Capital Region of Denmark
Capital Region hosts 32% of Danes: Copenhagen's Øresund position, pharma industry (70% of 2025 growth), merging with Zealand 2027 as demographic reality formalizes.
The Capital Region exists because Copenhagen exists—and Copenhagen exists because the Øresund exists. For a thousand years, whoever controlled this strait between the Baltic and North Seas controlled Scandinavian trade. Copenhagen grew from a fishing village to the capital that still concentrates 32% of Denmark's population and the overwhelming majority of its global connections, from Maersk's shipping empire to Novo Nordisk's pharmaceutical laboratories.
The region demonstrates classic primate city dynamics in one of the world's most egalitarian societies. Despite Denmark's commitment to balanced development, Copenhagen's gravitational pull only intensifies: 1.9 million residents in Q2 2024, growing 1-1.5% annually through internal migration from Zealand and Jutland. The pharmaceutical industry—driving 70% of Denmark's Q2 2025 GDP growth—concentrates here, as do the universities, the airport, and the cultural institutions that young workers seek.
By 2027, administrative recognition catches up with demographic reality: the Capital Region merges with Region Zealand to form 'Eastern Denmark,' acknowledging that Zealand outside Copenhagen has become functional hinterland rather than autonomous territory. Denmark's ~3% GDP growth in 2024, its record employment, and its current account surplus flow overwhelmingly through this region. The question is whether further concentration strengthens Denmark's global position or hollows out the provinces that feed Copenhagen's growth.