Vulnerable people, homeless people and sex workers

How many people are particularly vulnerable in Denmark?

Note: Below, we provide links to Statistics Denmark and others who make statistics on the subject. In some instances, the sources referred to below have content in Danish only or limited content in English.

Statistics Denmark has several tables on people who are vulnerable under the subject Social support services, including e.g. women’s crisis centres. In 2021, Statistics Denmark published the analysis "Opvækst eller tilvækst – er socialt udsatte i landkommunerne tilflyttere?“ (in Danish) on the geographic distribution of vulnerable people and where they come from.

VIVE - the Danish Center for Social Science Research performs research surveys of particularly vulnerable groups and focus on e.g. the scale of the problems and the social costs. In 2018, VIVE released the report "Når udsatte borgere møder velfærdssystemet" (in Danish) along with a matching information booklet on the meeting between vulnerable citizens and the welfare system.

In 2018, the National Institute of Public Health published a health profile for vulnerable citizens in Denmark – sundhedsprofil for socialt udsatte i Danmark (in Danish), which focuses on the health, morbidity and well-being of socially vulnerable citizens in 2017 and the development since 2007.

How many homeless people are there in Denmark?

Since 2007, the number of homeless people in Denmark has been mapped every two years. See the most recent report on homelessness in Denmark – Hjemløshed i Danmark 2022“ (in Danish) from VIVE, the Danish Center for Social Science Research.

All previous reports on homelessness in Denmark (in Danish) are available at VIVE’s website.
Several publications, news and articles are available at VIVEs temaside om hjemløshed (in Danish), which is a theme page on homelessness.

See also the homelessness barometer – Hjemløsebarometeret – from Hjem til Alle, which is an alliance of 20 partners working to stop homelessness among young people. The barometer puts Danish homelessness in a Nordic perspective in a report from 2018 (in Danish).

Are there any homeless young people?

See the theme pages on homelessness among young people – unges hjemløshed by the National Board of Social Services.

How many live in shelters?

In 2017, Statistics Denmark took over the responsibility for the annual statistics on users of shelters and care homes (the Social Services Act, section 110). See subject page and tables in StatBank Denmark. This set of statistics was previously published by the Appeals Board (in Danish).

How many sex workers are there in Denmark?

The National Board of Social Services’ knowledge portal (in Danish) and The Danish Centre against Human Trafficking have information e.g. on the number of sex workers and customers, foreign women involved in sex work, trafficking in human beings, young people and paid sexual exploitation.

See also publications by the National Board of Social Services (in Danish) on the subject, e.g. recent memos on the extent and forms of sex work.

VIVE - the Danish Center for Social Science Research reports on the number of sex workers in the report "Salg af sex i Danmark 2020“ (in Danish).

In 2019, SSI and University of Aalborg published the report "Sex i Danmark“ (in Danish), in which there is a section focused on the extent to which people have either received payment for sex or paid for sex.

[This page was last reviewed in January 2023]