Denmark

Denmark is a country in Scandinavia.

Geography

Denmark consists of a peninsula from Germany ([[Jutland}}) and a series of islands. The largest of these islands is Zealand, bordering on Sweden. The capital of Denmark is Copenhagen, with a bridge to Malmo, Sweden.

Politics

The Danish Prime Minister is called Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and is the leader of Venstre (literally: "the left," however, a right-wing party), the party was originally a peasents party that went right wing together with the peasents. Denmark has been a democratic socialist country since the beginning of the twentieth centuary.

Denmark has free healthcare for all people and free education. That everyone has equal oppotunities to education means the academics and leaders come from many backgrounds. This has lead ot the criticism that Denmark lacks the family dynasties to drive the country forward. Despite this, Denmark has been historically well run.

During the last several years the "Dansk Folkeparti" (da. "Danish People's Party") with leader Pia Kjærsgaard has had enormous success with its anti-immigration policy. Initially aimed at preventing Arab Muslims from immigrating through arranged marriage. The new policy's greatest impact however, has been preventing ethnic Danes from living with their spouses of other nationalities, including Americans, in Denmark. Denmark is known for its production of pastries known as danishes.

Economy

Denmark has had a socialist economy since the thirties, with strong trade union ensuring that workers have a strong influence over company descisions. It has become one of the world's most successful economies. Free education and healthcare together with the changing governments ideals of equality and the continued efforts to enable people to raise above their creeds.

Major Danish companies include Novo Nordisk.

Society

Denmark has a ludicrously lax legal system, where criminals are barely punished, but instead they are educated and cared for by what is meant to be a penal system. Fortunately, Denmark has one of the lowest serious crime rates and reoffending rates in the world.

Sport

The principle sport in Denmark is soccer, the highlight for the sport was their national team's unexpected victory in the 1992 European Championship. Despite initially failing to qualify for the final tournement, the withdrawl of Yugoslavia enabled them to be called to take their place.

Other sports of note include ice hockey, handball and a small amount of Australian rules football.

People

Denmark emerged as the nation with the highest level of happiness in an academic study. Adrian White, from the UK's University of Leicester, used the responses of 80,000 people worldwide to map out subjective well being.

Denmark also has the second tallest population in the world, behind the Netherlands.