Time in Denmark — regions, cities and time zones

Current time in Copenhagen

Denmark uses Central European Time, UTC+1, and Central European Summer Time, UTC+2, in summer. Copenhagen sets the clock for mainland Denmark and its islands — but the Kingdom of Denmark as a whole spans several other offsets entirely.

Denmark proper: one zone

Mainland Denmark is compact, and the clock reflects that. The Jutland peninsula, the island of Funen, Zealand with Copenhagen, Bornholm out in the Baltic, and every smaller island in between all keep the same offset. There is no internal variation to worry about.

Denmark shares its reading with Germany to the south, and with the wide Central European band that runs from Spain through to Poland. Sweden, just across the Øresund from Copenhagen, is on the same clock too — which is what makes the Copenhagen–Malmö commute work as smoothly as it does.

The Kingdom is bigger than the country

This is where Danish time gets interesting. The Kingdom of Denmark includes two autonomous territories in the North Atlantic, and they do not share Copenhagen's clock: The Faroe Islands — on UTC+0 in winter, an hour behind Denmark, with summer time observed

Greenland — spanning more than one offset, with the bulk of the population in the west several hours behind Copenhagen Greenland is by far the larger complication. It is an enormous landmass with settlements scattered along both coasts, and time there has little to do with the Danish mainland beyond the constitutional link. A government announcement made during the Copenhagen working day reaches Nuuk in the early hours of its morning.

Denmark manages one time zone at home and, thanks to Greenland, more than one for breakfast.

Summer time and the Nordic light

Denmark follows the EU daylight saving schedule: clocks forward in spring, back in autumn, on the same dates as the rest of the union. Summer runs at UTC+2, winter at UTC+1. At Denmark's latitude the seasonal swing in daylight is dramatic. Midsummer evenings stay light very late, while December afternoons darken early — the difference between the longest and shortest day here is far greater than anywhere in southern Europe. The clock change amplifies the summer end of that swing, which is one reason Danish outdoor life is so concentrated into a few months.

Scheduling notes

Winter midday in Copenhagen is 11:00 UTC; summer midday is 10:00 UTC. Denmark reads the same as Oslo, Stockholm, Berlin and Amsterdam year round. The UK is consistently one hour behind, and Finland one hour ahead.

Danish schedules use the 24-hour clock, standard on rail and metro displays. Dates are written day-first, and week numbers are in common business use — a Danish colleague may well propose a meeting in "week 38".