Denmark has a temperate climate, the mildness of which is largely conditioned by the generally westerly winds and by the fact that the country is virtually encircled by water. There is little fluctuation between day and night temperatures, but sudden changes in wind direction cause considerable day-to-day temperature changes. The mean temperature in February, the coldest month, is 0°C (32°F), and in July, the warmest, 17°C (63°F). Rain falls fairly evenly throughout the year, the annual average amounting to approximately 61 cm (24 in).
The krone is the currency of Denmark, including the autonomous provinces of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The plural form is "kroner" and one krone is divided into 100 øre, the singular form being the same as the plural. The ISO 4217 code is DKK; the domestic abbreviation is "kr.". Occasionally, the variants DKR or Dkr are seen, but these are not official.
Denmark is located in Northern Europe (it is one of the Nordic countries) on the Jutland peninsula and several islands in the Baltic sea. It borders both the Baltic Sea and the North Sea along its 7,314 km coastline. Its size is comparable to that of Massachusetts or Nova Scotia. Denmark has a 68 km border with Germany. Denmark experiences a temperate climate. This means that the winters are mild and windy and the summers are cool. The local terrain is generally flat with a few gently rolling plains. The territory of Denmark includes the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea and the rest of metropolitan Denmark, but excludes the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Its position gives Denmark complete control of the Danish Straits (Skagerrak and Kattegat) linking Baltic and North Seas. The country's natural resources include Petroleum, natural gas, fish, salt, limestone, stone, gravel and sand.
The first inhabitants of Denmark were nomadic hunters but present-day Denmark can trace its roots back to when the region was settled by the Danes, a tribe that possibly migrated south from Sweden around 500 AD. In the late 9th century, Norwegian Viking warriors conquered the Jutland peninsula and Danish monarchy dates back to Viking Chief Hardegon's son, Gorm the Old.
In the 16th century the Reformation swept through the country. Although the fighting ended in 1536 and a Danish Lutheran church headed by the monarchy was established, the Thirty Years War with Sweden was even more damaging for Denmark. During the Napoleonic Wars Britain attacked Copenhagen twice and the Swedes then wrested Norway from Denmark.
By the 1830s, there was a cultural revolution in Denmark. Neutral in WWI, Denmark reaffirmed its neutrality at the outbreak of WWII; but, on 9 April 1940, with German warplanes flying over Copenhagen, Denmark surrendered to Germany. When Norway broke its political ties with Denmark in the early 19th century, the former Norwegian colonies of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands stayed under Danish administration.
The population of Denmark in 2003 was estimated by the United Nations at 5,364,000, which placed it as number 107 in population among the 193 nations of the world. In that year approximately 15% of the population was over 65 years of age, with another 19% of the population under 15 years of age. There were 98 males for every 100 females in the country in 2003. According to the UN, the annual population growth rate for 2000–2005 is 0.24%, with the projected population for the year 2015 at 5,447,000. The population density in 2002 was 125 per sq km (323 per sq mi).
It was estimated by the Population Reference Bureau that 85% of the population lived in urban areas in 2001. The capital city, Copenhagen, had a population of 1,383,000 in that year. Other large towns are Aarhus (Arhus), 267,873; Odense, 179,487; Aalborg (Alborg), 156,614; Esbjerg, 80,843; and Randers, 61,440. According to the United Nations, the urban population growth rate for 2000–2005 was 0.2%.
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