Copenhagen has long been moving towards becoming a city for the rich – and it’s been doing so more rapidly than the rest of Denmark.
According to a new report from the economic labour movement council, Arbejderbevægelsens Erhvervsråd (AE), just 11 percent of infants under the age of two in the capital come from working class families.
Some 40 years ago, in 1980, the percentage was 40 percent.
Meanwhile, the number of small children coming from the elite class (upper and high middle-classes) has quadrupled over the same timeframe from 11 to 43 percent.
The development is the same nationally, though not at the same frequency as in Copenhagen.
Nationwide, the working classes have halved since 1980, while the elite group has tripled in size.
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A bridge too far?
In recent years, Copenhagen has tried to turn the tide by ushering in initiatives aimed at increasing the number of public housing options in the city.
However, not enough has been done, contends Curt Liliegreen, the head of The Knowledge Centre for Housing Economics.
“It will very difficult to ensure that we get a broadly diverse city. Perhaps it is even impossible,” Liliegreen told Information newspaper.
Figures from 2017 showed that the richest 10 percent of Denmark owns as much as 70 percent of the rest of the population put together.
