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Twentysomethings make up over half of central Aarhus population

Over half of the people residing in the central Aarhus postcode area are in their twenties, according to official figures.

Published: 5 September 2019 12:20 CEST

Twentysomethings make up over half of central Aarhus population

Are half the people in their twenties in this photo, taken in the centre of Aarhus? Statistics say it's likely. Photo: Mikkel Berg Pedersen/Freelance/Ritzau Scanpix

If your postcode is 8000 – the number designated to central Aarhus – there’s a 1 in 2 chance you are in your twenties (or your neighbour is).

The area is the first in Denmark to reach a proportion of over 50 percent for residents aged between 20 and 29, broadcaster DR reports based on Statistics Denmark figures.

Around 72,000 people live within the postcode area, which covers the city centre, University Park and ‘Økvarteret’ (‘island neighbourhood’, so-called because streets are named after Danish islands).

The area is far ahead of any other postcode in the country in terms of its youthful demographics, although individual streets in central Copenhagen, Odense and Aalborg do come close to the 50 percent figure, DR writes.

Aarhus’ Social Democratic lord mayor Jacob Bundsgaard told the broadcaster the statistic was “cool” and suited the city’s image.

“It makes for a creative city and gives a good, rich cultural life with lots of energy,” Bundsgaard told DR.

“Young people do like to go out and paint the town red. A 43-year-old mayor can feel old when he walks through the city centre,” he added.

The location of Aarhus University, which is primarily within the ring road which encircles the centre of the city, is considered to be a major factor in attracting young people to live in the central district, despite ostensibly higher costs.

The population of Aarhus C – which has the 8000 postcode – has grown by 16,000 within the last 10 years, according to DR’s report, which calculated average ages by postcode using Statistics Denmark data.

READ ALSO: Here are Aarhus' new Viking pedestrian crossings

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One fifth of people in Denmark sceptical of Covid vaccine

Danes were the least sceptical of the eight countries surveyed. Photo: Dado Ruvic/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix

According to the latest update from Aarhus University's ongoing How Democracies Cope with COVID19 (HOPE) project, only 51 percent of those surveyed in Denmark described themselves as “completely certain” they would be willing to receive a vaccine, with a further 31 percent saying that they were partly certain.

Michael Bang Pedersen, the Aarhus psychology professor who leads the project, said that, while worrying, respondents from Denmark were more positive to vaccines than those of any other nation.

“The Danish results look pretty good, the Swedish figures are less good, and some of the results from France are extremely worrisome in my view,” he told The Local.

“So I think there's a massive communication task in front of a lot of national health authorities, including the Danish one.”

Only 38 percent of respondents from France to the study said they were “completely certain” they would take a vaccine.

Here are the figures for the eight nations surveyed, from left to right: France, Hungary, USA, Germany, Sweden, Italy, UK, Denmark.

Bang Pedersen said that some uncertainty was unsurprising.

“At this point, some uncertainty is to be expected, because we don't know what the features of the vaccine will be, how effective it is, and what the side effects will be,” he said.

“I think that part of the communication task for the authorities will be to acknowledge the uncertainty and to say, 'even if you are uncertain it doesn't mean you are anti-vaccine, and we are going to show you that the vaccine is safe despite those uncertainties.”

He said that the another obstacle could come if young people feel that because they are at too low a risk of becoming seriously ill from coronavirus to make receiving a vaccine worthwhile.

“They might think, 'I don't think I'll get a vaccine, because I'm not at risk myself'”, he said.

The solution, he said, was to make sure people were “informed about the logic of herd immunity”, and also made to feel empathy with people in vulnerable groups.

Finally, he said governments should already be starting to counteract misinformation about vaccines, and educating their populations to make them less susceptible to counter “fake news” in the internet.

The responses in the report were collected between September 13th and October 3rd.

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