![Denmark islands](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Denmark_islands.PNG)
This is a list of islands of Denmark.
Overview
There are about 406 islands in
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
, not including the
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...
or
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
. Some 70 of them are populated while the rest are uninhabited. Some of the uninhabited islands have only become uninhabited in recent decades, for economic reasons, as lighthouses and other publicly run facilities either became automated, or relocated to main islands or Jutland peninsula. Others became uninhabited as living costs outpaced income for the often fewer than 10 locals.
Definition
Different lists of Danish islands vary, depending on how the word "island" is defined. According to the official
Danish Government
The Cabinet of Denmark ( da, regering) has been the chief executive body and the government of the Kingdom of Denmark since 1848. The Cabinet is led by the Prime Minister. There are around 25 members of the Cabinet, known as "ministers", all of wh ...
definition, an "island" needs to be surrounded by water at least one-half metre deep, and also to have land vegetation.
Another common criterion is that an "island" needs to be surrounded by free-flowing, natural water and not just an artificial, narrow canal. According to this criterion, places such as
Christianshavn
Christianshavn (literally, "ingChristian's Harbour") is a neighbourhood in Copenhagen, Denmark. Part of the Indre By District, it is located on several artificial islands between the islands of Zealand and Amager and separated from the rest of th ...
and
Holmen in Copenhagen, although sometimes referred to as
artificial island
An artificial island is an island that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means. Artificial islands may vary in size from small islets reclaimed solely to support a single pillar of a building or structure to those tha ...
s, are actually parts of the island of
Amager
Amager ( or, especially among older speakers, ) in the Øresund is Denmark's most densely populated island, with more than 212,000 inhabitants (January 2021) a small appendage to Zealand. The protected natural area of ''Naturpark Amager'' (includi ...
.
Dynamic number
![Ohavet-airphoto](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Ohavet-airphoto.jpg)
The number of islands in Denmark changes from time to time. New islands are occasionally formed by
sedimentation
Sedimentation is the deposition of sediments. It takes place when particles in suspension settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained and come to rest against a barrier. This is due to their motion through the fluid in response to the ...
. Several examples of these new islands are found in the waters around
Æbelø
Æbelø (English: ''apple-island'') is a Danish island in the Kattegat, off Funen's north coast. The island covers an area of 2.09 km2. In between the island and Funen, there are 4 smaller islands. Æbelø has 2 inhabitants in the summer, in ...
, north of
Funen
Funen ( da, Fyn, ), with an area of , is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as of ...
, including ''Drætlingen'' which formed in the late 1990s, and a still unnamed islet that was registered in 2008. These new islands are generally less stable than larger,
morainic
A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice she ...
islands, and may later disappear again. Other islands are created artificially.
Peberholm, formed in the process of construction of the
Øresund Bridge
The Öresund or Øresund Bridge ( da, Øresundsbroen ; sv, Öresundsbron ; hybrid name: ) is a combined railway and motorway bridge across the Øresund strait between Denmark and Sweden. It is the longest in Europe with both roadway and rai ...
, is a notable example. Other artificial Danish islands include a number of
marine fortresses off
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, such as
Middelgrundsfortet
Middelgrundsfortet or Fort Middelgrund, known as Ungdomsøen (The Youth Island) since 2015, is a sea fort located on an artificial island in the Øresund between Copenhagen and Malmö. The fortress is constructed at a point where the seabed is 7 m ...
,
Trekroner Fort
Trekroner Søfort (literally ''Three Crowns Sea Fortress'') is a Coastal defence and fortification#Sea forts, sea fort at the entrance to the Copenhagen#Harbour, Copenhagen harbour. From 1713 until after World War I, Trekroner Fort was part of th ...
and
Flakfortet
Flakfortet, meaning sand-shoal fortress, is a sea fort located on the artificially built island of ''Saltholmrev'', in the Øresund between Copenhagen and Saltholm. The island and fort are simply known as ''Flakfortet''; the name of the island; ' ...
.
Islands may also disappear. An example of this is
Jordsand
Jordsand was a small Danish hallig located in the Wadden Sea southeast of the Danish island Rømø and east of the German island Sylt. The island was first known by the name ''Hiortsand'' ("hart island") and was possibly connected to both the main ...
