Map of Denmark

The country has an area of 16,639 square miles and a population of 5.4 million. Based on official statistics from January 2009, 82 percent of the population belongs to the official Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC). Although only 3 percent of church members attend services regularly, most members utilize the church for baptisms, confirmations, weddings, funerals, and religious holidays.

As a result of immigration trends, the second largest religious community is Muslim, constituting 3.7 percent of the population (210,000). Muslim communities tend to concentrate in public housing in the largest cities, particularly in Copenhagen, Odense, and Aarhus. Groups that constitute less than 1 percent of the population include Catholics (37,000), Jehovah's Witnesses (14,500), Jews (7,000), Serbian Orthodox Christians (7,000), Baptists (5,100), Pentecostals (5,100), Buddhists (4,400), and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) (4,500). There are also many communities with fewer than 3,000 members, including Seventh-day Adventists, the Catholic Apostolic Church, the Salvation Army, Methodists, Anglicans, and Russian Orthodox. The German minority in southern Jutland and other nonethnic-Danish communities (particularly Scandinavian groups) have their own religious groups.

Official attendance figures indicate a shift from the Evangelical Lutheran Church to other denominations, with ELC membership falling from more than 90 percent of the population in the 1980s to a record-low level of 82 percent in 2009. A March 2009 Gallup Poll, however, indicated an increase in church attendance among young people and the elderly--but with a continued drop among middle-aged members.

The European headquarters of the Church of Scientology is located in Copenhagen, although it did not officially apply to the Government for recognition as a religious group during the reporting period.

Population Population (2009 est.) 5,500,510
Religious Demographics Evangelical Lutheran 95%, other Christian (includes Protestant and Roman Catholic) 3%, Muslim 2%
Ethnic Groups Ethnic Groups Scandinavian, Inuit, Faroese, German, Turkish, Iranian, Somali
Languages Languages Danish, Faroese, Greenlandic (an Inuit dialect), German (small minority)
Country Flag Flag of Denmark