69 Fun Facts About Denmark

Copenhagen sits mainly on which island, Denmark's largest?

Copenhagen spreads across Zealand and the smaller island of Amager, home to the airport at Kastrup; the two are linked by bridges across the harbour.

Which strait separates the islands of Zealand and Funen?

The Great Belt (Storebælt) separates Zealand from Funen; the Great Belt Fixed Link, opened to road traffic in 1998, crosses it with about 18 km of bridges and tunnel.

Denmark's highest natural point, Møllehøj, rises to roughly what height?

Møllehøj, in eastern Jutland, measures 170.86 m, about 171 m; a 2005 survey found it nine centimetres higher than neighbouring Yding Skovhøj, long thought the highest natural point.

Denmark shares its only land border with which country?

Denmark's only land border, 68 km long, runs with Germany across the base of Jutland; every other frontier is coastline.

No point in Denmark is farther from the coast than about how far?

No spot in Denmark lies more than about 52 km from the coast, roughly an hour's drive, which helps explain why Danes have been sailors, traders and Vikings for a thousand years.

The island of Bornholm lies about 150 km east of the rest of Denmark, in which sea?

Bornholm sits in the Baltic Sea, closer to Sweden and Poland than to Copenhagen; its round churches and smoked herring make it a favourite summer escape.

What is Denmark's average height above sea level?

Denmark's average elevation is just 31 m above sea level; the land is a glacial leftover of moraine and sand, which is why cycling everywhere is so painless.

What is Denmark's largest lake?

Arresø, in North Zealand north-west of Copenhagen, covers about 41 km², making it Denmark's largest lake, though it averages only about three metres deep.

The Danish monarchy, Europe's oldest, traces its roots to which 10th-century king?

Gorm the Old, who died around 958, heads the unbroken Danish royal line; his son Harald Bluetooth succeeded him, and Margrethe II and Frederik X both descend from Gorm.

Which monuments record that Harald Bluetooth made the Danes Christian around 965?

The larger stone, sometimes called Denmark's birth certificate, carries the oldest known image of Christ in Scandinavia.

An engineer at which company proposed the name Bluetooth in 1997?

Intel engineer Jim Kardach proposed 'Bluetooth' in 1997 because Harald united the Danish tribes and the technology was meant to unite communication protocols; the logo merges the runes for his initials.

Which Danish-born explorer, sailing for Russia, gave his name to the strait between Asia and America?

Vitus Bering, born in Horsens in 1681, led Russia's Kamchatka expeditions and sailed through the strait later named for him in 1728; he died on Bering Island in 1741.

Which Danish king drove Æthelred the Unready into exile and took England in 1013?

Sweyn Forkbeard, son of Harald Bluetooth, was acknowledged king of England at Christmas 1013 but died five weeks later, in February 1014; his son later completed the conquest.

Which Danish king conquered England and ruled it, along with Denmark, in the early 11th century?

Canute the Great ruled England from 1016 and Denmark from 1018, adding Norway in 1028; the tale of him commanding the tide was meant to show his humility before God, not his arrogance.

Which ruler engineered the 1397 Kalmar Union of Denmark, Norway and Sweden?

Queen Margaret I ruled as regent rather than crowned queen, and the union lasted until 1523.

In what year did Denmark officially convert to Lutheranism?

In 1536, after winning the Count's Feud civil war, Christian III imposed the Lutheran Reformation, and the Church of Denmark has been Lutheran ever since.

Christian IV founded which town as a rival to Hamburg?

Christian IV founded Glückstadt on the Elbe in 1617 to rival Hamburg; the builder-king also gave Copenhagen the Round Tower, Rosenborg Castle and the Stock Exchange with its dragon-tail spire.

Which king replaced Denmark's elective monarchy with absolute rule in the 17th century?

Frederick III used his popularity after the Swedish wars to make the crown hereditary and absolute in 1660; absolutism lasted until Denmark's first constitution in the mid-19th century.

Denmark's West African slave-trading fort at Osu stood in which modern country?

Osu Castle, on the coast at Accra in modern Ghana, was Denmark's main Gold Coast fort; Danish ships carried roughly 100,000 enslaved Africans, mostly to the Danish West Indies, today's US Virgin Islands.

Which navy bombarded and burned much of Copenhagen in 1807?

Britain wanted to stop the Danish fleet falling into Napoleon's hands, and simply took it away instead.

The 1814 Treaty of Kiel ended Denmark's four-century union with which country?

Denmark, on the losing side of the Napoleonic Wars, ceded Norway to the king of Sweden under the Treaty of Kiel in January 1814, though it kept Iceland, the Faroes and Greenland.

Denmark's constitution, which ended absolute monarchy, was signed on 5 June of which year?

Frederick VII signed the June Constitution on 5 June 1849, ending absolutism and guaranteeing freedom of the press; the date became Denmark's Constitution Day.

