Geography of Denmark

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Map of Denmark - Click to enlarge

Location

Northern Europe, islands in the Baltic Sea and the northern part of the Jutland peninsula bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea

Geographic coordinates

[56°00′N 10°00′E]

Map references

Europe

Area

* Total: 43,094 km²

* Land: 42,394 km²

* Water: 700 km²

Note: Includes the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea and the rest of metropolitan Denmark, but excludes the Faroe Islands and Greenland

Area - comparative

Slightly less than twice the size of Massachusetts

Land boundaries

* Total: 68 km

* Border countries: Germany 68 km

Coastline

7,314 km

Maritime claims

* Contiguous zone: 24 nautical miles (44 km)

* Continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

* Exclusive economic zone: 200 nautical miles (370 km)

* Territorial sea: 12 nautical miles (22 km)

Climate

Temperate; humid and overcast; mild, windy winters and cool summers

Terrain

Low and flat to gently rolling plains

Elevation extremes

* Lowest point: Lammefjord -7 m

* Highest point: Møllehøj 171 m

Natural resources

Petroleum, natural gas, fish, salt, limestone, stone, gravel and sand

Land use

* Arable land: 60%

* Permanent crops: 0%

* Permanent pastures: 5%

* Forests and woodland: 10%

* Other: 25% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land

4,350 km² (1993 est.)

Natural hazards

Flooding is a threat in some areas of the country (e.g., parts of Jutland, along the southern coast of the island of Lolland) that are protected from the sea by a system of dikes

Environment - current issues

Air pollution, principally from vehicle and power plant emissions; nitrogen and phosphorus pollution of the North Sea; drinking and surface water becoming polluted from animal wastes and pesticides

Environment - international agreements

* Party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling

* Signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol

Geography - note

Controls Danish Straits (Skagerrak and Kattegat) linking Baltic and North Seas; about one-quarter of the population lives in Copenhagen

See also

• List of islands of Denmark

External links

• [Online charts and maps by the Danish survey authority]
• [Denmark in numbers]

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