Denmark’s Economy and Society

I recently had a discussion with an American friend of mine. The discussion was rather political as we discussed different ideologies, what works and what doesn’t work in a society, what is right and what is wrong and a number of other topics. My friend was shocked over the introduction of the recent “Fat Tax” in Denmark, which is a tax on unhealthy foods (see video here). She meant that Denmark sounded like a society greatly inspired by communism. So after I got home and I decided to write a blogpost about Denmark’s economy and society.

I wanted to write a post about how we live in Denmark. Though, I won’t write much, as I am more interested in finding sources that explain how we actually live in Denmark. Hence, this post will actually be more of a collection of articles rather than my opinion about Denmark. So here we go. I will focus on a number of topics and link to a number of online articles, which I will save using WebCite, discussing each topic. Happy reading!

Economy

• Denmark is in the top 5 richest countries in the world, measuring GDP per capita according to the International Monetary Fund: World Economic Outlook Database, September 2011
• Denmark in The World Fact Book by the Central Intelligence Agency, USA
• Articles on Denmark’s economy by OECD (captured on Feb 4, 2012)

Taxation

• About Taxation in Denmark by The Danish Ministry of Taxation
• Denmark wins highest tax competition by The Copenhagen Post (Mar 11, 2008)
• The happiest taxes on earth by The Wall Street Journal (May 19, 2009)

Business Environment

• Denmark ranks #5 in the report Doing Business in Denmark by The World Bank Group (2011 rank)
• A longer report, Doing Business in Denmark, was made by Kromann Reumert (2006), explaining in detail the Danish business environment

Happiness

• Denmark is #1 in the list of “Best Countries of Work-Life Balance” according to a report by the OECD (2011)
• Denmark Is Happiest Country, U.S. Misses Top 10 according to the OECD (Oct 13, 2011)
• Denmark ‘world’s happiest nation’ by BBC News (Jul 3, 2008)
• Denmark ‘happiest’ country in the world by CNN (Jul 2, 2008)
• Denmark: The Happiest Place on Earth by ABC News (Jan 8, 2007)
• Denmark ‘happiest’ place on earth by BBC News (Jul 26, 2006)

Transparency

• Denmark, Singapore, New Zealand Tie For Lead In New Transparency International Index by The Wall Street Journal (Oct 26, 2010)
• Denmark ranks #1 in the Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International (2010)

On a small side note, here’s something about Denmark’s sports culture:

Sports

• Football: Despite being just the 111th largest country in the world (with a population of approx. 5,5 million), Denmark is in the top 10 of FIFA’s world rankings (Oct 2011)
• Handball: Denmark is in the top 3 of IHF’s world rankings (Jan 2012)
• Tennis: Danish tennis player Caroline Wozniacki ranks #1 in WTA’s world rankings (Dec 2011)
• Cycling: Danish Team Saxo Bank ranked #1 in UCI’s team rankings in 2010
• Motor Sports: Danish Tom Kristensen holds the record of having won the world’s most challenging endurance race, 24 Hours de Le Mans, most times (8 times) as of 2011
• Speedway: Danish Nicki Petersen is a 3-time world champion (2003, 2007 and 2008) of motorcycle speedway

I wrote this blogpost and spent time on finding the articles linked here mainly for my own sake because of the discussion with my friend. This process has learnt me even more about my own country. So in a nutshell: Yes, Denmark has some of the highest tax rates in the world. But we rank #1 on happiness, work-life balancing and transparency and we are in the world top 5 on topics such as “ease of doing business” and nominal GDP per capita. We work and pay some and we get some. That’s how Denmark works and it works well!