In the 1864 Second Schleswig War, Denmark lost Schleswig and Holstein to which powers?

Prussia and Austria crushed Denmark in 1864 and took Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg, about a third of the monarchy's territory, leaving a small state that turned to neutrality.

In what year did North Schleswig rejoin Denmark after a plebiscite?

The 1920 plebiscite, held after Germany's defeat in the First World War, which Denmark had sat out as a neutral, returned North Schleswig to Denmark; 15 June became Reunification Day.

On what date did the German occupation of Denmark begin?

Germany invaded on 9 April 1940; Danish resistance lasted only a few hours, and the occupation ran until liberation on 5 May 1945.

In September 1943 the Danish resistance helped Niels Bohr escape by sea to which country?

Bohr crossed to Sweden by boat on 29 September 1943, was flown on to Britain in the bomb bay of a Mosquito, and ended up advising the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos.

Iceland severed its ties with Denmark and became an independent republic in which year?

Iceland declared itself a republic on 17 June 1944, while Denmark was under German occupation and in no position to object; Christian X sent his congratulations anyway.

Denmark joined the EEC in 1973 alongside Ireland and which other country?

Denmark, Ireland and Britain joined the EEC on 1 January 1973; Greenland came in as part of Denmark but voted to leave and exited in 1985, the first territory to do so.

In which year did Danes vote in a referendum to reject adopting the euro?

In September 2000 Danes voted 53% to 47% against joining the euro; having already rejected Maastricht once before approving it with opt-outs, they kept the krone.

The Danish krone is pegged to the euro at roughly what rate?

The peg runs through the ERM II mechanism, so Denmark effectively imports European Central Bank policy without a seat at the table.

How many seats are there in the Folketing, Denmark's parliament?

The Folketing has 179 seats: metropolitan Denmark elects 175, and Greenland and the Faroe Islands send two members each.

How many administrative regions has Denmark had since the 2007 reform?

Since 1 January 2007 Denmark has had five regions, which replaced the old counties and sit above 98 municipalities; their main job is running the hospitals.

Which palace houses the Folketing, the Supreme Court and the prime minister's office?

Christiansborg Palace on Slotsholmen is said to be the only building in the world housing all three branches of a country's government, and the TV drama Borgen takes its name from it.

Greenland was granted home rule from Denmark in which year?

Home rule took effect on 1 May 1979 after a Greenlandic referendum; further self-government followed in 2009.

Denmark was the first country in the world to legally recognise what?

Denmark's registered partnership law of 1989 was the world's first legal recognition of same-sex partnerships; full same-sex marriage followed in 2012.

Denmark was a founding member of which alliance in 1949?

NATO, from day one. Neutrality had failed spectacularly in 1940, so Denmark abandoned it and joined the Western alliance.

How did Queen Margrethe II announce that she would abdicate?

In her New Year's Eve broadcast on 31 December 2023 she stunned the country; she signed the abdication on 14 January 2024, exactly 52 years after becoming queen.

Where did the future Frederik X meet his wife, Mary Donaldson, in 2000?

They met at the Slip Inn pub in Sydney during the 2000 Olympics; the Tasmanian-born marketing consultant married him in Copenhagen in 2004.

Which endurance event did Denmark's Frederik X complete in 2013, a decade before becoming king?

An Ironman triathlon: he finished the 2013 Copenhagen Ironman in 10:45:32, having earlier spent four months on a 2,795 km dog-sled expedition across northern Greenland.

Legend says the Danish flag, the Dannebrog, fell from the sky during a 1219 battle in which modern country?

Estonia: the Battle of Lindanise was fought where Tallinn now stands, and the story says the flag turned the tide for King Valdemar II.

Per Guinness, the Dannebrog's present design has been in continuous use since which year?

Guinness dates the Dannebrog's continuous use from 1625, when the present design of a white cross on red was adopted; it became the template for every other Nordic flag.

Hans Christian Andersen was born in 1805 in which Danish city?

Andersen was born in Odense on 2 April 1805, a shoemaker's son who left for Copenhagen at 14 hoping to act; his 156 fairy tales have been translated into more than 125 languages.

Andersen's birthday, 2 April, is celebrated internationally as what?

IBBY has marked International Children's Book Day on or around 2 April since 1967; its Hans Christian Andersen Award is the top international prize for children's authors.

The Little Mermaid statue was commissioned by an heir to which brewing fortune?

Carl Jacobsen, heir to the Carlsberg brewery, fell for a ballet of the story; Edvard Eriksen's statue is only 1.25 metres tall and has been beheaded twice, in 1964 and 1998.

In which year was the Little Mermaid statue unveiled on Copenhagen's Langelinie promenade?

Unveiled on 23 August 1913, the statue has the face of ballerina Ellen Price, who declined to model nude, and the body of the sculptor's wife, Eline Eriksen.

