Geography and population

Denmark is a small country in the northern part of Europe, north of Germany and south of Sweden. The population is just below 5,500,000 living on 42,394 sq km.

In olden times, when all Danes were Vikings, they also owned Norway, Sweden and part of England. Today this information is primarily used to tell people that all successful Norwegian writers and war heroes are in fact Danes.

Economy

The economy is based on these two simple facts:

• Alcohol is the primary export.The Swedish can't buy it, so they take the ferry to Denmark and get it there (not to mention getting quite drunk in the process, so they usually spend some time walking around, vomiting on 'The Little Mermaid', offending people in 'Tivoli' and so on).
• The Danish taxes and VAT are high, so Danes send all their elderly down to Germany, to buy beer and wine. So alcohol is their primary import, as well.

Apart from this the Danes also export agricultural products, knowledge, furniture and design, soccer players Lego and Bang & Olufsen televisions (look for a Hollywood movie with people living in a loft, they probably have a Bang & Olufsen television or radio).

Culture

Mostly known internationally for a few movies (most of them good but quite strange) such as The Kingdom, Festen and The Nightwatch . Oh and Aqua¹ are Danish. Well, 25% Norwegian, actually, but don't tell anybody.

In his spare time you can always get a Dane to say nasty things about the Swedish and Germans (they are not doing this to be rude, but Denmark is a really small country, so they have to boost our ego every now and then).

Denmark is ruled by a constitutional monarchy, which means they have a queen but she doesn't have any real power. The country is ruled by a democracy which is elected every four years.

Note to people visiting Denmark: the Little Mermaid really is very small. We are not talking the Stature of Liberty here, in fact we are talking about a statue comparable with the Statue of Liberty's index finger, so don't be too disappointed.

Living

Denmark has been voted 'Best Country in the World' by an American report a few times. This makes the Danes very fond of their country, although they will complain about the tax system every time they get a chance.