Denmark

In this highly secularized society, Catholicism is but a tiny minority religion. The state church is Lutheran, yet only 9 percent of Danes say religion plays a significant role in their lives at all. Danes do hold an affinity for historical and cultural tradition, and church rituals of baptism, confirmation, marriage and especially funerals are extremely popular. Danes are also quite willing to support the upkeep and clergy of the state church by paying an extra, optional income tax.

Catholic Danes are more conservative than non-Catholic Danes, but more liberal than Catholics in other parts of the world. Much of the Catholic population has been shaped by immigration; the Diocese of Copenhagen reports that “approximately one third of Danish Catholics have been born abroad.” On any given Sunday, a worshiper could attend Mass around Copenhagen in Polish, English, Ukrainian, Croatian, Chaldean, French, Spanish and Italian. Read more...

    Religious Affiliation
    Chart source: Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project, 2010
    Total Population
    5,754,356 1
    Urban
    87.90% 1
    Rural
    12.10% 1
    Immigrants as % of Population
    10.1% 2
    Homicides
    0.99 per 100,000 people (global median 6.9) 3
    Level of Public Corruption
    1 (1=lowest, 176=highest corruption) 4
    Gender Equality in the Economy, Health, Education and Politics
    19 (1=most equal, 144=least equal) 7
    Fertility Rate
    1.74 births per adult woman 5
    Children Who Do Not Live to Age 5
    0.40% 5
    Life Expectancy at Birth
    80 years 5
    Internet Users
    96% 5
    Gross National Income per Capita
    US$61,310 5

    These statistics are derived from the Vatican's official publication, Statistical Yearbook of the Church 2020 (Vatican City: Librera Editrice Vaticana, 2022). The numbers may differ from data reported by other sources on this site.

    Baptized Catholics
    52,000
    Baptized Catholics as % of Total Population
    0.88
    Baptisms per Year (Under age 7)
    445
    Baptisms per Year (Over age 7)
    19
    First Communions per Year
    514
    Confirmations per Year
    421
    Students Enrolled in Catholic Primary Schools
    9,690
    Students Enrolled in Catholic Secondary Schools
    750
    Students Enrolled in Catholic Higher Education
    10
    Church Marriages per Year
    74
    Church Marriages in Which Both Spouses are Catholics
    30
    Priests
    78
    Women Religious (Nuns & Sisters)
    77
    Catholics per Priest
    661
    Parishes
    40
    • 1 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2018). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision, Online Edition.
    • 2 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Trends in International Migrant Stock: The 2015 revision.
    • 3 United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, Homicide Statistics 2015.
    • 4 Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index 2016.
    • 5 UNICEF, State of the World's Children, 2016.
    • 6 Statistical Yearbook of the Church 2020 (Vatican City: Librera Editrice Vaticana, 2022).
    • 7 World Economic Forum, The Global Gender Gap Report, 2016.