$Unique_ID{COW01094} $Pretitle{411} $Title{Denmark What Danes Produce for a Living} $Subtitle{} $Author{Henning Dehn Nielsen} $Affiliation{Ministry of Foreign Affairs} $Subject{danish danes denmark world years cent per home day big} $Date{1990} $Log{} Country: Denmark Book: Facts about Denmark Author: Henning Dehn Nielsen Affiliation: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Date: 1990 What Danes Produce for a Living If Danes today have a higher standard of living than most other countries, they owe it to a way of economic life that works effectively and usually has managed to adjust itself to fluctuating conditions. INDUSTRY: Denmark has a reputation for being among the world's foremost agricultural countries, and this is still so, but over the past decades industry has overtaken agriculture with respect to exports. It is characteristic of Danish industry to be overwhelmingly composed of smaller and medium-sized companies with a strong ability to adapt to market demands and with a flair for strict product-quality control. Because Denmark is totally lacking in raw materials, it has been obliged to concentrate its resources on light industry, where the human factor plays a big role in production. To name just a few examples, Denmark is strong in the production and export of furniture, handicrafts, medical goods, automatic cooling and heating devices, and sensitive measuring instruments. Not forgetting Danish beer, which is appreciated all over the world. Another characteristic of Danish industry is that it has been able to find niches in world markets, where a strong presence has been created. Children throughout the world play with small bricks from Lego, while within the stereo and television sector, Bang & Olufsen's flair for sublime design has created a line of products distinctive enough to be displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The most notable exception to what was earlier said about the size of Danish industrial concerns is Danfoss, which employs 12,000 and primarily manufactures automatic cooling and heating devices. AGRICULTURE: The structure of Danish agriculture has undergone an almost revolutionary transformation within the last generation. While just 20 to 30 years ago there were more than 200,000 farms, the figure today, after mergers and closures, has shrunk to just about 100,000 and only six per cent of the population is employed in agriculture, compared with 20 per cent previously. But on the contrary the most stringent rationalisation methods have ensured a production bigger than ever before. The success of Danish farming to a large extent derives from the fact that its practitioners in every respect are well-informed and well-trained in their jobs, thanks preferably to a number of agricultural colleges. It has also proved of great importance that farmers from an early stage formed their own cooperative societies in dairy produce, slaughterhouses and other communal business ventures, as well as in the field of exports. FISHERIES: Denmark is the country with the largest fish catches in the EC. Small and larger fishing harbours dot the Danish coast at short intervals, and 3,300 boats of many different sizes, manned by 10,000 fishermen, bring their catches home from the North Sea, the Kattegat, the Baltic, and via the largest vessels from the North Atlantic. Even if Danes are big fish-eaters, 90 per cent of the catch is exported. Fresh Danish fish for eating is brought to the big European cities from day to day, but the bulk is processed by the fisheries industry into frozen or canned fish of a wide variety. Fishing also forms an important source of income for both Greenland and the Faroes - for the latter to an overwhelming extent. SHIPPING: The Danish merchant fleet's current 600 vessels bring their income home from the world's oceans in sharp competition with the other seafaring nations. The ships today are fewer in number than some years ago, but by contrast more advanced, and to a large degree comprised of modern container-ships and tankers. The A.P. Moller/Maersk Group is the dominant factor among Danish shipping companies, and with its more than 100 vessels one of the largest shipping groups in the world. Danish ship officers get to know the ropes on the training vessel "Danmark", which from its numerous voyages is well known in ports on both sides of the Atlantic. AIR TRAFFIC: Denmark, together with Sweden and Norway, is part-owner in the carrier Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), which flies throughout Europe, to the United States and large parts of the rest of the world. Certain Danish airlines - Sterling Airways, Conair and Maersk Air - operate mostly charter traffic with Scandinavian tourists heading south on holiday. A dozen domestic flight routes via Danair connect Copenhagen with Funen and Jutland, with flying times between the capital and the rest of the country normally not exceeding 30-45 minutes. Copenhagen's airport lies on the outskirts of the city, close to the Sound and just 10 km from the centre. It is Europe's fifth-largest airport and is used by all the large international airlines. INTERNATIONAL TRADE: In the very old days, the Danish state operated trading stations in Africa and India, and Danish ships returned home with exotic goods from the Far East. Also today a lively trading activity is displayed by the Danish side in many parts of the world. Best known in this connection is The East Asiatic Company, which was founded in 1897 and today runs trading, production and shipping operations on a global basis with 122 