There are many different ways to learn about a nation. The most effective, of course, is to actually live there for awhile.
Failing that, there are facts and figures that can help give an overall impression of a country's make-up and people. Here are ten interesting stats that help paint a picture of modern Denmark.
Growing immigrant population
Denmark's immigrants now make up 11.1 percent of the total population. The number of non-Western immigrants who call Denmark home has increased more than five-fold since 1984. Today, there are 199,829 Western immigrants and 276,230 non-Western immigrants in Denmark along with 21,984 descendants of Westerners and 128,027 descendants of non-Western immigrants.
SEE ALSO: Eight countries in stats: from Spain to Sweden
The largest group of immigrants in Denmark continues to be persons of Turkish origin, who make up 9.8 percent of all immigrants and their descendants. The next largest groups are Poles (5.8%), Germans (5.1%) and Iraqis (4.9%), while the fasting growing groups are Romanians and Poles.
In official Danish statistics, descendants of immigrants (efterkommere) are defined as someone who was born in Denmark to non-Danish parents. If and when the parents receive Danish citizenship, their children are no longer considered descendants in the official numbers.
See also: Big gaps remain between immigrants and Danes
Increasing inequality
From the outside looking in, Denmark is often portrayed as a paradise of equality where there is not a major gap between the haves and the have-nots. But the numbers on the ground indicate that this is rapidly changing.
Denmark's Gini coefficient, considered the best tool for measuring a country's inequality, is growing faster than anywhere else in Europe. The coefficient stood at 27.5 in 2013, still better than the EU average of 30.5 but representing a higher level of inequality than in Scandinavian neighbours Sweden (24.9) and Norway (22.7).
The richest one percent of Denmark's population owns 43 percent of the country's total wealth.
See also: Denmark's one percent problem
Homelessness on the rise
The most extreme manifestation of inequality is the number of people who sleep on the streets. Although Denmark's social safety net keeps homelessness levels fairly low, the number of homeless people on Denmark's streets is on the rise.
Danes has a major cancer problem
Two recent consumer confidence studies have indicated that Danes feel the recession is safely behind them. Consumer confidence levels are at their highest point since before the recession and Danes are slowly starting to spend more.
When they're ready to open up their pocketbooks, Danes have an average monthly income of 24,350 kroner (€3,273) at their disposal. The 2014 salary numbers were up slightly from 23,887 kroner/month (€3,211) level in 2013.
According to Statistics Denmark, there were 105,400 people on unemployment benefits in September 2014. Some 77,500 of those were on the unemployment benefit dagpenge while the rest were on the less generous cash benefit kontanthjælp.
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