Danes (, ), or Danish people, are an
ethnic group
An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...
and
nationality native to
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
and a modern
nation
A nation is a type of social organization where a collective Identity (social science), identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, t ...
identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural.
History
Early history
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
has been inhabited by various
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts of ...
since ancient times, including the
Angles,
Cimbri,
Jutes
The Jutes ( ) were one of the Germanic people, Germanic tribes who settled in Great Britain after the end of Roman rule in Britain, departure of the Roman Britain, Romans. According to Bede, they were one of the three most powerful Germanic na ...
,
Herules,
Teutones and others.
A 2025 study in ''Nature'' found genetic evidence of an influx of central European population after about 500 ce into the region later ruled by the Danes.
Viking Age

The first mention of Danes within
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
is on the
Jelling Rune Stone, which mentions the conversion of the Danes to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
by
Harald Bluetooth in the 10th century.
Between and the early 980s, Bluetooth established a kingdom in the lands of the Danes, stretching from Jutland to Scania. Around the same time, he received a visit from a German
missionary who, by surviving an
ordeal by fire according to legend, convinced Harold to convert to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
.
The following years saw the Danish
Viking expansion, which incorporated
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
and
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
into the Danish
North Sea Empire. After the death of
Canute the Great in 1035,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
broke away from Danish control. Canute's nephew
Sweyn Estridson (1020–1074) re-established strong royal Danish authority and built a good relationship with the
archbishop
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
of
Bremen, at that time the archbishop of all
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...
. Over the next centuries, the Danish empire expanded throughout the southern
Baltic coast.
Under the 14th century king
Olaf II, Denmark acquired control of the
Kingdom of Norway, which included the territories of
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
,
Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
and the
Faroese Islands. Olaf's mother,
Margrethe I, united Norway, Sweden and Denmark into the
Kalmar Union.
Denmark–Norway

In 1523, Sweden won its independence, leading to the dismantling of the Kalmar Union and the establishment of
Denmark–Norway. Denmark–Norway grew wealthy during the 16th century, largely because of the increased traffic through the
Øresund. The Crown of Denmark could tax the traffic, because it controlled both sides of the Sound at the time.
The
Reformation, which originated in the
German lands in the early 16th century from the ideas of
Martin Luther (1483–1546), had a considerable impact on Denmark. The
Danish Reformation started in the mid-1520s. Some Danes wanted access to the
Bible in their own language. In 1524, Hans Mikkelsen and
Christiern Pedersen translated the
New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
into
Danish; it became an instant best-seller. Those who had traveled to
Wittenberg
Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is the fourth-largest town in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, in the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. It is situated on the River Elbe, north of Leipzig and south-west of the reunified German ...
in
Saxony and come under the influence of the teachings of Luther and his associates included
Hans Tausen, a Danish monk in the
Order of St John Hospitallers.
In the 17th century Denmark–Norway colonized
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
.
After a failed war with the
Swedish Empire, the
Treaty of Roskilde in 1658 removed the areas of the
Scandinavian Peninsula from Danish control, thus establishing the boundaries between Norway, Denmark, and
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
that exist to this day. In the centuries after this loss of territory, the populations of the
Scanian lands, who had previously been considered Danish, came to be fully integrated as
Swedes
Swedes (), or Swedish people, are an ethnic group native to Sweden, who share a common ancestry, Culture of Sweden, culture, History of Sweden, history, and Swedish language, language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countries, ...
.
In the early 19th century, Denmark suffered a defeat in the
Napoleonic Wars
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Napoleonic Wars
, partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
, image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg
, caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
; Denmark lost control over Norway and territories in what is now
northern Germany
Northern Germany (, ) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony and the two city-states Hambur ...
. The political and economic defeat ironically sparked what is known as the
Danish Golden Age
The Danish Golden Age () covers a period of exceptional creative production in Denmark, especially during the first half of the 19th century.Kulturnet DanmarkGuide to the Danish Golden Age Although Copenhagen had suffered from fires, Battle of Co ...
during which a Danish national identity first came to be fully formed. The Danish
liberal and
national movements gained momentum in the 1830s, and after the
European revolutions of 1848 Denmark became a
constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy, also known as limited monarchy, parliamentary monarchy or democratic monarchy, is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in making decisions. ...
on 5 June 1849. The growing
bourgeoisie
The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...
had demanded a share in government, and in an attempt to avert the sort of bloody revolution occurring elsewhere in Europe,
Frederick VII gave in to the demands of the citizens. A new constitution emerged,
separating the powers and granting the
franchise to all adult males, as well as freedom of the press, religion, and association. The king became head of the
executive branch.
Identity
Danishness (''danskhed'') is the concept on which contemporary Danish national and ethnic identity is based. It is a set of values formed through the historic trajectory of the formation of the Danish nation. The ideology of Danishness emphasizes the notion of historical connection between the population and the territory of Denmark and the relation between the thousand-year-old Danish monarchy and the modern Danish state, the 19th-century national romantic idea of "the people" (''folk''), a view of Danish society as homogeneous and socially egalitarian as well as strong cultural ties to other Scandinavian nations.
As a concept, ''det danske folk'' (the Danish people) played an important role in 19th-century
ethnic nationalism and refers to self-identification rather than a legal status. Use of the term is most often restricted to a historical context; the historic German-Danish struggle regarding the status of the
Duchy
A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a country, territory, fiefdom, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or Queen regnant, queen in Western European tradition.
There once existed an important differe ...
of
Schleswig ''vis-à-vis'' a Danish
nation-state. It describes people of Danish
nationality, both in Denmark and elsewhere–most importantly, ethnic Danes in both Denmark proper and the former Danish
Duchy
A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a country, territory, fiefdom, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or Queen regnant, queen in Western European tradition.
There once existed an important differe ...
of
Schleswig. Excluded from this definition are people from the formerly Norway,
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...
, and
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
; members of the
German minority; and members of other ethnic minorities.
Importantly, since its formulation, Danish identity has not been linked to a particular racial or biological heritage, as many other ethno-national identities have.
N. F. S. Grundtvig, for example, emphasized the
Danish language
Danish (, ; , ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken by about six million people, principally in and around Denmark. Communities of Danish speakers are a ...
and the emotional relation to and identification with the nation of Denmark as the defining criteria of Danishness. This cultural definition of ethnicity has been suggested to be one of the reasons that Denmark was able to integrate their earliest ethnic minorities of Jewish and Polish origins into the Danish ethnic group with much more success than neighboring Germany. Jewishness was not seen as being incompatible with a Danish ethnic identity, as long as the most important cultural practices and values were shared. This inclusive ethnicity has in turn been described as the background for the relative lack of virulent
antisemitism
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
in Denmark and the
rescue of the Danish Jews
The Danish resistance movement, with the assistance of many Danish citizens, managed to evacuate 7,500 of Denmark's 8,000 Jews, plus 686 non-Jewish spouses, by sea to nearby Sweden during World War II, neutral Sweden during the Second World War. ...
, saving 99% of Denmark's Jewish population from the
Holocaust.
Modern Danish cultural identity is rooted in the birth of the Danish national state during the 19th century. In this regard, Danish national identity was built on a basis of
peasant culture and
Lutheran theology, with Grundtvig and his popular movement playing a prominent part in the process. Two defining cultural criteria of being Danish were speaking the Danish language and identifying Denmark as a homeland.
The ideology of Danishness has been politically important in the formulation of Danish political relations with the
EU, which has been met with considerable resistance in the Danish population, and in recent reactions in the Danish public to the increasing influence of
immigration
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as Permanent residency, permanent residents. Commuting, Commuter ...
.
Diaspora