subsidiaries, 34 associate companies and with altogether some 30,000 employed throughout the world. ENERGY: Industries and households in Denmark by tradition have covered their energy requirements through imports of coal and oil, and nobody would have dared to dream that Denmark one day would be in a position to pump ashore oil and gas from the North Sea. But in 1966, Danish Underground Consortium, which had been established by shipping company A.P. Moller in cooperation with several foreign oil companies, made its first find a couple of hundred kilometres off the Danish coast, and drilling platforms were raised. The first oil came ashore in 1972, and in 1984, gas began to stream in from the North Sea and was distributed via a nationwide pipeline network. Production of both North Sea oil and gas is increasing, and it is expected that within a few years Denmark will be 50 per cent self-sufficient in oil and 100 per cent in gas. There is in Denmark these days a big interest in the use of alternative, non-polluting sources of energy, and one result of this has been the mushrooming of windmills in their thousands throughout the Danish countryside, often concentrated in so-called windmill parks. These mills are modern in design and often of imposing height, rising up to 60 metres and with a wingspan measuring 40 metres. They produce electricity to cover local needs and sell any surplus output to the traditional supply networks. A windmill technology of high standards has been developed, and Danish windmills are exported to many parts of the world. A Nation of Football Fans The red-white Danish football players became famous the world over, when they fought their way through to the final rounds of, first, the European Cup championships in France and, then, the World Cup championships in Mexico. Prior to its departure for Mexico, the team was received by the royal family, of whom particularly the young princes, Frederik and Joachim, are strongly interested in soccer, and the nation almost came to a standstill while the matches were being fought out. In the old days, Danish football was purely a sport for amateurs, but about 20-25 years ago some of the most successful Danish footballers let themselves be tempted into joining professional Italian clubs, and others have followed since, so that Denmark has become a big supplier of players to particularly Italy, West Germany, England and Belgium. More than 2,000 yachts take part in the Round Zealand Race each year. When the Danish national team is to be put together, the star professional players return home and are ranked together with the best home amateur players to defend the Danish colours. There are in Denmark some 300,000 active soccer players, ranging from six- and seven-year-old youngsters with dreams of one day joining the national team to experienced veterans in old boys' clubs. But over 50 other sports are practised by the more than one million members of Danish sports clubs. Many play handball and badminton, and within the world's elite badminton players, Danes sit securely placed right at the top. All England-championats 1987 were won by two of them, Morten Frost and Kirsten Larsen. Thanks to Denmark's proximity to the sea, certain sports such as swimming, rowing and sailing have particularly favourable conditions, and within these disciplines Danes through the years have gained numerous top placings in world championships and the Olympic Games. Particular fame is attached perhaps to yachtsman Paul Elvstrom, who gained the exceptional distinction of winning Olympic gold medals in 1948, 1952, 1956 and 1960. Three Danish yachts took part in summer 1989 in the major British sailing competition, the Admiral's Cup, finishing in second place after coming within a hair's breadth of seizing the cup from the British team. Preparations are now underway for Danish participation in the yachting world's most prestigious event, the America's Cup, in 1991. Apart from the more competitive sports, many Danes practice some sort of sport solely for the sake of exercise, and here one has been able to see in recent years thousands of health-conscious Danes of all ages cast themselves into an hour or more of jogging each day. A big marathon covering a distance of 10 km-where the purpose is not to win but to participate-gathers 15-20,000 participants each year, and just as many turn up on one Sunday in every summer for a cycling marathon over 60 km along picturesque, but on this day congested, roads north of Copenhagen. Glimpses of Everyday Life in Denmark Not all Danes are called Jensen, Nielsen or Hansen but many are. Those with the surname Jensen number 7.7 per cent, those with Nielsen 7.3 per cent and Hansen 6.2 per cent. These are followed by Pedersen, Andersen, Christensen, Larsen and Sorensen, and as far down as 22nd place comes the first surname without a -sen. In fact, two-thirds of Denmark's population bear a surname ending in -sen, so let us therefore give the typical Dane the name of Jensen. Some 59,000 new Danes came into the world in 1988. A declining birthrate has posed several problems in recent years, but it appears to be improving now, even if it is not expected ever again to approach anywhere near the level of 96,000 born in the last year of the German occupation, when Danes were exhorted in no uncertain terms to amuse themselves behind closed doors. Years ago most new Danes saw the first light of day in their parents' home. Nowadays almost all births take place in hospitals, and it has become increasingly common for the father to be present at the birth. If it is a little