Facts and Figures
	Economy
	Direct Marketing

Facts & Figures

Sources: German Foreign Office & Spiegel Annual Abstract of Statistics

Economy

Denmark is a very small country in terms of geography compared with its Northern Scandinavian neighbors. However, it has the highest total population within Europe for its size at 5.37 million inhabitants. Denmark has a robust and stable economy that has been increasingly developing from an agricultural economy into an industrial and service-based economy since World War II.

Denmark's most important trading partners are its Scandinavian neighbors, i.e., Sweden and Norway, as well as Germany and the UK. When comparing economic statistics, Denmark is at the top of the list in terms of per capita gross domestic product in 2002, which makes it one of the world's 10 most wealthy countries.

Although Denmark counts among Europe's smaller counties in terms of its economic size, its gross domestic product ranks among the world's first five countries. Growth of Denmark's gross domestic product has been far above the average for other European countries since 1994. Thus Denmark was able to achieve growth of 1.5% in 2002 despite the unfavorable global economic state.

Sources: Fedma, PDMS

Direct Marketing

Denmark has a very highly developed direct marketing industry. Total expenditures for direct marketing in Denmark have risen enormously in recent years. Expenditures in 1999 were 515 million Euros. By comparison, this figure rose to 535 million Euros in 2000. In 2001, 997 million Euros were spent on direct marketing. This kind of growth in the direct marketing sector is astounding given that the law prohibits sale of consumer lists.

It is very difficult to access consumer addresses because only list owners may trade with addresses among themselves. Denmark has one of the most stringent data protection laws within Europe.

Danish address lists are among the most expensive in Europe. The Danish population is generally quite open-minded with regard to direct marketing. The mail-order business, which initially failed to find major resonance among the population, has experienced strong growth in recent years.

Direct mailings are primarily used in the following sectors: banking, automobile trade, computer trade, book clubs, the insurance business and also by unions, humanitarian organizations and various interest groups.

These sectors cover the major bulk of non-addressed mailings. Addressed direct mailings are used to a major extent in the B2B sector in order to create a foothold for marketing and sales. Returns on company addresses and private addresses are normally refunded.