ABSTRACT
Denmark’s population of just over 5 million has been growing very slowly over the last generation and is expected to decline slightly after the turn of the century. Denmark’s birth-rate since 1981 has been below the replacement level, giving her a small proportion of young people and many small households. In 1986, 58 per cent of all households comprised single people (Boligministeriet1 1988f). Denmark is not densely populated, although over four-fifths of all Danes live in villages and towns of over 1,500 inhabitants and the Greater Copenhagen region houses over one quarter of the population. Denmark had until recently the highest income and highest standard of living of the five countries in this study, although its level of unemployment rose steeply to 11 per cent in January 1992. The biggest change in Denmark’s population was the growth in one-parent families and decline in two-parent families over the last twenty years. Table 25.1 summarises some important aspects.