Tivoli Gardens, next to Copenhagen's central station, opened in which year?

Tivoli opened on 15 August 1843 after founder Georg Carstensen told Christian VIII that amused people do not think about politics; its wooden Rutschebanen coaster dates from 1914.

The name LEGO is a contraction of the Danish phrase 'leg godt', meaning what?

'Play well' was coined by carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen in the 1930s for his wooden toys; the plastic 'Automatic Binding Bricks' came in 1949.

In which year was the patent for the modern LEGO brick design filed in Denmark?

Godtfred Kirk Christiansen filed the patent for the stud-and-tube brick on 28 January 1958; bricks from that year remain compatible with those made decades later.

The LEGO Group is headquartered in which small Jutland town?

Billund, a town of about 7,000 people, is home to the LEGO Group, the original Legoland (1968) and Denmark's second-busiest airport, which the company built in 1964.

Which cathedral is the official burial church of Danish monarchs?

Roskilde Cathedral, a brick Gothic church on Zealand and a UNESCO site since 1995, holds the tombs of nearly forty Danish kings and queens, including Margaret I and Christian IV.

How many times had Denmark won the Eurovision Song Contest by the end of 2023?

Denmark's three wins came in 1963, 2000 and 2013, with the Olsen Brothers and Emmelie de Forest providing the last two.

Which Danish musician was the first inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Lars Ulrich, Metallica's drummer, entered the Hall with the band in 2009; born in Gentofte, he was a junior tennis prospect before his family moved to California.

Denmark's most famous classical composer, Carl Nielsen, is remembered for how many symphonies?

The fourth, 'The Inextinguishable', features a duel between two sets of timpani; his face was on the 100-kroner note for years.

Which Danish architect designed the Sydney Opera House?

Jørn Utzon won the 1957 competition but resigned in 1966 after clashes with the New South Wales government, and never saw the finished building in person.

Which director co-founded the Dogme 95 film movement with Lars von Trier?

Thomas Vinterberg later won the international-feature Oscar for Another Round in 2021.

Which Danish film, directed by Gabriel Axel, won the foreign-language Oscar for 1987?

Babette's Feast, from a Karen Blixen story about a French refugee cook in a pious Jutland village, won the award for 1987; Pelle the Conqueror repeated the feat the following year.

What is smørrebrød?

An open sandwich on rye bread, where the toppings are the art form: pickled herring, roast beef with remoulade, or the 'shooting star' of fried and steamed fish.

What are Danish frikadeller?

Frikadeller are pan-fried meatballs of ground pork, often mixed with veal, served hot with potatoes and brown gravy or cold on rye bread the next day.

Denmark won the European Football Championship in which year?

Denmark won Euro 1992 in Sweden after being called up ten days before kick-off when Yugoslavia was excluded, then beat Germany 2-0 in the Gothenburg final.

In which year did Denmark's men's handball team win its first World Championship?

Denmark lifted its first men's world title on home soil in 2019, then won again in 2021 and 2023, the first men's team to take three in a row.

In 2015, wind turbines supplied roughly what share of Denmark's electricity consumption?

Wind turbines covered about 42% of Danish electricity consumption in 2015, a world record at the time; Vestas, one of the world's biggest turbine makers, is Danish.

What do Danish students pay in tuition fees at public universities?

Danish and EU students pay nothing in tuition at public universities, and those over 18 can claim a monthly state grant known as SU.

The Øresund crossing links Copenhagen with which Swedish city?

Malmö sits across the Øresund from Copenhagen; the 16 km link, opened in 2000, crosses the artificial island of Peberholm and dips into a tunnel at the Danish end.

Which Danish-Swedish noir series starred Sofia Helin as detective Saga Norén?

The Bridge (Bron/Broen) opens with a body laid across the Danish-Swedish border at the middle of the Øresund Bridge, and spawned American, British-French and Asian remakes.

Niels Bohr won the Nobel Prize in Physics in which year?

Bohr received the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics for his model of atomic structure; his Copenhagen institute became the world capital of quantum physics, and element 107 was named bohrium for him.

Roughly what is Denmark's population?

Denmark has roughly 6 million people, fewer than Greater London; with a median age of about 42 it has one of Europe's older populations.

Which Danish philosopher, author of Fear and Trembling, is called the father of existentialism?

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55) published Fear and Trembling in 1843 under the pseudonym Johannes de Silentio; his writings on anxiety and the leap of faith earned him the title father of existentialism.

Odense, one of Denmark's four cities with over 100,000 people, lies on which island?

Odense is the main city of Funen, the island between Jutland and Zealand; Aarhus and Aalborg, the other two big cities outside Copenhagen, are both in Jutland.

In which year did the Faroe Islands gain home rule from Denmark?

The Faroese Home Rule Act took effect in 1948, after a disputed 1946 independence referendum; Greenland followed three decades later, in 1979.