DENMARK STRAIT

channel partially within the Arctic Circle, lying between Greenland (west) and Iceland (east). About 180 miles (290 km) wide at its narrowest point, the strait extends southward for 300 miles (483 km) from the Greenland Sea to the open waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. The cold East Greenland Current flows southward along the west side of the strait and carries icebergs, which originate in the Arctic Ocean and on the Greenland ice cap; a branch of the warmer Irminger Current flows northward near the Iceland coast. The economy Denmark supports a high standard of living with well-developed social services. It boasts a per capita gross national product that is one of the highest in the world. The economy is based primarily on service industries, trade, and manufacturing; only 6 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture, fishing, and forestry. Small enterprises are dominant. The only Nordic country to do so, Denmark joined the European Economic Community in 1973, at the same time as the United Kingdom, then its most important trading partner. At the same time, economic collaboration among the Nordic countries continues. No passports are required for travel by Scandinavians within the region, and communication among the various agencies of government is direct and need not be channeled through their respective embassies. Scandinavians enjoy a common labour market that includes reciprocal social welfare benefits and the right to vote in local elections in the neighbouring country of residence. There is capital mobility, supported by the Nordic Investment Bank. Uniform legislation, particularly with regard to commercial law, dates to the 19th century. In the Danish mixed welfare-state economy, private sector expenditures account for more than half of the net national income. Public expenditure is directed to education, national defense, social services, and agricultural subsidies. The government neither owns capital nor has significant commercial or industrial income. Public income is primarily derived from taxes on real estate, personal income, and capital and through customs and excise duties. The heaviest indirect tax, which goes to the national government, is the value-added tax (VAT). Both employers and employees are well organized. Membership in unions is normally based upon the particular skills of the workers. The association of employees is called the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen); the principal association of employers is the Danish Confederation of Employers (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforeningen). Resources Danish natural resources are quite limited. During the early 1970s the economy suffered from dependence on imported petroleum for more than 90 percent of its energy needs. Finds of oil and natural gas fields in the Danish sector of the North Sea permitted a partial self-sufficiency in this regard. Coal-fired power plants produce 90 percent of the nation's electricity, up from 10 percent in 1970. The switch from petroleum was accompanied by economies of production in which otherwise wasted heat from the production of electricity is used to heat water that is piped to homes and factories. By this means, the energy output of power plants has been doubled. The land The basic contours of the Danish landscape were shaped at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch by the last glaciation of the Ice Age, the so-called Weichsel glaciation. This great glacial mass withdrew temporarily during several warmer interstadial periods, but it repeatedly returned to cover the land until it retreated to the Arctic north for the last time about 10,000 years ago. As a result, the barren layers of chalk and limestone that earlier constituted the land surface acquired a covering of soil that built up as the Weichsel retreated, forming low, hilly moraines that diversify the otherwise flat landscape. Relief Denmark proper is a lowland area that lies, on average, not more than 100 feet (30 metres) above sea level. The country's highest point, reaching only 568 feet (173 metres), is Yding Forest Hill in east-central Jutland. A scenic boundary representing the extreme limit reached by the Scandinavian and Baltic ice sheets runs from Nissum Fjord on the western coast of Jutland eastward toward Viborg, from there swinging sharply south down the spine of the peninsula toward benr and the German city of Flensburg, just beyond the Danish frontier. The ice front is clearly marked in the contrast between the flat western Jutland region, composed of sands and gravels strewn by meltwaters that poured west from the shrinking ice sheet, and the fertile loam plains and hills of eastern and northern Denmark, which become markedly sandier toward the prehistoric ice front. In northern Jutland, where the long Lim Fjord separates the northern tip from the rest of the peninsula, there are numerous flat areas of sand and gravel, some of which became stagnant bogs. Burials and ritual deposits interred in these bogs in antiquityespecially during the Bronze and Iron ageshave been recovered by archeologists. In more recent centuries, these bogs were a valued source of peat for fuel. In the 20th century, they have been drained to serve as grazing areas for livestock. In places along the northern and southwestern coasts of Jutland, salt marshes were formed by evaporation of an inland sea that existed during the Late Permian epoch (approximately 258 to 245 million years ago). Senonian chalk, deposited about 100 million years ago, is exposed in southeastern Zealand, at the base of Stevn Cliff and Mn Cliff, and at Bulbjerg, in northwestern Jutland. Younger Danian limestone (about 65 million years old) is extensively quarried in southeastern Zealand. On Bornholm, outcroppings reveal close affinities with geologic formations in southern Sweden. Precambrian granites more than 570 million years oldamong the oldest on the Earth's surfaceare exposed across extensive areas on the northern half of the island. On the southern half, Cambrian sandstone and shales overlie the older granites. The people Ethnic composition Denmark is almost entirely inhabited by ethnic Danes. Very few Faeroese or Greenlanders have settled in continental Denmark, despite their status as Danish citizens. Small German, Jewish, and Polish minorities, on the other hand, have been long established and are substantially assimilated. In the 1960s an economic expansion required more labour than the nation could supply, and guest workers (gstearbejdere) made their way into Denmark. In the late 1980s the most numerous ethnic minorities in Denmark were Turks, Yugoslavs, Iranians, and Pakistanis. Linguistic composition Danish is the official language. It is closely related to Norwegian, with which it is mutually intelligible, especially in the written form. Although the other Scandinavian languages (excepting Finnish) are close relatives, they are sufficiently different to be understood easily only by those schooled or experienced in the effort. Many educated or urban Danes have learned to speak a second language. English has replaced German as the most popular foreign language.