Denmark

Denmark Geography

Location
Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, on a peninsula north of Germany (Jutland); also includes two major islands (Sjaelland and Fyn)

Geographic coordinates
56 00 N, 10 00 E

Area
total: 43,094 sq km
land: 42,394 sq km
water: 700 sq km
note: includes the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea and the rest of metropolitan Denmark (the Jutland Peninsula, and the major islands of Sjaelland and Fyn), 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
territorial sea: 12 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

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: Yding Skovhoej 173 m

Natural resources
petroleum, natural gas, fish, salt, limestone, chalk, stone, gravel and sand

Land use
arable land: 54.02%
permanent crops: 0.19%
other: 45.79% (2001)

Irrigated land
4,760 sq km (1998 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-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

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



- Info Provided by the CIA World Factbook -