthma and not so good lungs. In areas where bicycling is common and the only allowed transportation mode, is it possible to rent an electric bike?

    • Jamen, det var da så lidt Susanne! Tak fordi du læste med og tog tid til at skrive en kommentar 🙂 Du har ret, vi har og kan nogle dejlige ting her i Danmark og sådan håber jeg at det forsætter med at være 🙂

  • I said that education and health care is free and then mentioned that we get SU while studying. It is true that we for it through taxes, but we don’t have to pay tuition fees to go to school or money every time we go see the doctor unlike many countries in the world 🙂 I am definitely not one of those people, but you are right there are probably some who take it for granted…I am glad you liked it

  • Tak for det. Jeg har allerede delt artiklen med flere af mine amerikanske venner.

    Som en skrev tidligere er der en del stavefejl.
    Teknisk set er hverken sundhedspleje eller uddannelse gratis eller “free”. I betaler jo for det gennem skatterne.

    Ellers er det som sagt en god samling facts

    • Tusind tak for det! Det er jeg glad for at høre. Ja, der er nok nogle fejl, det kan jeg ikke løbe fra 🙂 ja, teknisk set gør vi, men vi skal ikke betale tuition fee, som man for eksempel skal i USA og det er lige meget hvor mange penge man har betalt i skat eller hvor mange penge ens forældre har betalt, så kan man komme på universitetet osv uden at skulle have mange tusinder op af lommen 🙂

  • I spent a couple of weeks last summer in Denmark near Aalborg with some friends and I have to admit that if I were younger I might decide to emigrate. Their poor are taken care of and their electricity is provided by green sources. I suppose there must be poor areas in Copenhagen, but I never saw people begging on street corners.

    • I am glad you liked it and that you would have considered moving here if you were younger 🙂 yes, there are some parts of Copenhagen and the rest of Denmark where people may be poorer than what the tourists might see, but we have a good social system, so we don’t have many homeless (at least compared to others) and most people can survive. As far as I know it is also illegal to beg in Denmark, but I am not completely sure 🙂

  • Sjov liste men der er altså mere end 52 km til havet fra fx Herning (over 60 km) og Ikast (over 70 km) 🙂

    • Du har ikke helt ret. Ikast ligger 55 km fra Venø bugten, som er en del af Limfjorden, hvor der altså findes havvand. Kunne man have kørt i en lige linje ville det have været cirka 50 km 🙂

    • Det var den da indlægget blev skrevet for cirka et år siden 😉 der har jeg bare ikke fået opdateret, men det kan da være, at jeg lige skulle få det gjort 😉 tak!

  • I sommeren 2015 fik vi besøg af vores belgiske svigersøn og hans familie, der ville vide lidt mere om svigerdatterens (min datters) baggrund. Foruden de friske jordbær, fantastisk bagerbrød, is i verdensklasse, friske grønne ærter – så var én ting der næsten fik dem til at gå bagover: vores tillid. I vores tur rundt om i sommerlandet, gjorde vi ofte holdt ved vejboderne. Da de så at man selv afregner det man køber i en pengekasse – var de lamslået. Det kunne de ganske enkelt ikke forstå: den tillid vi havde til at man (i hvert fald de fleste) betalte for de varer de købte – UDEN at der var nogen der kontrollerede det.

    • Det er altid sjovt, at opleve andre øjne på ens eget land, synes du ikke? Den med boderne har jeg faktisk aldrig tænkt på, for det gør man jo bare, men åbenbart kun som dansker. Det var da lidt spøjst, tak fordi du delte det 🙂 jeg deltog i et arrangement i Aarhus med 66 forskellige deltagende lande. Der var nogle asiater, som blev forbløffet over lydene, som skal hjælpe blinde til at komme sikkert over vejen og at vi lod barnevogne stå på gaden uden opsyn. Det er heller ikke noget som jeg ellers tidligere har tænkt meget over indtil den dag… 🙂

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