The number of bankruptcies in December represented a 34 percent over the previous month, but as a whole, 2012 ended with slightly fewer bankruptcies than 2011. 

According to new numbers from Statistics Denmark, 582 companies when bust in December compared to 435 in November. The numbers were adjusted for normal seasonal fluctuations. In actual numbers, 2012 saw 5,456 Danish companies go bankrupt, slightly fewer than the 5,468 that went belly-up in 2011.

Of those that went bankrupt in December 2012, some 79 percent of them had no registered employees. The December bankruptcies affected 800 employees, which was 26 percent lower than in November and the lowest number since Statistics Denmark started keeping track in January 2009. 

While 2012 ended marginally better in terms of bankruptcies, the December numbers were the highest of the year and were 36 percent higher than December 2011.