E.g., 04/25/2024
E.g., 04/25/2024
Country Resource - Denmark

Denmark

DK
  • Population..........................................................................5,946,984 (2023 est.)
  • Population growth rate .............................................................0.44% (2023 est.)
  • Birth rate..................................................111.25 births/1,000 population (2023 est.)
  • Death rate.................................................9.55 deaths/1,000 population (2023 est.)
  • Net migration rate.................................2.71 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2023 est.)
  • Ethnic groups*............................Danish (includes Greenlandic [who are predominantly Inuit] and Faroese) 85.6%, Turkish 1.1%, other 13.3% (largest groups are Polish, Syrian, Romanian, German, and Iraqi) (2022 est.)

Data represent population by ancestry

CIA World Factbook

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As Ulf Hedetoft of Aalborg University and the Academy for Migration Studies in Denmark explains, the question of how to handle cultural and religious differences has come to dominate the Danish political agenda.

Recent Activity

A celebration for the Feast of San Gennaro in New York's Little Italy

One-tenth of all immigrants in the United States come from Europe, a vast decline from the mid-20th century, as migration within Europe has grown and more U.S. immigrants arrive from other destinations. This article provides an overview of contemporary European immigration to the United States, as a region and by top European countries of origin.

Flags of the European Union fly outside of the European Parliament in Brussels.

Between Brexit and COVID-19, Europe’s 31-country zone of free movement has been profoundly tested. Still, the area has constantly evolved over the last 70 years, to include new groups of individuals who can freely move for work, study, or leisure, as well as cover larger geographic areas. This article examines the history and challenges to free movement, a crowning success of the European project.

MoriaReceptionCenter

Faced with absorbing vast numbers of asylum seekers who headed to Europe during the 2015-16 migration crisis and the ongoing arrival of much smaller, but steady flows of Central Americans at the U.S.-Mexico border, EU Member States and the United States in 2018 took or explored significant steps to narrow asylum and harden policies.

Refugees attend a job training fair

After receiving more than 2 million asylum seekers in 2015-16, European countries are turning to the task of integrating the newcomers, including getting refugees into work. This article explores labor market integration of refugees in five Northern European countries—Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden—drawing key lessons for today from the experiences of earlier groups of humanitarian arrivals.

MarineLePen BlandineLeCain Flickr

The success of populist movements on both sides of the Atlantic in 2016, including Donald Trump's victory in the United States and the United Kingdom's vote to quit the European Union, have sparked an identity crisis in the West. Campaigns effectively tapped into the anxieties of voters who feel left behind by societal change and out-of-touch elites, while normalizing anti-immigrant rhetoric in mainstream discourse, as this Top 10 article explores.

NewsOresund FrivilligaMalmo Flickr

Drawn by generous asylum policies and the region's welcoming reputation, hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers arrived in Scandinavia in 2015. As the unprecedented flow overwhelmed the asylum systems of Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark, lawmakers began to recalibrate their policies, tightening asylum benefits in a number of significant ways, as this article explores.

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As Ulf Hedetoft of Aalborg University and the Academy for Migration Studies in Denmark explains, the question of how to handle cultural and religious differences has come to dominate the Danish political agenda.
The efforts of Nordic countries to provide safe harbor to refugees are outlined by Mette Honore, Senior Legal Consultant to the Danish Refugee Council.
Cover image for Healing the Gap: Building Inclusive Public-Health and Migrant Integration Systems in Europe
Reports
September 2021

While the pandemic has had broad impacts across European societies, these have not been evenly felt. Many migrants and refugees have long faced health challenges, such as limited health-care eligibility and accessibility, and COVID-19 has threatened to deepen health disparities. This report explores how European countries have responded and what opportunities have emerged to tackle disparities in migrant health.

Coverthumb_TCM Start Up Visas
Reports
July 2019

Over the last decade, a number of governments have launched start-up visa programs in the hopes of attracting talented immigrant entrepreneurs with innovative business ideas. With the track record for these programs a mixed one, this report explains how embedding start-up visas within a broader innovation strategy could lead to greater success.

Coverthumb_TCM RadicalRightNordicCountries
Reports
June 2018

Though hardly new to most Nordic countries, radical-right parties have grown in popular support and political power in recent years. This report analyzes the role immigration has played in their rise and recent electoral fortunes in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. It also examines the strategies other parties have adopted in an attempt to limit their growth.

Designing Civic Education for Diverse Societies
Reports
February 2018

Across Europe, civic education programs are being asked to solve a range of social challenges—from dwindling political participation to the protection of immigrant and refugee youth from alienation and radicalization. While these challenges are shared across countries, the programs designed to address them vary considerably. This report explores differing models in Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

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Reports
September 2014
This report examines the development of immigrant integration policies in Denmark over the past 15 years, specifically focusing on the centralization of Danish integration policies and exploring differences between policy frameworks at national and local levels, where certain areas have developed less restrictive and more accommodating policy responses to immigrant integration.
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Reports
March 2014
A quiet policy transformation is taking place in Europe, as policymakers increasingly turn to a strategy of "mainstreaming" immigrant integration—seeking to reach people with a migration background through needs-based social programming and policies that also target the general population. This report assesses mainstreaming efforts across government in Denmark, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
ImmigrantIntegration Austerity  Cover
Reports
March 2011

The global economic downturn and rising debt levels in all European countries have put immigration at the forefront of many debates surrounding public spending. This report presents a diversity of findings with regard to European governments' responses to immigrant integration organization, financing, and programs.