Country

Denmark

Also Known As Danish

Europe

Denmark's state church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark, remains constitutionally established and the nominal affiliation of most of the population, though active religious practice is among the lowest in Europe by most surveys. Pre-Christian Norse religious practice, including veneration of Odin and Thor, persisted here until Christianization in the tenth century under King Harald Bluetooth, and archaeological sites including the rune stones at Jelling record that transition directly. Small Muslim, Catholic and Jewish communities exist alongside a growing number of religiously unaffiliated Danes. The atlas holds Denmark chiefly for its Norse heritage and its role in the region's Christianization rather than for present day religious activity.

Facts

Law and State

Establishment Status

Established 3

Section 4 of the Danish Constitution of 1953 (carried from the 1849 text) states that the Evangelical Lutheran Church is the established Church of Denmark, entitled as such to support from the state; the reigning monarch must by Section 6 belong to it.

State Funding Mechanism

Members of the Church of Denmark (Folkekirken) pay a church tax (kirkeskat) collected alongside ordinary income tax by SKAT, the Danish tax authority, at a rate set annually by each of the 107 parish and diocesan councils, in practice around 0.4 to 1.3 percent of taxable income depending on municipality. Liability ends only on formal withdrawal (udmeldelse) from the church, registered with the parish and taking effect the following quarter; the state separately supplements the church's own tax revenue with a direct budget grant. 3

Apostasy or Blasphemy Law

Denmark has no live blasphemy law. Section 140 of the Penal Code, in force for 334 years, had punished publicly ridiculing or insulting a religious community's dogmas or worship recognized in the realm with up to four months' imprisonment or a fine. On 2 June 2017 the Danish Parliament voted 75 to 27 to repeal it, effective the day after publication in the official gazette, 10 June 2017; the bill's drafters argued the provision was outdated and that religion should not receive special legal protection against speech that other subjects do not receive. Denmark has no apostasy law. The repeal directly ended a pending prosecution of a man charged in 2015 for burning a copy of the Quran and posting video of it on Facebook, whose trial was scheduled for the same month the law was abolished and was dropped as a result. The repeal made Denmark the fifth European country to abolish blasphemy laws since Iceland began the wave in 2015. 4

Registration or Recognition Regime

The Evangelical Lutheran Folkekirke is the constitutionally established church, article four of the constitution naming it a state supported institution funded in part through a church tax on its own members. Faith communities outside the Folkekirke sought recognition under an ad hoc, inconsistently administered process for decades until the Act Regulating Faith Communities Outside the Folkekirke, adopted in 2017 and effective 1 January 2018, replaced the old split between older acknowledged communities and newer approved ones with a single status of acknowledged faith community and a transparent registration procedure for any group seeking it. 5

Ban or Official Watchlist

Denmark maintains a national sanctions list of foreign religious preachers barred from entering the country, established by a May 2016 political agreement and first published in 2017. Inclusion follows conduct suggesting a preacher poses a threat to public order or seeks to undermine Danish law and democratic values; an entry ban typically runs two years and is reviewed for extension. A listed preacher who enters Denmark anyway can be fined or imprisoned for up to three years, and the ban carries Schengen wide effect. 5

Concordat Basisthe subject's own account

Denmark holds no concordat with the Holy See. The Holy See established an Apostolic Delegation to Scandinavia on 16 March 1960, covering Denmark alongside the other Nordic states, with the first Apostolic Delegate appointed 7 March 1960; the Holy See now maintains ordinary diplomatic relations with Denmark individually. Denmark's own established Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark is a matter of domestic constitutional law, not a Vatican treaty, and no bilateral concordat has ever been concluded. 6

Geography

Latitude

56.3 degrees north 2

Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.

Longitude

9.5 degrees east 2

Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.

Status

Legal Status

The Church of Denmark is constitutionally established and state-funded through a church tax on registered members, governed by the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs; a 2017 law bans full-face veils in public. 3

Classification

State Funding of Religion

State-Preferred or State-Supported Religions 7

Demographics

Religious Composition

About 70-75% formally registered members of the state Church of Denmark (Lutheran), though active practice is markedly lower; Muslim minority is the largest religious minority, alongside a growing religiously unaffiliated share (Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020). 1

Government

Capital

Copenhagen 2

Government Type

parliamentary constitutional monarchy 2

Sovereignty Status

Sovereign UN member state 2

Established Year

965 2

ca. 965 (unified and Christianized under Harald I GORMSSON); 5 June 1849 (became a parliamentary constitutional monarchy)

Government type (class)

Parliamentary monarchy 2

Location

Learn More

Religion and History in Denmark

Denmark's population remains formally majority Lutheran, with around 70 to 75 percent belonging to the state Church of Denmark (Folkekirken) by registration, though active practice and belief are markedly lower, and religiously unaffiliated and non-practicing residents make up a large and growing share alongside Muslim and small Catholic minorities, per estimates including Pew Research's Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020.

