Denmark lies in Scandinavia, between latitude 54°-58° north and longitude 8°-14° east. The country occupies a land mass of 43,000 km2 comprised of the 30,000 km2 Jutland peninsula and approx. 500 islands that together account for the remaining 13,000 km2. Apart from a short (70 km) terrestrial border with Germany, the country is surrounded by sea, the total coastline amounting to more than 7,000 km. The marine area for which Denmark has environmental responsibility covers a total of 100,000 km2.
Map of Denmark
The landscape is moraine from the two latest glacial periods in the area, and is partly
comprised of plains and partly of hills, with the highest point being only 175 m above sea
level. There are many small watercourses and numerous lakes of various sizes. Annual
precipitation is 700 mm and average temperature varies from 0°C in the coldest month to
16°C in the warmest. Were it not for human activity, the country would be mainly covered
by forest.
Human activity over the last 10,000 years has changed the landscape, however; thus 62% of Denmark’s area is utilized for fields, market gardens, orchards and similar agricultural purposes, and 12% is forest. Of the remainder, 5% is utilized for urban and summer cottage zones, 5% for agricultural buildings and sparsely built-up areas in the rural zone and 2% for non-urban roadways, the remaining 14% being accounted for by hedgerows, ditches, field roads, meadows, marshes, heath, dunes, moors, lakes and watercourses1. Some 200 years ago the forest area was 3%, but determined efforts to protect and promote forests have subsequently quadrupled their area. During the course of the next 100 years it is intended that the area of forest should again double, thereby to cover 25% of the land mass.
Landscape utilization in Denmark
The total population of just over 5 million is growing very slowly, from 5.12 million in
1980 to 5.20 million in 19942. In the 1980s there was a deficit of births with respect to
deaths, but this was counterbalanced by immigration. The average life expectancy is 72.4
years for men and 77.8 years for women.
The average population density is 120 inhabitants per km2. The greatest concentration of inhabitants is in Greater Copenhagen, which is centred around the capital Copenhagen. This covers just under 3,000 km2 of the island of Zealand (total area 7,500 km2) and has a population of 1.7 million inhabitants. The population of Jutland is 2.4 million, the western and northern parts being most thinly populated. The majority of large Danish towns are coastal.
The level of education of 15-69 year-olds is such that 41% have completed only basic general education (9 years; primary and lower level secondary education), 7% have completed only upper level secondary education (3 years; high school), 30% have completed basic vocational training and 15% have completed higher education.
Level of education in Denmark
The employed labour force amounts to 2.6 million persons5, almost equally divided between
men (1.4 million) and women (1.2 million). The 2.6 million persons outside the labour
force comprise children, students, old age pensioners, disability pensioners, unemployed
persons, etc.
Gross domestic product (GDP) amounts to DKK 880,000 million (1993 figure), which corresponds to DKK 170,000 per person. Gross domestic product at factor cost (GDPf) amounts to DKK 760,000 million (1993 figure), of which 48% is generated by the private service sector, 25% by the manufacturing/raw materials extraction/building and construction sectors, 23% by the public service sector and 3.7% by the agricultural sector.
Foreign trade is extensive. Alone export of goods amounted to DKK
240,000 million in 1993. The country had previously become a debtor by importing too much,
but the debt is now being paid off. The balance of payments surplus amounted to DKK 36,000
million in 1993. 
Geographic distribution of Danish
exports of goods in 1992
The most important export markets for Denmark are Germany (24%), Sweden (11%), Great
Britain (10%) and Norway (6%).