The Danish
diaspora
A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...
consists of emigrants and their descendants, especially those who maintain some of the customs of their Danish culture. A minority of approximately fifty thousand
Danish-identifying German citizens live in the former Danish territory of
Southern Schleswig (''Sydslesvig)'', now located within the borders of Germany, forming around ten percent of the local population. In Denmark, the latter group is often referred to as "Danes south of the border" (), the "Danish-minded" (), or simply "South Schleswigers". Due to immigration there are considerable populations with Danish roots outside Denmark in countries such as the United States,
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
,
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
,
Peru
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
and
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
.
Danish Americans () are
Americans
Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Law of the United States, U.S. federal law does not equate nationality with Race (hu ...
of Danish descent. There are approximately 1,500,000 Americans of Danish origin or descent. Most Danish-Americans live in the
Western United States or the
Midwestern United States.
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
has the largest population of people of Danish descent in the United States. Notable Danish communities in the United States are located in
Solvang, California, and
Racine, Wisconsin, but these populations are not considered to be Danes for official purposes by the
Danish government, and heritage alone can not be used to claim Danish citizenship, as it can in some European nations.
According to the 2006 Census, there were 200,035
Canadians with Danish background, 17,650 of whom were born in Denmark.
Canada became an important destination for the Danes during the post war period. At one point, a Canadian immigration office was to be set up in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
.
In
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
, a
self-governing territory under Danish sovereignty, there are approximately 6,348
Danish Greenlanders making up roughly 11% of the territory's population.
In
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
, we find Danish clusters in countries such as
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
, and
Peru
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
. In the case of Argentina, the main cities where Danes settled were called the “triangle”:
Tandil,
Necochea, and
Tres Arroyos. In Peru, although the migration was significantly smaller we do find a sizable amount of Danes and people of Danish descent in
Lima
Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...
. The
Rasmussen family, with their founder Jorgen Rasmussen who moved to Peru in
1864. He is known for his contributions to the building of the electrical system in the country. In commemoration for his contributions, a plaque hangs in the administrative buildings of the country’s electrical headquarters.
Genetics
The most common
Y-DNA haplogroups among Danes are
R1b (37.3 %) and
I1 (32.8 %).
See also
*
Demographics of Denmark
Demography, Demographic features of the population of Denmark, Denmark proper, part of the Danish Realm, include Ethnic group, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, Socioeconomic status, economic status, Religious identity, religious ...
*
List of Danes
*
Culture of Denmark
The culture of Denmark has a rich artistic and scientific heritage. The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875), the philosophical essays of Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), the short stories of Karen Blixen, penname Isak Dinesen, ...
*
History of Denmark
References
Sources
*
External links
{{Authority control
*
Ethnic groups in Denmark