Denmark adopted Lutheranism as state religion in 1536 under King Christian III during the Reformation, seizing Catholic Church properties and establishing the monarch as the church's formal head, a role the Danish constitution still assigns to the sovereign today. Viking-era Norse paganism, centered on gods including Odin and Thor, persisted alongside gradual Christianization from the ninth and tenth centuries, commemorated at sites such as the Jelling stones, raised by King Harald Bluetooth around 965 CE to mark Denmark's Christianization.

Denmark's Muslim population, chiefly of Turkish, Pakistani, Middle Eastern and Somali background, grew substantially through late-twentieth-century labor migration and subsequent refugee resettlement, becoming the country's largest religious minority and a recurring subject of Danish immigration and integration debate.

The State Church and Free Speech Controversies

The Church of Denmark remains constitutionally established, funded partly through a church tax paid by its registered members and governed formally by the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs, an arrangement that gives the state, through parliament, ultimate authority over church legislation even though members elect local parish councils and the church retains considerable internal autonomy in practice; roughly one in five Danes has formally opted out of membership in recent decades, reducing the once near-universal registration.

Denmark became a global flashpoint for religious controversy in 2005 when the newspaper Jyllands-Posten published twelve cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, a deliberate test of self-censorship around Islam that triggered violent protests across the Muslim world, attacks on Danish diplomatic missions and lasting security threats against the cartoonists and editors involved, an episode Danish authorities and much of the public came to defend as a matter of free expression even as it strained diplomatic relations with several Muslim-majority states for years afterward. Denmark has since debated and in 2017 passed a law banning full-face veils in public, part of a wider European pattern of legislation targeting Islamic dress.

Connections

Associated With

Apostolic Nunciature to Denmark (Wikipedia)

This source names Denmark directly: "Scandinavia on 16 March 1960, covering Denmark alongside the other Nordic states, with the first Apostolic Delegate appointed 7 March 1960, and that the Holy See now maintains ordinary diplomatic..."

Source Apostolic Nunciature to Denmark (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Christianity

State Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark, formally the nominal affiliation of most of the population.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Church of Denmark

This source names Denmark directly: "Wikipedia's article on the Church of Denmark, cited here for its account of the 1536 Reformation founding under Christian III, the eleven-diocese structure, the absence of a central synod or..."

Source Church of Denmark

Kirkeskat

This source names Denmark directly: "The Church of Denmark's own explanation of kirkeskat, the membership tax collected through the ordinary tax system from members who are also taxable in Denmark, at a rate set independently by each..."

Source Kirkeskat

Moravian Church Settlements (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

This source names Denmark directly: "already-inscribed Christiansfeld in Denmark."

Source Moravian Church Settlements (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

Ships on Bronzes: A Study in Bronze Age Religion and Iconography

This source names Denmark directly: "at the National Museum of Denmark whose career has centered on Nordic Bronze Age religion and iconography specifically."

Source Ships on Bronzes: A Study in Bronze Age Religion and IconographyFlemming Kaul

Snaptun Stone (Moesgaard Museum, near Aarhus)

This source names Denmark directly: "stone found on a beach near Snaptun, Denmark, carved around 1000 CE from soapstone quarried in Norway or Sweden and held by Moesgaard Museum near Aarhus."

Source Snaptun Stone (Wikipedia)

Snaptun Stone (Wikipedia)

This source names Denmark directly: "stone found on a beach near Snaptun, Denmark, carved around 1000 CE from soapstone quarried in Norway or Sweden."

Source Snaptun Stone (Wikipedia)

Snaptun Stone, File Record (Wikimedia Commons)

This source names Denmark directly: "Housed at the Moesgaard Museum near Aarhus, Denmark", independently confirming the museum and the identification of the stone's carved face as Loki."

Source Snaptun Stone, File Record (Wikimedia Commons)

The Book of Concord Unifies Lutheran Doctrine

This source names Denmark directly: "after Lutheranism was established in Denmark-Norway in 1536, already recorded here."

Source Book of Concord 1580 (Gruber Rare Books Collection)

The Constitutional Act of Denmark, Section 4 (The Established Church)

This source names Denmark directly: "Section 4 of Denmark's 1953 Constitutional Act, which reads "The Evangelical Lutheran Church shall be the Established Church of Denmark, and as such shall be supported by the State," the..."

