There are around 1400 islands in
Denmark, where about 409 of the islands are named, not including the
Faroe Islands or
Greenland.[1] Some 70 of them are populated while the rest are uninhabited. Some of the uninhabited islands have only become uninhabited in recent decades, for economic reasons, as lighthouses and other publicly run facilities either became automated, or relocated to main islands or Jutland peninsula. Others became uninhabited as living costs outpaced income for the often fewer than 10 locals.
Definition
Different lists of Danish islands vary, depending on how the word "island" is defined. According to the official
Danish Government definition, an "island" needs to be surrounded by water at least one-half metre deep, and also to have land vegetation.[2]
Another common criterion is that an "island" needs to be surrounded by free-flowing, natural water and not just an artificial, narrow canal. According to this criterion, places such as
Christianshavn and
Holmen in Copenhagen, although sometimes referred to as
artificial islands, are actually parts of the island of
Amager.
Dynamic number
The number of islands in Denmark changes from time to time. New islands are occasionally formed by
sedimentation. Several examples of these new islands are found in the waters around
Æbelø, north of
Funen, including Drætlingen which formed in the late 1990s, and a still unnamed islet that was registered in 2008. These new islands are generally less stable than larger,
morainic islands, and may later disappear again. Other islands are created artificially.
Peberholm, formed in the process of construction of the
Øresund Bridge, is a notable example. Other artificial Danish islands include a number of
marine fortresses off
Copenhagen, such as
Middelgrundsfortet,
Trekroner Fort and
Flakfortet.
Islands may also disappear. An example of this is
Jordsand, one of the
Danish Wadden Sea Islands. According to records from 1231, the island then had an area of about 2,000
hectares (8 square miles). After a series of severe storms during that century, its area decreased to around 41 hectares, and by 1763 to around 18 hectares. By December 1999, the European windstorm
Cyclone Anatol had destroyed the last piece of the island and Jordsand had ceased to exist.[3]
In other cases, islands are absorbed by larger neighbouring masses of dry land, as a result of either natural sedimentation or artificial
land reclamation in the channels separating them. Sometimes this means that an island becomes a cape or headland, or a peninsula as is the case of the former island of
Reersø.
Denmark's second largest island, the
North Jutlandic Island, was not always an island. A storm on
3 February 1825 penetrated the narrow land mass,
Agger Tange, and thus separated Northern Jutland from the rest of Jutland. The area had earlier been an island, when a strait at
Vust had been open prior to the 12th century.
List of 100 largest Danish islands
This is a list of the 100 largest islands of Denmark (press the symbol after the headings in the table to rearrange the list according to population size, location or alphabetically):