Religion in Denmark

Denmark is a small, Scandinavian nation located in Northern Europe. It is bordered by the North Sea and Baltic Sea, and it shares borders with Germany and Sweden. Denmark has a population of 5.8 million people, making it one of the smallest countries in Europe. The capital city of Copenhagen is home to a third of the population, and it is known for its beautiful architecture and vibrant culture. The climate in Denmark is mild with cool summers and relatively mild winters. The country has an incredibly high quality of life, with citizens enjoying free healthcare, education, and high employment rates. Denmark also boasts some of the most stunning natural scenery in Europe, including rolling hills covered in wildflowers, sandy beaches, and dramatic coastline cliffs. See countryaah.com for other countries that start with letter D.

Population

In 1850, Denmark had just over 1.4 million residents. During the ensuing seventy-year period, when the annual population increase averaged just over 1 percent, the number of residents doubled. However, since the 1920s, growth has gradually slowed down, and from the beginning of the 1970s it has not exceeded 0.5 percent per year.

During the 1970s, the birth surplus shrank (the difference between the number of births and the number of deaths), and in the early 1980s it turned into a deficit. According to Countryaah data, the population of the country also began to decline, as the immigration surplus (the difference between the number of immigrants and the number of emigrants) was small. However, by the mid-1980s, the number of residents began to increase again. The reason was that the annual immigration surpluses increased and thus compensated the birth deficits. Since the 1990s, Denmark has had both birth and immigration surpluses. In 2019, natural population growth was 0.1 percent.

Since the beginning of the 1960s, Denmark has had a relatively small immigration surplus for most years, and in relation to, for example, Sweden, the number of immigrants is relatively small. In 2018, foreign immigrants made up 10.5 percent of the population; 35 percent of these came from any EU country. Largest individual countries of origin were Syria, Turkey, Poland and Germany.

People in Denmark

Population changes 1970–2015

Year population (1,000) Live Born (1,000) Dead (1,000) Birth Net (1,000) Immigrants (1,000) Emigrants (1,000 Migration net (1,000)
2015 5 660 10.3 9.2 1.1 99 56 43
2010 5 535 11.5 9.8 0.7 69 52 17
2005 5 411 11.9 10.1 1.8 52 46 7
2000 5 330 12.6 10.9 1.7 53 43 9
1995 5 216 13.3 12.1 1.2 63 35 29
1990 5 135 12.3 11.9 o, 4 41 32 8
1985 5 111 10.5 11.4 -0.9 36 27 9
1980 5 122 11.2 10.9 0.3 30 30 0
1975 5 054 14.2 10.1 4.1 32 41 -9

Source: Statistics Denmark

With 135 residents per km 2, Denmark is considerably more densely populated than the other Nordic countries. However, the population distribution varies considerably. The largest concentration can be found in the Capital Region. There are approximately 1.6 million residents, ie 1/3 of the country’s population, which means a population density of 621 residents per km2. Other densely populated areas are Funen and the eastern parts of Jutland. The most sparsely populated are the middle and western parts of Jutland.

In recent decades, the increase in population in Denmark has taken place mainly in the metropolitan areas. The largest cities are Copenhagen (613,288 residents, 2018), Aarhus (273,077) and Odense (178,210). Of the country’s residents, 87 percent now live in cities and other urban areas.

Language

According to thesciencetutor, native language for the majority of Denmark’s population and official language is Danish.

The Act on Self-Government for the Faroe Islands (1948) meant that the native population of the Faroese native language became official language alongside Danish and main language in teaching and administration.

With the Greenland Self-Government Act (1979), Greenlandic became the official language there alongside Danish.

In Southern Jutland (North Schleswig), up to 20,000 Danish citizens have German as their first or second language. There are also a number of primary schools, a high school and a daily newspaper which are German-speaking.