Source The Constitutional Act of Denmark, Section 4 (The Established Church)

The Conversion of Scandinavia: Vikings, Merchants, and Missionaries in the Remaking of Northern Europe

This source names Denmark directly: "Scandinavia's Christianization across Denmark, Norway and Iceland."

Source The Conversion of Scandinavia: Vikings, Merchants, and Missionaries in the Remaking of Northern EuropeAnders Winroth

The Early Reformation in Denmark and Norway 1520-1559 (in The Scandinavian Reformation, ed. Grell)

This source names Denmark directly: "The Early Reformation in Denmark and Norway 1520 to 1559, Martin Schwarz Lausten's chapter in The Scandinavian Reformation, edited by Ole Peter Grell, Cambridge University Press, 1994, is by the..."

Source The Early Reformation in Denmark and Norway 1520-1559 (in The Scandinavian Reformation, ed. Grell)Martin Schwarz Lausten, in Ole Peter Grell (ed.)

Tyr Bracteate, Naglum (Swedish History Museum, Stockholm)

This source names Denmark directly: "The bracteate is grouped with similar finds from Skrydstrup in Denmark and Hamburg in Germany carrying the same motif."

Source Tyr Bracteate, Trollhattan (Wikipedia)

Tyr Bracteate, Trollhattan (Wikipedia)

This source names Denmark directly: "similar bracteates from Skrydstrup in Denmark and from Hamburg in Germany bearing runic inscriptions naming or invoking Tyr."

Source Tyr Bracteate, Trollhattan (Wikipedia)

UNESCO Inscribes the Moravian Church Settlements on the World Heritage List

This source names Denmark directly: "founded in 1759, to Christiansfeld in Denmark, founded in 1773 and already inscribed on its own in 2015."

Source Moravian Church Settlements (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

Younger Futhark

This source names Denmark directly: "Christian memorial stones raised in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and it was written in a long branch and a short twig form with a further staveless variety."

Source RunenkundeKlaus Duwel

Ziegenbalg and Plutschau Found the Danish-Halle Mission at Tranquebar

This source names Denmark directly: "Nadu, sent by King Frederick IV of Denmark at the urging of the Halle Pietist theologian August Hermann Francke, one hundred twenty six years after the German editions of the Book of Concord were..."

Source Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg (Wikipedia)

Contains

Church of Denmark (Folkekirken)

Source The Constitutional Act of Denmark, Section 4 (The Established Church)

Jelling

Source National Museum of Denmark (institutional record)the holders' own account

National Museum of Denmark

Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition

Namesake Of

Hafnium

Hafnium is named for Hafnia, the Latin name for Copenhagen. Found in 1923 at Niels Bohr's institute, and taken at the time as a vindication of the Bohr model, which had predicted a fourth-group element rather than a rare earth.

Source Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the ElementsJohn Emsley

Originated Here

Church of Denmark (Folkekirken)

Source Church of Denmark

Norse

Denmark is part of the Norse homeland.

Source Dictionary of Northern MythologyRudolf Simek, translated by Angela Hall

Spread Events Here

Lutheranism Is Established in Denmark-Norway

The decree was issued from Copenhagen; Norway, a subordinate kingdom under the same crown, received the same reformation without a separate national movement, named in the description rather than given a second edge.

Source The Early Reformation in Denmark and Norway 1520-1559 (in The Scandinavian Reformation, ed. Grell)Martin Schwarz Lausten, in Ole Peter Grell (ed.)

Sources

1. Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020

Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 2025View the Source

2. The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency)

Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence AgencyView the Source

3. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)

Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source

4. Library of Congress Global Legal Monitor: Denmark, Blasphemy Law Repealed

Law Library of CongressView the Source

5. International Religious Freedom Report

United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, 2023View the Source

6. Apostolic Nunciature to Denmark (Wikipedia)

Wikipedia contributors, WikipediaView the Source

7. The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition

Oxford University Press, Oxford University Press

demonym / adjectival form
Entity description, state-funding
Denmark's state church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark, remains constitutionally established and the nominal affiliation of most of the population

View the Source

Church of Denmark

Wikipedia, 2026Originated Here: Church of Denmark (Folkekirken), Lead

Quote, Originated Here: Church of Denmark (Folkekirken), Lead

The Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark or National Church

View the Source

Comments (0)

No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.

Reader Challenges (0)

No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.

Year

Switch Atlas

The Inner World

The Civil World

The Natural World