Denmark Map with Regions

Denmark has 5 regions: Hovedstaden, Midtjylland, Nordjylland, Sjælland and Syddanmark. The 2007 municipal reform created them, replacing the older county system, and they have stayed unchanged since. Each region is run by an elected regional council whose central responsibility is healthcare, including hospitals. Beneath the regions Denmark has 98 municipalities, which handle schools, social services and local planning. The Ultimaps map on this page shows all 5 regions. Because the same five units double as Denmark's NUTS 2 statistical regions, national and Eurostat datasets usually match this map without any relabeling.

Midtjylland is Denmark's largest region by area at 13,014 km² (5,025 sq mi) (2026, Statistics Denmark), covering central Jutland from the North Sea coast across to the Kattegat. Its regional seat is Viborg, though Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city, is the dominant urban center. Syddanmark follows at 12,267 km² (4,736 sq mi), then Nordjylland at 7,885 km² (3,045 sq mi) and Sjælland at 7,227 km² (2,791 sq mi). Midtjylland is more than five times the size of Hovedstaden, the smallest region at 2,564 km² (990 sq mi), but has fewer residents at 1,373,799 (2025).

Hovedstaden is the most populous Danish region with 1,930,793 residents (1 January 2025, Statistics Denmark), and it contains Copenhagen, the national capital, along with Frederiksberg. It is also the smallest region by area at 2,564 km² (990 sq mi), which makes it by far the most densely populated. Midtjylland ranks second with 1,373,799 people and includes Aarhus. Syddanmark follows at 1,240,472, spread across Funen and southern Jutland with Odense and Esbjerg as its main cities. Sjælland has 854,902 residents and Nordjylland the fewest at 592,768 (all 2025). Nearly one in three Danes, about 32%, lives in Hovedstaden.

Copenhagen sits in Region Hovedstaden, whose name translates as the Capital Region. Hovedstaden covers the northeastern part of Zealand plus the island of Bornholm, and has 1,930,793 residents (2025) on 2,564 km² (990 sq mi). A common point of confusion: the regional administrative seat is Hillerød, about 35 km north of Copenhagen, not Copenhagen itself. Copenhagen Municipality and Frederiksberg Municipality are two of the region's separate municipalities, with Frederiksberg entirely surrounded by Copenhagen. Denmark's other regional seats are Viborg, Aalborg, Sorø and Vejle.

Yes. Bornholm is part of Region Hovedstaden even though the island lies in the Baltic Sea roughly 150 km east of Zealand and much closer to Sweden and Poland than to Copenhagen. The 2007 reform assigned it to the Capital Region rather than creating a separate unit for it. On the administrative side Bornholm forms its own municipality, Bornholms Regionskommune, which merged the island's five former municipalities and old county into a single body in 2003. On a Denmark regions map, Bornholm appears as a detached shape sharing the same color as the mainland Capital Region.

Denmark's current regions date from 1 January 2007, when the municipal reform (Strukturreformen) took effect. The reform scrapped the 13 counties that had existed since 1970 and put 5 regions in their place, while cutting the number of municipalities to 98. Powers were redistributed at the same time: regions took over hospitals and health services, municipalities absorbed most other local duties, and the state took responsibility for areas such as tax collection. No boundary changes have followed since, so the 5 regions shown here have been stable for the whole period.

Denmark's 5 regions and 98 municipalities do different jobs. The regions, created in 2007, run hospitals, psychiatric care and public health, plus regional development and some transport planning. They cannot levy their own taxes and are funded by the state and municipalities, which is why Danes commonly refer to them as health regions. Municipalities handle schools, elder care, childcare, local roads and zoning, and they do collect income tax. Both levels have directly elected councils, voted on the same day every four years. This map shows the 5 regions, not the 98 municipalities.

Open Ultimaps in a browser and start editing: no download, no registration. A pasted table with one value per region is enough for a shaded map: Ultimaps grades the five fills automatically. For one-off highlights, click any region — Nordjylland, say — and choose its color directly. The color ramp, the background, the label text and typeface, and the outline weight all have independent settings. Point locations come from markers, which you can drop on Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, Aalborg or a coordinate pair of your choosing, with captions where they help. Downloads come in PNG, PDF and SVG.