Religion

Before the introduction of Christianity, the Old Norse religion prevailed in Denmark. The Christian mission, represented by the English monk Willibrord and especially of Ansgar, worked for almost 300 years before Denmark officially transitioned to Christianity, which King Harald Blåtand marked on the large rune stone in Jelling (about 960). The mission was supported by the Frankish and German regents and had its administrative center in the Archbishop’s seat Hamburg-Bremen. The church cooperated closely with the royal power from the 11th century. Knot the saint. In 1104, an independent Danish Archbishop’s seat (Lund) was established, and in all important areas – lessons learned, economics, architecture and art – it was now noticed that Denmark was brought closer to the Western European cultural circle. Churchly, Denmark was ordained in the Western Church under the leadership of the Pope. The harmony between kingship and church was replaced by disputes in the middle of the 13th century, but in the late Middle Ages a close cooperation was created between the king and the pope, and the Danish archbishop’s autonomy was curtailed. This became one of the preconditions for the Lutheran Reformation.

The Reformation reached Denmark with the German influence in the cities. A series of social, economic and religious tensions in crisis-filled Denmark were triggered by a civil war (1534–36), and the victor King King Christian IIIdecided to separate the Danish church from the Roman Catholic. His motives were first and foremost religious (he was personally convinced of the truth of Martin Luther’s view of Christianity), but also political and economic considerations came into play. All Catholic bishops were imprisoned, and their estate withdrawn to the crown. The king supported his actions with the bourgeoisie in all the major cities. A new state and church government was designed by Johann Bugenhagen; the state would now be ruled without interference from the church, and the king was directly responsible to God. In principle, the Church would only devote itself to proclamation, and the King became, in effect, the Church’s supreme governing body. The priests would be chosen by the parishes, and the bishops by the priests, but the king’s approval was required. Responsibility for the “retraining” of the people and the priesthood from Catholicism to Lutheranism was laid on the bishops, a work that spanned generations. The bishops also received the highest supervision over the diocese’s teaching and poor care, even though these areas were no longer specifically church-based. Among the most important reformers were Peder Laurenssen (Malmö), Hans Tausen (Ribe) and Peder Palladius (Copenhagen) – the first Lutheran bishop in Zealand.

The king’s power over the church grew during the following period, and the state church culminated in the single-empire (1660-1849), when the king took over the right to appoint priests; until 1848 the church was administered by the king’s “Danske Kancelli”. Denmark had single independent theologians, among others. Niels Hemmingsen and Jesper Brochmand, and poet poets such as Thomas Kingo and the pietist Hans Adolph Brorson, but the period’s internal church development from Lutheran orthodoxy and pietism to rationalism followed foreign, especially German, role models. But despite the alignment and state-directed piety, the government – partly for trade policy reasons – began to look more tolerant of other faith communities (significantly earlier than in Sweden) at the end of the 17th century. The Roman Catholic Mass from 1671 could be celebrated in a chapel at a foreign embassy,

In the 19th century, a new era broke into Denmark’s church history. A number of creative personalities emerged, the people woke up to independence, and through the abolition of the single world in 1848 and the adoption of the Constitution in June 1849, the relationship between church and state changed completely. In his great philosophical, religious and psychological authorship, Søren Kierkegaard illuminated human life’s possibilities; he urged the individual to “dare” believe in Christ against all reason and called for a life in Christ’s pursuit. But only the violent attack that he directed at the official church shortly before his death made an impact on the contemporary, although he would later gain such recognition. NFS Grundtvig gained significant influence already during his lifetime. He turned sharply to sensible Christianity, emphasized the apostolic creed and child baptism and fought for the freedom of the priests and laymen within the framework of the state church. His hymns are still among the most widely used in Denmark. At his initiative, a large number of public colleges were established and are still in operation.

