Danish people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Danes (Danskere) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Image:Wikidanesju8.jpg | H. C. Andersen • Niels Bohr • H. C. Ørsted • Sweyn Forkbeard Peter Schmeichel • Søren Kierkegaard • Tycho Brahe • Karen Blixen |
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| Total population |
6.9 million (numbers below estimated) |
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| Regions with significant populations |
|
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| Language(s) | Danish | Religion(s) |
Predominantly Lutheran; small minorities of other faiths; secular. However, at least 40% of the Danish people do not believe in a god.[12] This number has mostly remained unchanged since 1970.[13]According to a 2005 study by Zuckerman, Denmark has the third highest proportion of atheists and agnostics in the world, estimated to be between 43% and 80%[14] | Related ethnic groups | Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, Icelanders, Faroese and, to a lesser extent, English and all Germanic ethnic groups |
The term Dane may refer to:
- People with a Danish ancestral or ethnic identity, whether living in Denmark, emigrants, or the descendants of emigrants.
- Members of the Danish ethnic minority in Southern Schleswig, a former Danish province.
- Anyone whose mother tongue is Danish.
- Nationals or citizens of Denmark, which also includes a German minority in South Jutland.
Contents |
[edit] Origins
The current Danes are descended from several ancient North Germanic tribes residing in modern day Jutland, Sweden and on the Danish islands. This includes the Dani, the Jutes from Jutland, the Cimbris, who resided in Jutland but later emigrated to other parts of Europe, and several other relations. The Dani were not mentioned by Tacitus, whose famous work Germania mentions the Gothones (Geats and/or Goths?) that are theorized to be the same people as the Jutes, and the Suiones (Swedes). They seem to be, however, mentioned by Jordanes and Procopius, as the Dani. The name Daner is the etymological root of Dane. Jordanes maintains that the Dani were of the same stock as the Suetidi (Swedes, Suithiod?) and expelled the Heruli and took their lands. If Tacitus simply did not overlook the Dani, and if Jordanes's information was correct, it is possible that they first appeared, as an off-shoot of the Swedes, sometime in the 2nd or 3rd century A.D.[citation needed] The Chronicle of Lejre states that a ruler of Zealand with name Dan had raised an army and saved his people from an invasion by the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar, that the Jutes, the men of Fyn and the Scanian Provinces also accepted him as king, whence the resultant expanded country of Denmark and Danes was named after him. Dan as one or more ancient kings of the Danes are also written in other Nordic sagas.
[edit] Danes in Denmark
- See also: History of Denmark
Almost five million ethnic Danes live in Denmark today.[1] The Danes are a Scandinavian ethnic group, and are the descendants of the Norse - better known as Vikings - along with Norwegians, Swedes, Icelanders, Faroese, and to some extent, the English, due to the settlement of many Danes, along with the Anglo-Saxons in England during the Migration period and during the Danelaw period.
A minority of approx. 50,000 Danes live in Southern Schleswig in Germany, a former Danish territory, forming around 10% of the local population. In Denmark, the latter group is often referred to as De danske syd for grænsen (literally: the Danes south of the (Danish-German) border or sydslesvigere (South Schleswigers).
[edit] The Danish Nation in a political context
Det danske folk (The Danish people) as a concept, played an important role in 19th century ethnic nationalism and refers to self-identification rather than a legal status. Use of the term is most often restricted to a historical context; the historic German-Danish struggle regarding the status of the Duchy of Schleswig vis-à-vis a Danish nation-state. It describes people of Danish nationality, both in Denmark and elsewhere. Most importantly, ethnic Danes in both Denmark proper and the former Danish Duchy of Schleswig. Excluded from this definition are people from the formerly Norwegian Faroe Islands and Greenland as well as members of the German minority as well as members of other ethnic minorities.
The term should not be confused with the legal concept of nationality, danske statsborgere (Danish nationals) i.e. individuals holding Danish citizenship.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Danmarks Statistik (pdf, written in Danish) reports that Denmark, per April 1, 2007, has 483,390 inhabitants of foreign inheritance out of 5,451,826 total inhabitants. That amounts to an estimate of 4,968,436 ethnic Danish people on April 1, 2007. The number of holders of Danish citizenship (disregarding ethnic background) was 5,167,996 at the same date.
- ^ The 2000 American census reports that the United States, in the 2000 census, has 1,430,897 inhabitants of Danish ancestry.
- ^ (List of Canadians by ethnicity, 2001 figure)
- ^ The ABS estimates in a 2003 study that there are between 50,000 and 150,000 people claiming Danish ancestry living in Australia. The middle number has been used, and no change since 03 has been assumed.
- ^ National minorities at the Federal Foreign Office of Germany
- ^ Statistics Sweden
- ^ Spanish National Statistics Institute
- ^ The CIA World Factbook reports that Greenland, in a July 2005 estimate, has 56,375 inhabitants. The share of Danes was in 2000 estimated to be just below 12%. Taking for granted that the two ethnic groups have developed equally from 2000 to 2005, this adds up to an estimate just below 6765 Danish people in July 2005.
- ^ Statistics New Zealand
- ^ Population by country of birth 1981-2006 by country and year: Denmark, 2006. Statistics Iceland (English version) (31 December, 2006). Retrieved on 2007-07-21.
- ^ CSO Ireland - 2006 Census
- ^ http://www.dst.dk/OmDS/Bib/spoerg/oss/religion.aspx Danmarks statistik (Denmarks statistics)Reports of religions in Denmark
- ^ http://www.staff.hum.ku.dk/hojs/gudstro/pdf/Luchau.nov.2004.pdf Oficial Report (in danish) of Gods belief in Denmark from 1948-2003
- ^ http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_atheist.html
cs:Dáni da:Det danske folk de:Dänen hr:Danci lv:Dāņi lt:Danai ja:デーン人 no:Danene pl:Duńczycy ru:Датчане sk:Dáni sq:Danezët sr:Данци sh:Danci sv:Danskar
