Denmark is made up of the mainland peninsula called Jutland and over 400 scattered islands. The largest of Denmark’s islands, Zealand, is where you’ll find the capital city, Copenhagen. Denmark is part of Scandinavia and shares a similar geography with the south of Sweden, to which it is attached via the Oresund Bridge, and Germany, with which it shares a land border. The Kingdom of Denmark also includes the enormous, self-governing territory of Greenland, situated near North America and the autonomous territory of the Faroe Islands. 

Coast-to-coast

Apart from the 68km-long border (42 miles) with Germany to the south, Denmark is surrounded entirely by water. The furthest you can be from the coast at any point in Denmark is only 52km (32 miles). At its West Coast, it touches The North Sea and this coastline is dominated by long, windswept stretches of sand and dunes. The North Coast runs up into the Kattegat and Skagerrak seas and is also a dynamic coast, with some of Northern Europe’s biggest shifting sand dunes. To the east, you’ll find a more sheltered coast and the calm waters of the Baltic Sea. 

Natural features 

Total area: 42.934km² 
Total length of coastline: 7.314km (4545 miles) 
Highest point: 170,086m (Møllehøj) 
Biggest lake: Arresø (39,5km²)  
Longest river: Gudenå (176km/ 98 miles) 

Land use 

Agriculture: 66 % 
Forest and heathland: 16 % 
Cities, roads and construction: 10 % 
Lake, meadow and marsh: 7 % 

Biggest cities 

Copenhagen (Greater metropolitan area): 1,309,000 inhabitants 
Aarhus: 273,000 inhabitants 
Odense: 178,000 inhabitants 
Aalborg: 114,000 inhabitants 
Esbjerg: 72,000 inhabitants 

Statistics from 1 January 2018 – Source: Denmark’s Statistics.