Particularly important were the popular revival movements, which began around 1820 with the Jylland farmer population. In private circles outside the church, people gathered for mutual edification with Bible reading and hymn singing. The movement spread and often – partly under the impression of Kierkegaard’s thoughts – had a rather critical attitude to the state church. In the middle of the 19th century, the movement was divided. Some gathered around the elementary folk colleges and emphasized the cultural and national. The center of basic Twigianism, Church Society, is now the Vartov building in Copenhagen, where Grundtvig was a priest. Others formed the Church Association for the Inner Mission, which emphasized personal conversion and a moral way of life with a distance from modern culture and worldly pleasures. Both these directions as well as the central party Church Center still play a major role in Danish church life through meeting activities, magazines and folk high schools as well as in priest and bishop elections. Influence in some parts of Denmark also has the Lutheran Missionary Association, a Lutheran, pietist revival movement, which was founded on Bornholm in the 1860s under the inspiration of the Swedish lay preacher Carl Olof Rosenius. During the interwar period, the Tidehverv-inspired movement emerged from Karl Barth’s theology, which attacked in a highly polemical tone the pietistic preaching and the cult of cult in the Christian youth movements. In this, too, Kierkegaard has played a big role. It is a distinctly priestly movement, which exerts a certain church and cultural criticism. magazines and folk high schools, as well as in priest and bishop elections. Influence in some parts of Denmark also has the Lutheran Missionary Association, a Lutheran, pietist revival movement, which was founded on Bornholm in the 1860s under the inspiration of the Swedish lay preacher Carl Olof Rosenius. During the interwar period, the Tidehverv-inspired movement emerged from Karl Barth’s theology, which attacked in a highly polemical tone the pietistic preaching and the cult of cult in the Christian youth movements. In this, too, Kierkegaard has played a big role. It is a distinctly priestly movement, which exerts a certain church and cultural criticism. magazines and folk high schools, as well as in priest and bishop elections. Influence in some parts of Denmark also has the Lutheran Missionary Association, a Lutheran, pietist revival movement, which was founded on Bornholm in the 1860s under the inspiration of the Swedish lay preacher Carl Olof Rosenius. During the interwar period, the Tidehverv-inspired movement emerged from Karl Barth’s theology, which attacked in a highly polemical tone the pietistic preaching and the cult of cult in the Christian youth movements. In this, too, Kierkegaard has played a big role. It is a distinctly priestly movement, which exerts a certain church and cultural criticism. which was founded on Bornholm in the 1860s under the inspiration of the Swedish lay preacher Carl Olof Rosenius. During the interwar period, the Tidehverv-inspired movement emerged from Karl Barth’s theology, which attacked in a highly polemical tone the pietistic preaching and the cult of cult in the Christian youth movements. In this, too, Kierkegaard has played a big role. It is a distinctly priestly movement, which exerts a certain church and cultural criticism. which was founded on Bornholm in the 1860s under the inspiration of the Swedish lay preacher Carl Olof Rosenius. During the interwar period, the Tidehverv-inspired movement emerged from Karl Barth’s theology, which attacked in a highly polemical tone the pietistic preaching and the cult of cult in the Christian youth movements. In this, too, Kierkegaard has played a big role. It is a distinctly priestly movement, which exerts a certain church and cultural criticism.

