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How many foreigners can vote in Denmark’s local elections?

If you are a foreign resident in Denmark, you are likely to be able to have a say in upcoming municipal and regional elections – regardless of whether you are an EU national.

Published: 2 November 2021 17:26 CET
Local election placards in Denmark. Over 400,000 foreign residents are eligible to vote in the elections, including many from outside the EU.
Local election placards in Denmark. Over 400,000 foreign residents are eligible to vote in the elections, including many from outside the EU. Photo: Keld Navntoft/Ritzau Scanpix

Over 400,000 foreign citizens who live in Denmark – 414,419 to be exact – are eligible to vote in municipal and regional elections on November 16th, according to figures from the interior ministry.

Of the 414,419 international residents who can vote, 221,331 are from EU or Nordic countries. As such, 193,088 non-EU and Nordic residents are also eligible to vote.

The total number of eligible voters (Danes plus foreigners) for the elections is 4,675,225, according to the ministry figures, which were correct as of November 1st.

This means foreign residents account for around 1 in 11 eligible voters.

Unlike in general elections – in which only Danish citizens can vote – EU, Norwegian and Icelandic citizens over the age of 18 with a permanent address in Denmark are entitled to vote in municipal and regional elections.

Additionally, foreign citizens over 18 who have residency permits and have lived in Denmark for four years or more prior to the date of the election also qualify to take part in the poll.

British citizens who registered as resident in Denmark no later than January 31st, 2020 and have lived in the country continually since then also have the right to vote.

UK nationals who registered residence in Denmark after this date (and thereby after the UK left the EU) must fulfil the requirement to have lived in Denmark for at least four years to be able to vote in the local elections.

READ ALSO: How to vote as a foreign resident in Denmark’s local elections

Despite the high number of foreign residents who can vote in local Danish elections, a much lower proportion of foreigners cast ballots compared to Danes.

At the 2017 municipal elections, only 32.1 percent of eligible foreign residents voted, compared 74 percent of Danes. That gave an overall turnout of 70.6 percent.

Those numbers come from an analysis from the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Political Science.

Denmark residents from newer EU countries, including Romania and Bulgaria, were among the nationalities with the lowest turnout, the analysis found.

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POLITICS

Support for Denmark’s Liberal party hits record low in new poll

Support for Denmark's Liberal Party has hit the lowest level ever recorded since the polling company Voxmeter started measuring party support back in 2001, indicating it may have lost its position as the main party of the right.

Published: 21 May 2024 10:06 CEST
Support for Denmark's Liberal party hits record low in new poll

Just 7.7 percent of respondents said they intended to vote for the party in a poll carried out for the Ritzau newswire, showing the party’s support almost halved since the 2022 election, which it received 13.3 percent of the vote.

As recently as the run-up to the 2015 general election, the party received the support of 22 percent of voters in one Voxmeter poll, challenging the Social Democrats for the title of Denmark’s biggest party. 

The Liberals have been struggling in recent years, with the party’s former leader, Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, leaving and launching the rival Moderate party, and the party’s former immigration minister, Inger Støjberg, launching the Denmark Democrats after being expelled from the party.

Støjberg’s party received the support of 9.9 percent of voters in the poll, showing its charismatic leader now ahead of the party that expelled her. 

Torsten Schack, the Liberal party’s political spokesperson, told Ritzau it was too early to write off the party’s chances in the 2026 election. 

“There is no doubt that this is not the best poll for the Liberals, but history shows that this can move quickly in Danish politics, and there are no elections until 2026, so until then we will continue to generate solid results for centre-right supporters in the government,” he told the newswire in a text message. 

But it is the libertarian Liberal Alliance party, as the only centre-right party in opposition, which is challenging the Liberal’s position as the main, government-bearing party of the right, winning the support of 16 percent of voters in only the second time it has polled so high since it was founded in 2007 by MPs from the Social Liberal and Conservative Parties. 

The Social Democrats were still the largest party in the poll, with the support of 20.9 percent of voters — down from a recent high of 35.8 percent in May 2020, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

They were followed by the Socialist Left party with 13.7 percent of the vote. 

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