Transport and infrastructure in Denmark

Our listing of the primary kinds of transport compares the infrastructure of Denmark with the average of all countries in Europe. Overall, the traffic routes are above average and in good condition.

In terms of the length of its rail network, Denmark ranks 26th in the world with 0.59 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 3,476 kilometers long. Freight traffic on the rails most recently totaled 2.59 billion tons and kilometers traveled. Passenger traffic reached 6.65 billion passenger-kilometers in 2016.

The waterways listed refer to inland traffic on rivers and canals. The number of ports includes those located on the total 7,314 km of coastline. In 2020, about 921,513 freight containers were transported.

› Airports in Denmark

Back to overview: Denmark

Road traffic

The network of roads and highways has a total length of 74,558 km. For each of the country's 5.86 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 12.73 meters. This puts Denmark in 39th place in the global ranking. However, the country's size and population density of around 136 inhabitants per km² must also be taken into account. Countries with fewer inhabitants on the same or even larger area naturally achieve quite different values here and have to connect remote areas to the transport network despite a smaller population.

With an average of 199 traffic fatalities per year (2012 - 2019), road traffic in Denmark is considered very safe. This corresponds to around 4.3 accident fatalities per 3.5 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.2 in the USA and 17.1 worldwide.

In Denmark, traffic drives on the right-hand side of the road, i.e. people drive in the right-hand lane and overtake on the left. Oncoming traffic comes toward you on the left side. This regulation was enforced in January 1st, 1970. Here you can also find an overview of all countries with left-hand traffic.

	total	per 1 mio inhabitants	per km²
	Denmark
Roadways	74,600 km	12,730.31 km	1,737.14 m
Railroads	3,500 km	593.50 km	80.99 m
Waterways	400 km	68.30 km	9.32 m
Commercial harbors	717	122.42	0.017
Airports	10	1.71	0.233

	total	per 1 mio inhabitants	per km²
	Europe
Roadways	6,708,300 km	11,157.59 km	1,111.61 m
Railroads	258,600 km	430.13 km	42.85 m
Waterways	53,100 km	88.38 km	8.81 m
Commercial harbors	15,291	25.43	0.003
Airports	573	0.95	0.000

Data sources used

• Global Health Observatory Data Repository (World Health Organization)
• UNCTAD
• Internation Union of Railways (UIC)
• CIA Factbook
• OECD Statistics
• Wikipedia (german)

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