Danish people

Infobox Ethnic group
group = Danes
"(Danskere)"


caption=H. C. Andersen • Niels Bohr • H. C. Ørsted • Sweyn Forkbeard

Peter Schmeichel • Søren Kierkegaard • Tycho Brahe • Karen Blixen
population = c. 7 million
region1 = flagcountry|Denmark
pop1 = 4,963,806
ref1 = lower| [http://www.dst.dk/nytudg/11817 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.]
region2 = flagcountry|United States
pop2 = 1,430,897
ref2 = lower| [The [http://www.euroamericans.net/dane.htm# 2000 American census] reports that the United States, in the 2000 census, has 1,430,897 inhabitants of Danish ancestry.]
region3 = flagcountry|Canada
pop3 = 200,035
ref3 = lower| [ Statistics Canada [http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/highlights/ethnic/pages/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo=PR&Code=01&Data=Count&Table=2&StartRec=1&Sort=3&Display=All&CSDFilter=5000] ]
region4 = flagcountry|Brazil
pop4 = 140,000
region5 = flagcountry|Australia
pop5 = 100,000
ref5 = lower| [ The ABS estimates in [http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/af5129cb50e07099ca2570eb0082e462!OpenDocument 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.]
region6 = flagcountry|Germany
pop6 = 50,000
ref6 = lower| [ [http://www.tatsachen-ueber-deutschland.de/en/federal-states/content/background-1/national-minorities.html National minorities] at the Federal Foreign Office of Germany]
region7 = flagcountry|Sweden
pop7 = 42,602
ref7 = lower| [ [http://www.scb.se/statistik/_publikationer/BE0101_2005A01_BR_BE0106TAB.pdf Statistics Sweden] ]
region8 = flagcountry|United Kingdom
pop8 = 18,493 (Danish born only)
ref8 = lower| [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/uk/05/born_abroad/countries/html/denmark.stm Danish Immigrants to the UK (2001)] ]
region9 = flagcountry|Spain
pop9 = 8,944
ref9 = lower| [ [http://www.ine.es/prodyser/pubweb/anuario06/anu06_02demog.pdf Spanish National Statistics Institute] ]
ref10 = lower| [The [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gl.html#people 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.]
region11 = flagcountry|New Zealand
pop11 = 3,507
ref11 = lower| [ [http://www.stats.govt.nz/NR/rdonlyres/868341F6-C705-4738-9792-EDE1F79AE9B2/0/MoreCensus96CountsPeople.doc Statistics New Zealand] ]
region12 = flagcountry|Iceland
pop12 = 2,802
ref12 = lower| [cite web
url=http://www.statice.is/?PageID=1174&src=/temp_en/Dialog/varval.asp?ma=MAN12100%26ti=Population+by+country+of+birth+1981%2D2006+%26path=../Database/mannfjoldi/Faedingarland/%26lang=1%26units=Fj%F6ldi
title=Population by country of birth 1981-2006 by country and year: Denmark, 2006
date=31 December, 2006
publisher=Statistics Iceland (English version)
accessdate=2008-03-06]
ref13 =
region14 = flagcountry|IRL
pop14 = 809
ref14 = [http://www.cso.ie/statistics/placebirthagegroup.htm CSO Ireland - 2006 Census]
languages = Danish
religions = Predominantly Lutheran; small minorities of other faiths; secular.
related = Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, Icelanders, Faroese and, to a lesser extent, Flemings, Dutch, English and all Germanic ethnic groupsThe 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.

Origins

The current Danes are descended from an ancient North Germanic tribe originating and residing in Scania and on the Danish islands, the Danes (Dani) of e.g. "Beowulf".

Several other ethnic components exist in what is today the Kingdom of Denmark. The modern peoples of Jutland descend from the Jutes from Jutland, and their proto-Jutish ancestral tribes, including the Cimbri, who resided in Jutland.

The Dani were not mentioned by Tacitus, whose famous work Germania mentions the Gothones (Geats and/or Goths?). They seem to be, however, mentioned by Jordanes and Procopius, as the Dani. The name Dani 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.Fact|date=September 2007

There are several different legendary accounts of the foundation of Denmark. One of the legendary accounts found in the "Chronicle of Lejre" tells 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 Funen 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.

Danes in Denmark

Five and half million ethnic Danes live in Denmark today. 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 Danish south of the border) or "sydslesvigere" (South Schleswigers).

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.

ee also

* List of Danes
* Danish Americans

References