Statizoid

Official entrance age to compulsory education in Denmark

Denmark: Official entrance age to compulsory education was 6 years in 2020. ▼ Falling

Latest (2020)
6 years
Change on year
unchanged
World rank
24th
of 195 countries
All-time high
7 years
in 1998
All-time low
6 years
in 2011
Years of data
23
1998–2020

Official entrance age to compulsory education in Denmark, 1998–2020

024681998200920201998: 7 years1999: 7 years2000: 7 years2001: 7 years2002: 7 years2003: 7 years2004: 7 years2005: 7 years2006: 7 years2007: 7 years2008: 7 years2009: 7 years2010: 7 years2011: 6 years2012: 6 years2013: 6 years2014: 6 years2015: 6 years2016: 6 years2017: 6 years2018: 6 years2019: 6 years2020: 6 years

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Measured in years.

Analysis

Denmark recorded 6 years for official entrance age to compulsory education in 2020. That is the lowest value across all 23 years on record.

That represents a change of down 14.3% over ten years.

Over the whole period, official entrance age to compulsory education in Denmark peaked at 7 years in 1998 and was at its lowest, 6 years, in 2011.

That places Denmark 24th out of 195 countries with data for 2020, putting it in the top quarter.

The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 23 years of available data.

Averages by decade

DecadeAverage LowestHighest Years
1990s 7 years 7 years 7 years 2
2000s 7 years 7 years 7 years 10
2010s 6.1 years 6 years 7 years 10
2020s 6 years 6 years 6 years 1

