Top 34 Good News From Denmark

Traveljunkieindonesia.com – Welcome to the happiest nation on earth. Denmark is a vastly wealthy country, it’s well ordered and the majority of Danes enjoy a high quality of living. This feeling of wellbeing doesn’t take much time to rub off on the visitor.

Denmark packs within its modest borders a compelling mix of lively modern cities, historic towns, enchanting villages, rolling farmland, graceful beech woods and sleepy islands.

So, here are top 34 good news from Denmark – Travel Junkie Indonesia’s selection.

1. Working population: Denmark has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, averaged at 4.5 per cent.

2. Business survey: The Danish economy was ranked first in Europe and fifth out of 183 countries in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business survey in 2010.

3. Island life: Even though the Faroe Islands are a self-governing part of Denmark, they are not part of the European Union and therefore free EU ruling and legislation.

4. CIA Ranking: Denmark comes 14th in the CIA World rank of countries by GDP, with 55.6 per cent (2010 estimate)

5. Partners in trade: Denmark exports more than 15 per cent of its goods to Germany and 20 per cent of its imports come from Germany.

6. Planet organic: Denmark’s overall food market has, proportionally, the biggest organic sector in the world, taking up a healthy 8 per cent share.

7. Bringing home the bacon: Agricultural production accounts for 3 pe cent of Denmark’s GDP. Cheese, pork, and butter take the top podium for Danish exports.

8. Celebrity endorsement: British actor John Hurt heads the most recent campaign for Danish agriculture, proclaiming “The future isn’t as dark as it has been.”

9. Sprouting business: The Danes are prolific seed growers, filling 45 per cent of the total EU seed output. Spinach, chrysanthemum and grass seeds are a speciality.

10. Piggy bank: Denmark produces 28 million pigs per year from 5,000 farms. The British Army was left-faced when it emerged their “full English” breakfast contained Danish bacon in 2011.

11. Storing up for winter: Lengthy winters mean food preservation – smoking, salting, and pickling – has formed a historic part of the Danish menu, along with the hardy, tasty Danish rye bread.

12. No hills: Denmark is a notoriously flat region, with its highest peaks being Møllehøj at 170 metres and Himmelbjerget (also known as the Sky Mountain) reaching a mere 147 metres.

13. No clothes: Nude bathing is acceptable virtually anywhere in Denmark and the hardy do so year-round. Signs frequently inform beachgoers of nude-only or clothes optional beaches.

14. No fumes: Denmark is the ultimate cycling nation: with 35 per cent of Copenhageners riding daily, the capital was named the world’s first bike city by the International Cycling Union.

15. Popular demand: By wearing a Faroese patterned knit in each episode of popular series The Killing, Sofie Gråbøl’s character Sarah Lund has helped Faroe Islands wood sales to grow.

16. Sing along: At all time, 10 per cent of the population in Denmark is involved in some musical activity. One in seven Danes either plays an instrument or is involved in making music.

17. Expected growth: PWC forecasts in its annual report Global Entertainment and Media Outlook that the Danish media market has bottomed out and 2011 will see growth of 2 per cent.

18. Hit factory: Copenhagen-based IO Interactive placed Denmark on the video gaming world map by producing the Hitman series. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin has sold more than 3.7 million copies.

19. Free expression: Denmark was the first country in the world to legalise pornography in 1967.

20. Fashion industry: Five per cent of Denmark’s total workforce is employed in fashion, with 602 companies involved in the industry.

21. Recycle path: Denmark’s first eco-friendly-only store, Earth A’Wear, opened in 2010. It offers items made from recycled materials, such as pineapple-fibre skirts and bicycle-tyre belts.

22. Big brand week: During the 2011 edition of Copenhagen Fashion Week I, 100 exhibitors representing a total of 2.300 international brand name collections were on show.

23. Fur trade: Denmark is the leading mink fur producing country in the world – it accounts for 40 per cent of the world’s production followed by Russia, China, and Canada.

24. Designing success: The Danish Design Centre was founded in 1978 to promote the national design industry and improve business competitiveness by means of design investment.

25. Designers’ block: Lego’s creative team is made up of 120 designers from around 20 nationalities based in the Billund HQ and in Munich, Los Angeles and Tokyo.

26. First craft: Danish crafts is an organisation established by the Danish Ministry in 1999 to preserve and promote Denmark’s craft skills and production to an international audience.

27. Big school: The historic Danish Design School has merged with the Glass and Ceramic School of Bornholm, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Danish School of Architecture.

28. Look and learn: The Danish Design Museum has a permanent exhibition about Denmark’s formative history of design using the people and things that have shaped modern design.

29. Gifted: The Trusteeship Council Chamber in New York’s UN headquarters was a gift from Denmark to the US. Designed by Finn Juhl, it is being refurbished and will be unveiled in 2012.

30. Sustainable database: The Danish Architecture Centre has created a website, sustainablecities.dk – a global database of sustainable city-planning examples from around the world.

31. Seascape: 3XN is building a new mega-aquarium called “The Blue Planet”, to be completed in 2013 on the island of Amager. From an aeroplane it will look like a giant whirlpool in the sea.

32. Digital design: Copenhagen’s layout is based on the “Finger Plan” from 1947, where urban districts are formed along linear corridors, extending like fingers from the central zone.

33. Big idea: The Danish pavilion of the 2010 Shanghai Expo was designed by BIG who created a veledrome and shipped the Little Mermaid over from Copenhagen to complete the spectacle.

34. Walk on water: The Brygge Bridge, built across Copenhagen harbour in 2006, is used by 3,000 cyclists and pedestrians a day. People can now walk along Copenhagen’s waterfront for 40 km.

Happy Green Travels!

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