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EQUALITY

Inequality in Denmark ‘higher than ever before’

Inequality is at the highest level ever measured in Denmark, according to official data.

Published: 24 November 2022 17:33 CET
Inequality in Denmark 'higher than ever before'
Inequality in Denmark is the highest since records began according to the national statistics agency. Photo:Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix

Figures released by Statistics Denmark on Thursday show that the country’s Gini coefficient is over 30 for the first time since records began in 1997.

The Gini coefficient is a measure used to represent income or wealth inequality within a nation or a defined social group.

Denmark’s government has a declared target of reducing inequality in society, but that does not appear to have impacted the coefficient.

The figure increased from 29.7 in 2020 to 30.2 in 2021, according to Statistics Denmark.

The trend can be put down to an increase in personal fortunes, which increased the measure by 0.4 points in isolation.

Extraordinary growth on the Danish stock market in early 2021 is an additional factor in this.

According to the principles behind the coefficient, its value would be 0 if everyone in a society had the same income and 100 if one person received all incomes.

READ ALSO: Danish income figures show signs of falling inequality (2019)

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EQUALITY

Danish government announces plan to boost equality for LGBTQ+ families

Denmark’s Ministry of Digital Government and Gender Equality says it wants to introduce new measures aimed at giving LGBTQ+ people equal opportunity to start a family.

Published: 12 August 2024 14:02 CEST
Danish government announces plan to boost equality for LGBTQ+ families

In a statement, the Danish equality ministry said on Monday that it wants the country’s legislation to reflect the high proportion of LGBTQ+ people – around one-third – who have or want to start a family in Denmark.

“The law should recognise and allow the many ways in which you can be a family,” it said in the statement.

The Minister for Digital Government and Gender Equality, Marie Bjerre, said in the statement that the coalition government wants to give “parents who are as much a parent to their children as the legal parents, the right to take part in parenthood”.

The measures are therefore aimed at helping “LGBTQ+ families with three or four parents to meet fewer obstacles on their way and feel acknowledged to a higher degree,” she said.

Proposed measures included simplification of processes for fertility treatment involving multi-parent families, an update to tax laws bringing inheritance tax from non-biological parents in line with biological ones, additional training on LGBTQ+ families and family planning for health sector staff and better guidance on family matters for LGBTQ+ parents.

“Our job as politicians is not to decide what a family looks like but to protect children’s welfare in the families they live in around the country,” Social Democratic spokesperson for equality Trine Bramsen said.

“For example, we must not allow a child to be subjected to rigid rules if a parent dies. With this new proposal, we are making the conditions for rainbow families better,” she said.

“But it’s also important that we listen to both children and parents in these families so that society works for them,” she added.

The newly-proposed measures are part of a government action plan for LGBTQ+ issues for 2022-25 and involve several ministries.

The government will look for parliamentary backing in order to secure financing for the various initiatives this autumn, when it negotiates spending on social, health and labour over the coming years, it said in the statement.

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