Denmark
POPULATION 5,368,854
EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN 86 percent
MUSLIM 1.9 percent
OTHER 2.1 percent
NONAFFILIATED 10 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
Forming a geographic and cultural bridge between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe, the Kingdom of Denmark lies north of Germany and south of the Scandinavian Peninsula, separated from Norway and Sweden by channels connecting the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The country consists of the peninsula of Jutland and two large islands, Fyn and Sj'lland, as well as dozens of smaller islands. First united under Viking kings in the ninth century, Denmark was a major imperial power in northern Europe throughout the Middle Ages. It lost most of its empire between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, however, and has played a minor part in the political dramas of the twentieth century.
As in most of Scandinavia, Denmark's religious world was dominated until the tenth century by Norse polytheism, which involved major gods like Odin and Thor as well as a variety of minor gods, spirits, and ancestor cults. Christianity first arrived with missionaries around 700 C.E., and it became established with the support of the crown in the tenth and eleventh centuries. In 1536 the Evangelical Lutheran Church was made the state church, which it remains today.
