Danish 2017 immigration numbers dominated by European countries

New arrival far more likely to be from a country like Romania or Lithuania than Iran or Syria

Mar 6, 2018

The alarmists will tell you the ‘wrong kind’ of immigrants are flooding into the country and that welfare tourism is a massive problem. However, 2017 figures released by Danmarks Statistik and reported by Berlingske show that 14 of the 20 nationalities most likely to immigrate to Denmark are European. In total, there were 67,445 foreign immigrants.

Romanians accounted for the most moves, with 5,262 deciding to make Denmark their new home. The Poles (4,531) – despite reports they are leaving in droves as salaries improve in their own country – Americans (4,101), Germans (3,684) and Indians (2,561) completed the top five.

Lots of returning Danes
Nevertheless, it is in fact returning Danes who easily top the list, as 21,937 repats returned to the country last year.

The overall foreign immigrant figure represents a slight dip from when numbers peaked in 2015 at over 70,000, but are much higher than in 1980 when only 15,785 moved to Denmark – a rate that steadily increased to 39,145 in 1995 and 50,981 in 2008.

Dominated by young adults
Age-wise, one bracket completely dominates: the 20 to 39-year-olds, who account for 70 percent of the new arrivals.

Just 18 percent are children – 0-9 (8 percent) and 10-19 (10 percent) – leaving just 12 percent to be divided between the 40-49 (8 percent), 50-59 (3) and 60+ (1) age brackets.