70 Fun Facts About Denmark

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

The city spreads across Zealand, Amager and the little islet of Slotsholmen, where Christiansborg Palace stands.

How many islands make up the Danish archipelago beyond the Jutland peninsula?

Only about seventy of them are inhabited, and no spot in the whole country is more than 52 km from the sea.

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

For years the title was thought to belong to nearby Yding Skovhøj until a 2005 survey found Møllehøj was nine centimetres higher.

Denmark shares its only land border with which country?

The border runs just 68 km across the base of Jutland; everything else is coastline.

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

That is roughly a one-hour 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?

It is closer to Sweden and Poland than to Copenhagen, and its round churches and smoked herring make it a favourite summer escape.

What is Denmark's average height above sea level?

The country is a glacial leftover of moraine and sand, which is why cycling everywhere is so painless.

What is Denmark's largest lake?

It lies northwest of Copenhagen and is only about three metres deep on average, one of 1,008 lakes in the country.

The Danish monarchy, the world's oldest still reigning, traces its roots to which 10th-century king?

His son Harald raised the Jelling stones in memory of Gorm and Queen Thyra, and every Danish monarch since descends from him.

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?

Jim Kardach picked it because Harald united the Danish tribes and the technology was meant to unite communication protocols; the logo merges the runes for his initials.

How many ring fortresses named Trelleborg did Harald Bluetooth build around Denmark?

They were laid out with geometric precision in the 980s, and five of them became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023.

Under which king did Danes settle the English Danelaw in 1013?

He was Harald Bluetooth's son and briefly king of England himself; his own son Canute finished the job.

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

His North Sea empire held together for almost thirty years, and the story of him ordering the tide back was meant to show his humility, not his arrogance.

The 1397 Kalmar Union joined Denmark with its two Scandinavian neighbours under which monarch?

She ruled as regent rather than crowned queen, and the union lasted until 1523.

In what year did Denmark officially convert to Lutheranism?

Christian III imposed the Reformation after a civil war, and the Church of Denmark has been Lutheran ever since.

Christian IV founded which town as a rival to 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?

He used his popularity after the Swedish wars to push it through in 1660, and absolutism lasted until 1849.

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

Around 1.5 million enslaved people passed through the Danish trade, mostly bound for 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 was on the losing side of the Napoleonic Wars and had to hand it over, though it kept Iceland, the Faroes and Greenland.

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

The date is still Constitution Day, and it also established lasting freedom of the press.

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

The defeat cost Denmark about a third of its territory and turned it into a small, neutral state overnight.

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

The vote followed Germany's defeat in the First World War, which Denmark had sat out as a neutral.

On what date did the German occupation of Denmark begin?

Resistance lasted a matter of hours; the occupation ran until liberation in May 1945.

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

He 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?

It happened while Denmark itself was under German occupation and in no position to object.

The 1953 constitutional change made which later event possible?

It also scrapped the upper house; without it Margrethe II could never have become queen in 1972.

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

Greenland came in too but voted to leave in 1985, making it the first territory ever to exit the bloc.

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

They had already rejected the Maastricht Treaty once before approving it with opt-outs, so the krone survives.

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?

Metropolitan Denmark elects 175 of them, and Greenland and the Faroe Islands send two members each.

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

They replaced sixteen 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?

It is the only building in the world to hold all three branches of a country's government under one roof, and the TV drama Borgen is named after it.

Greenland was granted home rule from Denmark in which year?

Greenland took further self-government in 2009.

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

Registered partnerships arrived in 1989; full same-sex marriage followed in 2012.

Denmark was a founding member of which alliance in 1949?

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

How did Queen Margrethe II announce that she would abdicate?

She stunned the country on 31 December 2023 and 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?

She was a Tasmanian-born marketing consultant; they met in a pub during the Games and married in 2004.

Frederik X is the first royal ever to have completed what?

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

According to legend, the Dannebrog fell from the sky during a 1219 battle in which modern country?

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

The Dannebrog, the oldest continuously used national flag per Guinness, dates from which year?

Its white Nordic cross, shifted toward the hoist, became the template for every other Nordic flag.

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

He was a shoemaker's son who left for Copenhagen at 14 hoping to be an actor; his 156 fairy tales have been translated into more than 125 languages.

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

The day has been marked since 1967, and the 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 fell for a ballet of the story; the statue by Edvard Eriksen is only 1.25 metres tall and has been beheaded twice.

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

The sculptor's wife Eline posed for the body after the ballerina Ellen Price declined to model nude.

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

Founder Georg Carstensen won his charter by telling the king that amused people don't think about politics; the park's 1914 wooden coaster still runs.

The name LEGO comes from the Danish phrase 'leg godt', meaning what?

Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter, coined it 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?

Bricks made that year still click into bricks made today, and the company is now the world's largest toymaker by revenue.

The LEGO Group is headquartered in which small Jutland town?

The town of about 7,000 people also hosts the original Legoland and Denmark's second-busiest airport, built by the company.

Which cathedral is the official burial church of Danish monarchs?

Built in brick Gothic and a UNESCO site since 1995, it holds nearly forty royals; Margrethe II's sarcophagus has been waiting there under a cover since 2018.

How many Eurovision Song Contest wins does Denmark have?

The 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?

The Metallica drummer was born in Gentofte and 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?

He resigned from the project 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?

Vinterberg's Festen was the first Dogme film; he 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?

It is based on a Karen Blixen story about a French refugee cook in a pious Jutland village; Pelle the Conqueror won the same prize the following year.

What is smørrebrød?

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?

They are traditionally made from ground veal and pork, pan-fried, and served with potatoes and brown gravy or on rye bread cold the next day.

Denmark won the European Football Championship in which year?

They had failed to qualify and were only called up when Yugoslavia was excluded ten days before the tournament, then beat Germany in the final.

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

They then won it again in 2021 and 2023, making them the first men's team to take three in a row.

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

Vestas, one of the world's biggest turbine makers, is Danish, and the share has kept climbing since.

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

Students over 18 can also claim a monthly state grant known as SU, which is why Denmark has one of the highest rates of degree holders in the world.

The Øresund crossing links Copenhagen with which Swedish city?

Opened in July 2000, it is the world's longest cable-stayed bridge carrying both road and rail, dipping into a tunnel via the artificial island of Peberholm.

Which Nordic noir television series takes its name from the Øresund crossing?

It opens with a body laid exactly across the Danish-Swedish border line at the middle of the span, and spawned American, British-French and Asian remakes.

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

His institute in Copenhagen became the world capital of quantum physics, and element 107 was later named bohrium in his honour.

Roughly what is Denmark's population?

That is smaller than London, in a country whose average age of 42 makes it one of the oldest populations on Earth.

The Church of Denmark, to which about 70% of Danes belong, is what kind of church?

Membership is high but attendance is among the lowest in Europe; the monarch is required by the constitution to belong to it.

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

Aarhus and Aalborg, the other two, are both on the Jutland peninsula.

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

Greenland followed three decades later, and Denmark became a founding member of NATO the year after the Faroese settlement.