boy coming into the world, he can, if no deadly illness strikes, expect to live for 71 years, and if it is a girl, she can look forward to reaching the age of 77. Those are the figures for the Danes' average life expectancy. Someone has yet to explain why girls in general are blessed with an extra span of life. But proof of the circumstances is to be found in the fact that among the 264 Danes to reach over the age of 100 in 1987, 200 were female and only 64 male. The overwhelming majority will be automatically enrolled in the state-supported National Church of Denmark, which is Evangelical Lutheran. But even if statistics record that 92 per cent of the population are members of the National Church, only around 4-5 per cent are found occupying church pews on a normal Sunday. Christmas Eve is the sole occasion, when priests can gaze out over a full church. Despite the fact that the Danish Jensens are not devout church-goers, most see to it that their children are baptised in church and confirmed on reaching the age of 14. The next rung on life's ladder is marriage, and every year around 30,000 Danes tie the nuptial knot, often after having spent some time living together in order to ensure some kind of guarantee for a stable marriage. A wedding can take place in different ways. In about half of the cases, the bride and bridegroom go to the local town hall in their everyday clothes to be wed by the mayor or his deputy, but it can also take place in style at church, where the bridegroom dons morning coat and the bride regales herself in white with a four-to five-metre-long train borne by bridesmaids and pages. It has never been ascertained, which of these types of wedding lends itself best to an enduring marriage, but the truth of the matter is that each year records half as many divorces as weddings. Although many Mr and Mrs Jensens do succeed in celebrating their silver wedding after 25 years of marriage and some even reach their gold wedding after having stuck together for 50 years. A special phenomenon is the so-called "paperless marriage", where man and woman live together without being formally married yet recognised by their peers as a married couple. More than 100,000 couples live in this manner with children born out of this arrangement or from a previous relationship. When a young couple marry, finding a place to live can pose a big problem. The first years together invariably are spent in an apartment, but after a time and particularly when children arrive, many move into their own house-usually composed of three to four rooms with a small garden. Tens of thousands of these neat one-family houses have sprung up on the outskirts of all Danish towns in the past 25 years, and out of all the families with children nearly 60 per cent live in such a house. As in other countries of the Western world, it is quite commonplace in Denmark for both spouses to work away from home, and it goes as a rule that the work-load associated with cooking, child-care and cleaning has to be shared, though it goes without saying that the male's interest in household chores is not always as large as the female would like it to be. Young families generally have one or two children, who are looked after in public day-care centres, such as nurseries and kindergartens, while the parents are at work. An eight-hour working day is the general rule, with Saturdays and Sundays free. Recreation pursuits take many forms-hobbies, reading of books and newspapers and joint activities with other families and friends-but it is television that takes an increasing chunk out of people's leisure time. According to one trustworthy statistic, around 40 per cent of Danes' freetime is spent glued to the TV-screen and that despite the fact that up to 1988 Danish television was limited to one channel. Summertime attracts many outdoor activities and it is natural for Copenhageners to visit "Tivoli", the world-famous amusement park right in the middle of the capital. An annual five-week vacation with full pay is the established practice on the Danish labour market. Some spend their holidays at home or at summer cottages by the beach. But Danes are unusual travel-bugs at holidaytime, flying south in flocks to preferred destinations like Majorca, southern Spain and the Canary Islands. It may be hard to grasp, but last year as many as some 700,000 charter trips were sold to the five-million-strong Danes, of whom some head south for the sun more than once a year. Like people in many other countries, most Danes feel that at least one car is indispensable for the family, and 1,6 million cars are to be found in Denmark today, equivalent to one for every three Danes. These are astounding figures when one bears in mind that every time a Dane buys a new car formidable state excise and duties on car sales force the purchaser to pay three times the car's actual price. Taxes and duties are extremely high in the rule, but most manage to bite the bullet with a healthy dose of black humour and seldom miss an opportunity to enjoy the bright side of life, such as on family occasions, when birthdays, weddings, confirmations or other events are celebrated. The English maxim of "my home is my castle" is usually not found in Denmark, where most families happily open their doors to friends and acquaintances, offering guests the best one has, thus creating that special Danish inclination for comfort called hygge-an all-embracing feeling of warmth and wellbeing, which freely extends, when the opportunity presents itself, to foreigners, who rarely will find it difficult to get into the mood.