The present conditions are based on the Constitution of 1849. It admittedly introduced freedom of religion – church and state were separated in principle – but the Evangelical Lutheran Church has nevertheless gained a special position. According to the fourth section of the law, the church, which here is called the Danish folk church, supported by the state. The ecclesiastical legislative power ended in 1849 with the king and parliament, but this was only intended as a temporary arrangement; it was envisaged that a church statute would be created, ie. that the church should be governed by a church congregation, church council or synod. However, despite many attempts, this has not yet been realized due to disagreement between the aforementioned church directions and for church political reasons. The result has been that the folk church has no supreme church body that can make a commitment on behalf of the folk church. All church teams are formed in the parliament; the royal power (the queen) appoints and dismisses priests and townspeople new rituals, hymnbooks and Bibles. The politically appointed church minister – who need not be a member of the church – administers, but tradition invites the state not to intervene in the church’s own affairs. Within the framework of the Church there is a wide democratic co-determination. Each congregation has a council, ward council, which is elected by the members of the Church of the People every four years and who has great administrative and financial powers. It chooses the priests of the parish, and together with the other corresponding council of the diocese, it chooses the bishop of the diocese, who is then appointed by the queen. In Denmark itself there are ten dioceses ruled by bishops, of which Copenhagen is the bishop and together with the other corresponding council of the diocese, it chooses the bishop of the diocese, who is then appointed by the queen. In Denmark itself there are ten dioceses ruled by bishops, of which Copenhagen is the bishop and together with the other corresponding council of the diocese, it chooses the bishop of the diocese, who is then appointed by the queen. In Denmark itself there are ten dioceses ruled by bishops, of which Copenhagen is the bishopprimus inter pares (‘the foremost among the likes’). There are about 2,400 priests in the church. They are educated at the University’s theological faculties in Copenhagen and Aarhus and at the Pastoral Seminary, which is an independent institution under the church ministry. Denmark’s international church contacts are handled by an inter-church council, which was established in 1989 after a violent debate within (and between) the various church directions.

The current relationship between state and church seems to be stable. Neither the Social Democrats, the largest political party, nor the bourgeois parties want any change. About 80% of the population belong to the national church (2012), but the figure is slightly declining. Especially in the cities there is a widespread secularisation.

The Roman Catholic Church is the largest religious community outside the national church with about 39,000 members (2012), mostly Danish. The second largest is the Baptist community with just over 5,000 members (2012). There are about 4,000 Jews; During the German occupation 1940–45, most of the Jews in Denmark were saved by fleeing in boats to Sweden. There is a synagogue in Copenhagen. Islam is today the second largest religion in Denmark and there are approximately 210,000 Muslims (2009), which besides mosques have several Islamic cultural centers.

2019 «Paradigm Shift» and Right Radical Government Change

The parliamentary elections in June became a staggering defeat for the xenophobic Danish People’s Party, which lost 21 seats and gained 16. The result was interpreted abroad as an expression of the right-wing development in Europe in Denmark. It was a misunderstanding. In previous years, DF’s policy had been taken over by the other bourgeois parties and by the Social Democracy. The right-wing radicals had not lost, but on the contrary had managed to get almost the entire political spectrum to adopt right-wing positions. In the spring, this development reached its tentative climax with the adoption of the so-called “paradigm shift” in refugee policy. As before, refugees and immigrants should not be “integrated” (read: assimilated) in Danish society, but is sent out of the country. Social democracy agreed with the government and its right-wing supporters for this.

In the weeks leading up to the election, both electronic and print media led an intense campaign to get village coaches from the new right-wing parties New Civil and «Tight Course» elections to the Parliament. However, only the media succeeded in getting NB above the 2% threshold.

The change of social democracy to a right-wing party led to stronger support for the remaining non-right-wing parties. The Radical Left got its mandate doubled to 16. The Socialist People’s Party also doubled its mandate to 14. The unit list, in turn, went back 1 mandate and the alternative went back 4 mandates to 5.

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It was not only DF that fell back drastically in the election. The militant ultra-liberal Liberal Alliance also declined. From 13 seats to 4. Despite its participation in the government and the ultra-liberalist agenda, it had not been left with any major fingerprints. The decline of right-wing radicals and ultra-liberalists was picked up by the Left, which went ahead by 9 mandates and the landlord party Conservative, which advanced by 6 terms. In total, the extreme right wing declined from 90 seats to 79 and therefore could not form government alone. After three weeks of negotiations, a social democratic minority government was formed with Mette Frederiksen as prime minister instead. She became the country’s youngest prime minister and the country’s second female. In the country’s national socialist and male chauvinist media, she was referred to as “The Ham of War,” while her predecessor Helle Thorning was referred to as “Gucci Helle”. A male chauvinist discourse the media never applied to male politicians.

Denmark Religion