Countries ranked near Denmark

  1. 24 Albania 6 years compare
  2. 24 Algeria 6 years compare
  3. 24 Andorra 6 years compare
  4. 24 Angola 6 years compare
  5. 24 Armenia 6 years compare
  6. 24 Australia 6 years compare
  7. 24 Bahrain 6 years compare
  8. 24 Bangladesh 6 years compare
  9. 24 Belarus 6 years compare
  10. 24 Belgium 6 years compare
  11. 24 Benin 6 years compare
  12. 24 Bosnia and Herzegovina 6 years compare
  13. 24 Brunei Darussalam 6 years compare
  14. 24 Burkina Faso 6 years compare
  15. 24 Cabo Verde 6 years compare
  16. 24 Cameroon 6 years compare
  17. 24 Canada 6 years compare
  18. 24 Central African Republic 6 years compare
  19. 24 Chad 6 years compare
  20. 24 Chile 6 years compare
  21. 24 China (People’s Republic of) 6 years compare
  22. 24 Comoros 6 years compare
  23. 24 Democratic Republic of the Congo 6 years compare
  24. 24 Congo 6 years compare
  25. 24 Côte d’Ivoire 6 years compare
  26. 24 Cuba 6 years compare
  27. 24 Czechia 6 years compare
  28. 24 Djibouti 6 years compare
  29. 24 Egypt 6 years compare
  30. 24 Eritrea 6 years compare
  31. 24 Eswatini 6 years compare
  32. 24 Finland 6 years compare
  33. 24 Gabon 6 years compare
  34. 24 Georgia 6 years compare
  35. 24 Germany 6 years compare
  36. 24 Greenland 6 years compare
  37. 24 Guinea-Bissau 6 years compare
  38. 24 Guyana 6 years compare
  39. 24 Haiti 6 years compare
  40. 24 Hong Kong (China) 6 years compare
  41. 24 Iceland 6 years compare
  42. 24 India 6 years compare
  43. 24 Iran 6 years compare
  44. 24 Iraq 6 years compare
  45. 24 Ireland 6 years compare
  46. 24 Italy 6 years compare
  47. 24 Jamaica 6 years compare
  48. 24 Japan 6 years compare
  49. 24 Jordan 6 years compare
  50. 24 Kazakhstan 6 years compare
  51. 24 Kenya 6 years compare
  52. 24 Kiribati 6 years compare
  53. 24 Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 6 years compare
  54. 24 Korea 6 years compare
  55. 24 Kuwait 6 years compare
  56. 24 Kyrgyzstan 6 years compare
  57. 24 Lao People’s Democratic Republic 6 years compare
  58. 24 Lebanon 6 years compare
  59. 24 Lesotho 6 years compare
  60. 24 Liberia 6 years compare
  61. 24 Libya 6 years compare
  62. 24 Liechtenstein 6 years compare
  63. 24 Madagascar 6 years compare
  64. 24 Malawi 6 years compare
  65. 24 Malaysia 6 years compare
  66. 24 Maldives 6 years compare
  67. 24 Mauritania 6 years compare
  68. 24 Monaco 6 years compare
  69. 24 Mongolia 6 years compare
  70. 24 Montenegro 6 years compare
  71. 24 Morocco 6 years compare
  72. 24 New Zealand 6 years compare
  73. 24 Nigeria 6 years compare
  74. 24 North Macedonia 6 years compare
  75. 24 Norway 6 years compare
  76. 24 Oman 6 years compare
  77. 24 Palau 6 years compare
  78. 24 Poland 6 years compare
  79. 24 Portugal 6 years compare
  80. 24 Qatar 6 years compare
  81. 24 San Marino 6 years compare
  82. 24 Sao Tome and Principe 6 years compare
  83. 24 Saudi Arabia 6 years compare
  84. 24 Senegal 6 years compare
  85. 24 Seychelles 6 years compare
  86. 24 Sierra Leone 6 years compare
  87. 24 Singapore 6 years compare
  88. 24 Slovak Republic 6 years compare
  89. 24 Slovenia 6 years compare
  90. 24 South Sudan 6 years compare
  91. 24 Spain 6 years compare
  92. 24 Sudan 6 years compare
  93. 24 Sweden 6 years compare
  94. 24 Syrian Arab Republic 6 years compare
  95. 24 Thailand 6 years compare
  96. 24 Timor-Leste 6 years compare
  97. 24 Togo 6 years compare
  98. 24 Tunisia 6 years compare
  99. 24 Türkiye 6 years compare
  100. 24 Turkmenistan 6 years compare
  101. 24 Tuvalu 6 years compare
  102. 24 Uganda 6 years compare
  103. 24 Ukraine 6 years compare
  104. 24 United Arab Emirates 6 years compare
  105. 24 United States 6 years compare
  106. 24 Palestine, State of 6 years compare
  107. 24 Yemen 6 years compare
  108. 24 Zimbabwe 6 years compare

See the full ranking of 195 places →

More education data for Denmark

All data for Denmark →

Frequently asked questions

What is official entrance age to compulsory education in Denmark?
Official entrance age to compulsory education in Denmark was 6 years in 2020, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
What is the highest official entrance age to compulsory education recorded in Denmark?
The highest recorded value was 7 years in 1998.
What is the lowest official entrance age to compulsory education recorded in Denmark?
The lowest recorded value was 6 years in 2011.
How does Denmark rank for official entrance age to compulsory education?
Denmark ranks 24th out of 195 countries with data for 2020.
Is official entrance age to compulsory education rising or falling in Denmark?
Over the last ten years it is down 14.3%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
Where does this Denmark data come from?
The figures come from UNESCO Institute for Statistics, published as part of Official entrance age to compulsory education (years). Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.

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Official entrance age to compulsory education in Denmark. Statizoid, drawing on UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Retrieved 21 August 2026, from https://education.statizoid.com/stat/official-entrance-age-to-compulsory-education-years/denmark/

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About this data

Indicator
Official entrance age to compulsory education (years)
Unit
years
Source
UNESCO Institute for Statistics
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage
195 places, 4,083 data points, 1975–2020
Last refreshed

Official age when students should enter compulsory education assuming they start at the official entrance age for the lowest level of education, study full-time throughout and progressed through the system without repeating or skipping a grade. The theoretical entrance age to a given programme or level is typically, but not always, the most common entrance age.