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Denmark has experienced a positive migration flow over the past decade. During this period, there was consistently a higher number of immigrants entering the country than emigrants leaving it. Up until 2015, the number of immigrants arriving in Denmark steadily grew. Since then, however, the number of immigrants has decreased. In 2022, a record-high 121,000 people immigrated to Denmark, while around 63,000 people emigrated, meaning that there were almost twice as many immigrants as emigrants that year. The following year, close to 100,000 people immigrated to Denmark.

Tighter immigration laws

The decreasing immigration figures up until 2021 can in part be explained by tighter immigration rules. Since 2015, immigration policies have been strengthened in Denmark. For instance, immigrants are required to work 37 hours a week to qualify for certain social benefits, and the parliament recently passed a legislation making it possible to send asylum seekers to countries outside of the EU while their applications are processed. Despite this tendency, forecasts predict that the number of immigrants will increase and reach 725,000 people in 2029. This is because a high number of immigrants in Denmark come from from other EU countries such as Poland and Germany. As of 2024, nearly 50,000 Danish residents had Polish origins.

Ukrainian refugees driving the number of immigrants

The record-high number of immigrants arriving in Denmark in 2022 was driven by refugees from Ukraine following Russia's invasion of the country in February 2022. Around 6.5 million people have fled Ukraine after the outbreak of the war, and in Denmark, nearly 32,000 of the immigrants that year came from Ukraine. The number of immigrants arriving in the country in 2022 was significantly higher than in 2015, the previous record year, when a high number of Syrian refugees arrived in the country.