, one of the
Danish Wadden Sea Islands
The Danish Wadden Sea Islands ( da, Danske Vadehavsøer) are a group of islands on the western coast of Jutland, Denmark. They have belonged to the region of ''Southern Denmark'' since January 1, 2007. Previously they belonged to the counties of ' ...
. According to records from 1231, the island then had an area of about 2,000
hectare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...
s (8 square miles). After a series of severe storms during that century, its area decreased to around 41 hectares, and by 1763 to around 18 hectares. By December 1999, the European windstorm
Cyclone Anatol
Anatol is the name given by the Free University of Berlin (the Danish TV2 channel named it "Adam" also often referred to as ''århundredets orkan'' (storm of the century) or ''Decemberorkanen'' (December Hurricane) in Denmark, and commonly as Caro ...
had destroyed the last piece of the island and Jordsand had ceased to exist.
In other cases, islands are absorbed by larger neighbouring masses of dry land, as a result of either natural sedimentation or artificial
land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...
in the channels separating them. Sometimes this means that an island becomes a cape or headland, or a peninsula as is the case of the former island of
Reersø
Reersø is a Danish town located on a small peninsula of the same name. It is located in the Great Belt between Korsør and Kalundborg on the western coast of the island of Zealand, and it is part of Kalundborg Municipality in Region Zealand. The ...
.
Denmark's second largest island, the North Jutlandic Island, was not always an island. A storm on
3 February 1825 penetrated the narrow land mass,
Agger Tange Agger may refer to:
* Agger (surname)
* Agger (ancient Rome), a type of ancient Roman rampart or embankment
* Agger (river), a river in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
* Agger nasi, an anatomical feature of the nose
* Agger Rockshelter, in Wisconsi ...
, and thus separated Northern Jutland from the rest of Jutland. The area had earlier been an island, when a strait at
Vust had been open prior to the 12th century.
List of 100 largest Danish islands
This is a list of the 100 largest islands of Denmark (press the symbol after the headings in the table to rearrange the list according to population size, location or alphabetically):
Other populated islands
*
Frederiksø - see Christiansø above
*
Store Okseø, 3 inhabitants
*
Egholm
Egholm is a Danish island in the Limfjord
The Limfjord ( common Danish: ''Limfjorden'' , in north Jutlandish dialect: ''Æ Limfjord'') is a shallow part of the sea, located in Denmark where it has been regarded as a fjord ever since Viking t ...
Areas sometimes referred to as islands
*
Jordsand
Jordsand was a small Danish hallig located in the Wadden Sea southeast of the Danish island Rømø and east of the German island Sylt. The island was first known by the name ''Hiortsand'' ("hart island") and was possibly connected to both the main ...
, a former island
*
Vejlø, a
peninsula
A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...
but in some sources referred to as an island
*
Christianshavn
Christianshavn (literally, "ingChristian's Harbour") is a neighbourhood in Copenhagen, Denmark. Part of the Indre By District, it is located on several artificial islands between the islands of Zealand and Amager and separated from the rest of th ...
, considered part of Amager Island
*
Holmen, considered part of Christianshavn/Amager
Other small unpopulated islands
*
Lindholm, Stege Bugt
Lindholm is a small Denmark, Danish uninhabited island located in Stege Bugt. Lindholm covers an area of 0.07 km2.
Until 2018 the island housed a field station belonging to the DTU Vet, National Veterinary Institute, veterinary institute of the Te ...
(which has a medical research facility)
"Lindholm Forsøgsstation"
, ''Møn Kulturarvsatlas''. 13 June 2010.
See also
* Danish straits
The Danish straits are the straits connecting the Baltic Sea to the North Sea through the Kattegat and Skagerrak. Historically, the Danish straits were internal waterways of Denmark; however, following territorial losses, Øresund and Fehmarn Be ...
* Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...
* Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
* List of islands in the Atlantic Ocean
This is a list of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the largest of which is Greenland. Note that the definition of the ocean used by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) excludes the seas, gulfs, bays, etc., bordering the ocean itself. ...
* Lists of islands
This is a list of the lists of islands in the world grouped by country, by continent, by body of water
A body of water or waterbody (often spelled water body) is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another plane ...
References
External links
Statistics Denmark Populated islands
National survey authority
* Danish Wikipedia List of inhabited islands
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Islands Of Denmark
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
Islands
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...