How many people are imprisoned in Denmark?

Denmark's prison population is 4,129 people. This figure aggregates all forms of detention counted by the source: sentenced prisoners, pre-trial detainees, and administrative detentions.

What is the incarceration rate in Denmark?

Denmark's incarceration rate is approximately 69 people per 100,000 population.

How many prisons are there in Denmark?

World Prisons indexes 73 individual facilities in Denmark. Each entry links to a detail page with contact information, capacity, oversight reports, and known conditions.

All countries

Europe · Northern Europe

Denmark

Q: Does Denmark have the death penalty?

Denmark's death-penalty status is: abolitionist. Seeded from Amnesty International 2024 categorisation + Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide.

High confidence

Verified 20 May 2026 · Data dated 31 Jan 2024

Fresh · 2mo ago

Denmark has agreed to lease 300 cells in Kosovo's Gjilan facility from 2027.

Compare Denmark World Prison Brief page

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

Prison population

4,129

Year: 2024

Rate per 100,000

Per 100,000 residents

Occupancy

93.9%

At or under capacity

Pre-trial / remand

35.5%

Share not yet sentenced

Female prisoners

5.3%

Foreign nationals

27%

Figures from official sources · verified 20 May 2026 · methodology

Conditions risk — across 73 facilities

Average of our computed Conditions Risk Score across the country's facilities. Methodology · Browse highest-risk

—

national average

73 unknown

abolitionist on capital punishment since 1978. Last known execution: 1950.ICCPR-OP2 (death-penalty abolition protocol): signatory

Seeded from Amnesty International 2024 categorisation + Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide.

Source: Amnesty International + Cornell Death Penalty Worldwide.

14 documented human-rights cases →

How Denmark compares

vs Europe (16) & global averages

Rate per 100,000this: 69 · region: 110 · global: 214

Occupancy ratethis: 94% · region: 97% · global: 125%

Pre-trial sharethis: 36% · region: 27% · global: 32%

The vertical ticks mark the global (grey) and regional (amber) means. Bars are clipped at the high end for readability.

Prison population over time

Annual figures, latest survey year

2000: 3,382+24.1% over 25y2025: 4,197

Source: World Prison Brief / unodc / eurostat / Council of Europe SPACE I

Health & mortality

Custodial mortality + prison-health indicators aggregated from national statistics offices, UCLA custodial mortality dataset, and Marshall Project COVID tracking.

Indicators (latest by source)

Mortality Rate
97.92per_100k_pa
2020 · source: who-hiped

Held

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Arresthuset

Denmark

Type

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Capacity

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Held

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Arresthuset

Denmark

Type

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Capacity

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Held

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Arresthuset i Frederikshavn

Denmark

Type

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Capacity

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Held

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Arresthuset i Randers

Denmark

Type

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Capacity

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Held

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Denmark

Type

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Capacity

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Held

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See all 73 prisons in Denmark →

Data completeness

100%

Score based on how many fields are populated. We surface this so you know where the gaps are.

National population: 5,960,0002024
Source-verified: 20 May 2026
Source links: 2 cited

Sources

Direct citations for the figures on this page.

Primary reference
World Prison Brief (ICPS, Birkbeck) — Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research
Council of Europe â SPACE statistics — Council of Europe
See /data-sources for our methodology.

ISO 3166-1 alpha-3: DNK

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA

World Prisons. (2026). Denmark — prison statistics. Retrieved July 21, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/countries/denmark

Chicago

"Denmark — prison statistics." World Prisons. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/countries/denmark.

BibTeX

@misc{worldprisons-denmark,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Denmark — prison statistics},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/countries/denmark},
  urldate = {2026-07-21}
}