GEOGRAPHY
Location:
Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, on
a peninsula north of Germany
Geographic coordinates:
56 00 N, 10 00 E
Map references: Europe
Area:
total: 43,094 sq km
land: 42,394 sq km
water: 700 sq km
note: includes the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea
and the rest of metropolitan Denmark, but excludes the Faroe Islands
and Greenland
Area—comparative:
slightly less than twice the size of Massachusetts
Land boundaries:
total: 68 km
border countries: Germany 68 km
Coastline: 7,314
km
Maritime claims:
contiguous zone: 4 nm
continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
territorial sea: 3 nm
Climate: temperate;
humid and overcast; mild, windy winters and cool summers
Terrain: low and
flat to gently rolling plains
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Lammefjord -7 m
highest point: Ejer Bavnehoj 173 m
Natural resources:
petroleum, natural gas, fish, salt, limestone, stone, gravel and
sand
Land use:
arable land: 60%
permanent crops: 0%
permanent pastures: 5%
forests and woodland: 10%
other: 25% (1993 est.)
Natural hazards:
flooding is a threat in some areas of the country (e.g., parts
of Jutland, along the southern coast of the island of Lolland)
that are protected from the sea by a system of dikes
Environment—current
issues: air pollution, principally from vehicle and power
plant emissions; nitrogen and phosphorus pollution of the North
Sea; drinking and surface water becoming polluted from animal
wastes and pesticides
Environment—international
agreements:
party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides,
Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile
Organic Compounds, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear
Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber
83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
Pollutants, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Climate Change-Kyoto
Protocol, Law of the Sea
Geography—note:
controls Danish Straits (Skagerrak and Kattegat) linking Baltic
and North Seas; about one-quarter of the population lives in Copenhagen.
