Denmark - Infrastructure, power, and communications

Denmark has a thoroughly modern and extensive infrastructure . Its numerous islands have encouraged the development of a network of ferry services in domestic waters with 415 kilometers (258 miles) of waterways. A well-maintained road and rail network includes 71,437 kilometers (44,388 miles) of highways (including 843 kilometers, or 524 miles, of expressways), and 2,859 kilometers (1,773 miles) of railways which serve almost every town. Some 508 kilometers (316 miles) of the railways are privately owned, while the rest are owned by the state.

In cities, environmental concerns have encouraged bicycle riding for all. Urban traffic is minimized by legislation requiring nearly all new shops be built within the existing commercial centers of cities, towns, and villages. Additionally, most new workplaces are required to be a short walking distance from a transit stop. Shops, offices, and factories must make accommodations for bicyclists and pedestrians. As a result, in 1998 less than one-third of travel within cities was via cars and trucks, and motorized traffic in the city centers had increased very little over the past 25 years.

As of 1999, Denmark had one of the world's highest density air networks, with 28 paved-runway and 90 unpaved-runway airports. Air service for Denmark, Norway, and Sweden is provided by Scandinavian Airlines Systems (SAS). Copenhagen Airport was voted "World's Best Airport of 2000" by the International Air Transport Organization, the same year that also saw the completion of the 7.8-kilometer Øresund bridge linking Denmark with Sweden.

Danes consumed 33.03 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in 1998, importing 2.68 billion kWh, and exporting 7.1 billion kWh. Most of the imported fuel is coal, which in 1998 amounted to 6.3 million tons. Denmark is shifting further away from coal use, as the 1998

Communications
Country	Newspapers	Radios	TV Sets a	Cable subscribers a	Mobile Phones a	Fax Machines a	Personal Computers a	Internet Hosts b	Internet Users b
	1996	1997	1998	1998	1998	1998	1998	1999	1999
Denmark	309	1,141	585	248.4	364	N/A	377.4	540.30	1,500
United States	215	2,146	847	244.3	256	78.4	458.6	1,508.77	74,100
Germany	311	948	580	214.5	170	73.1	304.7	173.96	14,400
Norway	588	915	579	160.1	474	50.0	373.4	754.15	2,000
a Data are from International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication Development Report 1999 and are per 1,000 people.
b Data are from the Internet Software Consortium ( http://www.isc.org ) and are per 10,000 people.
SOURCE: World Bank. World Development Indicators 2000.

figure is 60 percent lower than it was just 2 years earlier. Since the discovery of oil and natural gas reserves in the 1960s, Denmark was self-sufficient in oil production by the 1980s. In 1998 oil production was 238.35 million barrels per day (bpd) with exports of 8.98 million bpd, while natural gas production was 267.68 billion cubic feet (bcf), and exports were 95.35 bcf. The state owns significant shares in both oil and natural gas extraction, although the giant Maersk/A.P. Møller Corporation is also a dominant figure. Overall, in 1998 Denmark generated 4.27 billion kWh of electricity. Fossil fuel from its own reserves accounted for 90.8 percent of this electricity, hydroelectric power for 0.07 percent, and the remaining 9.13 percent was generated by other means, including wind power. Denmark has, since 1980, banned nuclear power, and focuses much research and development on conservation and alternative energy sources.

Denmark has an excellent telecommunications system based on 3.20 million telephone lines (1995). Cellular phone ownership increased by 304 percent from 1993 to 1997, and in 1999, such telephones were owned by 49 percent of the population, including nearly every person between ages 17-25. Cell phone ownership per capita in 1997 was 190 per 1,000, as compared to the U.S. figure of 128 per 1,000. Denmark's burgeoning IT services industry is supported by high Internet connectivity; 90 percent of all businesses use some aspect of the Internet. The Danish government has strongly supported the development of personal as well as business Internet use. In January of 2001, the prime minister announced that the government intends to provide all households in Denmark with access to the Internet, while at that time nearly 50 percent of all households with a computer were already connected.