15+ Fun facts about life in Denmark — the second happiest country in the world

According to the 2019 World Happiness Report, Denmark is second only to Finland in terms of population happiness, even though it has the highest tax burden in the world. With that in mind, we prepared a post full of facts and curiosities about the main features of everyday life in the country.

O awesome.club found many interesting facts about life in Denmark and is ready to share them with you. Check out!

Danes are people who like to share. This is one of the reasons why sharing services are on the rise in the country. Locals will share absolutely all their stuff with no problem, even with a stranger. In addition, approximately half of the houses are rented by foreigners. Danes have a high sense of equality. If you hold a door for a Dane, he will find an opportunity to do the same in return. If you buy an expensive drink, you will also receive a drink in return. The Dane cannot stand to be in “debt” to others. In Denmark, the silence it is something very appreciated. The use of the car horn is prohibited, except in cases of true emergency. Trains are as quiet as possible, and churches have the right to ring bells only on certain days of the week. In banks, for example, talking on the phone is prohibited. To speak out loud in an argument then? It’s unacceptable. You can have a civil conversation at a low volume, raising the tone means losing the confidence of the Danes.

“Using the phone is prohibited. Here you can use the Danske Bank app to make payments”

You can protect yourself from unwanted flyers. A Pikabu user who lives in Denmark said it is possible to put a special sticker in the mailbox and delivery people will not put unwanted papers. “You can request a sticker on the government website: orange to refuse ads and/or lilac to refuse free newspapers”. It is natural that law enforcement and public order are highly valued in the country. For example, the sticker on the floor of the border control section at Copenhagen airport looks like this:

Special courtesy rules. When you’re invited to a party, it’s often just a gesture of courtesy. If a Dane asks how you are, he doesn’t intend to stop and listen to your answer. Scandinavians can be very noisy when they host a party, but let them know in advance that they will be having such an event and that neighbors may feel invited to attend. But it’s just a formal request, they don’t expect your presence, they just don’t want complaints about the noise. Making friends with the locals is not an easy task. “Danes are wonderful, trustworthy and good friends,” writes Alex Ostergaard, who currently lives in the country. However, he said, the problem is that many residents grow up with childhood friends and don’t plan on establishing new friendships with anyone in adulthood. People may be friendly, but that doesn’t mean they’ll make room for you in their lives.

Women prefer natural beauty. “They don’t try to please anyone,” says Olga Piskun on her YouTube channel. According to her, the Danes are not very interested in makeup, but they love to do artificial tanning sessions and maintain the design of their eyebrows. In addition, they also don’t care much about hairstyles: ponytail, hair up or down, it doesn’t matter. This is justified by the high prices of hairdressing services in the country, in addition to the unstable climate that is not good for the hair.

Drying clothes in an apartment is prohibited due to high humidity. Therefore, most of the population uses dryers. A Pikabu user wrote about this. “In old buildings, there are usually no washing machines, and it’s even forbidden to have one. There is certainly a laundry room in the basement of the building.” According to him, it is necessary to book a time through a special application. Also, in some condos, instead of a dryer, there is a special room for drying clothes — a basement with a bunch of clotheslines, which, by the way, also needs to be reserved.

The cost of maintaining a car is very high. The vehicle tax, according to a Pikabu user, is also very high. In addition, gasoline, parking, and auto insurance also come at a hefty cost. “Residents often joke that the price of a car is one-third of a home, and rather than owning one, it’s worth saving up and buying a second home or investing in stocks.” This justifies the enormous popularity of bicycles in the country, which, by the way, locals use in any season — even in rain or snow. Bicycles are often equipped with special child seats. Trains in Copenhagen also have a separate bike rack in a car.

Medical service. An internet user who lives in Denmark writes about the medical services in the country: “Every resident has a small yellow card. On it is written the number of his personal doctor, which can be consulted for any reason. According to him, residents are quite calm in However, antibiotics are not sold in pharmacies without a prescription. Education is free. Or, more precisely, it is paid for by taxes. Also, according to another internet user who lives in the country, education, from high school to university, is free. And this is what a Danish school looks like from the inside:

Young families with children often rent rooms to foreign students. This is done to earn extra income. A netizen who lived in Copenhagen for a year explains why: “Danes over 40 are almost guaranteed a job, even if they don’t do anything special all day”. Young Danes may not be so lucky. Short workday. “Danes are hard workers,” writes Alex Ostergaard. However, the working day is limited — 37.5 hours per week. Overtime is a rare thing to happen, and no one stays at the office late. Those with young children actually leave early to pick them up from school. Few Danes are able to care for a newborn child for more than 6 months. As a general custom, maternity leave lasts a maximum of 6 months, after which they enroll the baby in day care and go back to work. Typically, children are picked up from school or daycare around 4 pm by their parents.

“Scandinavian children’s strollers are known for their enormous size. So they need to be transported in a special way.”

Tatyana Lassen has lived in Denmark for 15 years. On her YouTube channel, she shared some aspects of the Danish mindset that still surprise her a little. With her permission, here are a few:

What surprises me most is the attitude of the Danes towards hygiene. They usually don’t wash their hands, and they still justify: “What for? A person must develop immunity to bacteria from the environment he lives in.” Yes, I agree, that’s right. But it’s shocking that after a meal where they’ve gotten their hands wet, they don’t even feel the urge to wash them. Another fact is that they do not wash the products bought in the store. For example, they open a packet of salad they bought at a supermarket and just eat it. Apples, pears, cucumbers — just remove the plastic and eat. They believe that everything in the body should function naturally. Fact: Danes have virtually no intestinal infections.

Danes don’t mind their children playing on the floor. This is completely natural here. Probably no child has ever heard that you shouldn’t put your hand in your mouth after having contact with the floor. Practically nothing is harmful to the health of the Dane. The presence of lice in children is completely normal. Mothers arrive at school and naturally say: “Attention, we have lice”. At school, on the bus—no one is ashamed of that. Of course, there are shampoos to treat them, but lice are perceived as a natural part of life.

Tatyana also has a podcast project for travel lovers, in which she publishes stories about the countries she visits and about her life in Denmark. She shared a story about the taste of the Danes.

My mouth was watering when I first saw pickled herring in a Danish supermarket. The fish was sold canned, but it still looked very appetizing, dipped in the onion brine. So I thought it was worth buying.

When I got home, I ran to the kitchen, grabbed a piece and ate it. I didn’t react, because the taste was totally sweet. The sweet flavor of the marinade overpowered the fish. After chewing a lot, I realized I couldn’t swallow it. I haven’t tasted it again for a long time, but nowadays I can eat sweet herring even with a slice of black bread.

Which features of the Danish way of life struck you as most interesting? Tell us in the comments section.