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 25th in the world with 0.60 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 2019, about 874,900 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 5.83 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 12.79 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 202 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 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 5.9 in the European Union as a whole and 17.0 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 rule was introduced at the end of the 18th century during the Napoleonic Wars. Here you can also find an overview of all countries with left-hand traffic.
Denmark | |||
| total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways | 74,600 km | 12,785.60 km | 1,737.14 m |
| Railroads | 3,500 km | 596.08 km | 80.99 m |
| Waterways | 400 km | 68.59 km | 9.32 m |
| Commercial harbors | 692 | 118.67 | 0.016 |
| Airports | 80 | 13.72 | 1.864 |
Europe | |||
| total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roadways | 6,708,300 km | 11,136.37 km | 1,111.61 m |
| Railroads | 258,600 km | 429.31 km | 42.85 m |
| Waterways | 53,100 km | 88.21 km | 8.81 m |
| Commercial harbors | 15,358 | 25.50 | 0.003 |
| Airports | 3,737 | 6.20 | 0.001 |
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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