d economic integration of
Europe. It joined NATO in 1949 and the EEC (now the EU) in 1973.
However, the country has opted out of certain elements of the
European Union's Maastricht Treaty, including the European Economic
and Monetary Union (EMU), European defense cooperation, and issues
concerning certain justice and home affairs.

Geography Denmark

Location:
Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, on a
peninsula north of Germany (Jutland); also includes two major
islands (Sjaelland and Fyn)

Geographic coordinates:
56 00 N, 10 00 E

Map references:
Europe

Area:
total: 43,094 sq km
water: 700 sq km
note: includes the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea and the rest
of metropolitan Denmark (the Jutland Peninsula, and the major
islands of Sjaelland and Fyn), but excludes the Faroe Islands and
Greenland
land: 42,394 sq km

Area - comparative:
slightly less than twice the size of Massachusetts

Land boundaries:
total: 68 km
border countries: Germany 68 km

Coastline:
7,314 km

Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
temperate; humid and overcast; mild, windy winters and cool summers

Terrain:
low and flat to gently rolling plains

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Lammefjord -7 m
highest point: Yding Skovhoej 173 m

Natural resources:
petroleum, natural gas, fish, salt, limestone, chalk, stone, gravel
and sand

Land use:
arable land: 54.02%
permanent crops: 0.19%
other: 45.79% (2001)

Irrigated land:
4,760 sq km (1998 est.)

Natural hazards:
flooding is a threat in some areas of the country (e.g., parts of
Jutland, along the southern coast of the island of Lolland) that are
protected from the sea by a system of dikes

Environment - current issues:
air pollution, principally from vehicle and power plant emissions;
nitrogen and phosphorus pollution of the North Sea; drinking and
surface water becoming polluted from animal wastes and pesticides

Environment - international agreements:
party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
Protocol, Desertification