Statistical presentation

Data description

Municipal and regional elections are held in November every four years to elect municipal councils and regional councils in Denmark.

In the Statbank, the local government election is shown for each municipality by elected/listed candidates, parties and sex. Also the distribution of votes is shown by party votes, postal votes and invalid votes. For the election to the regional councils, the listed and elected candidates for each region are shown by sex and by distribution of votes, including personal votes.

In a separate article prepared for the Ministry for Interior and Health, you can see the distribution of candidates and votes for each party and each municipality. The article is available on page concerning municipal elections (only in Danish).

Statistics Denmark produces the statistics on the basis of data extractions received from the election software system (managed by KOMBIT/Netcompany).

Classification system

The statistics is broken down on the 98 municipalities and 4 regions.

Sector coverage

Not relevant for these statistics.

Statistical concepts and definitions

List of candidates: Candidates for the election are nominated on lists of candidates covering the entire municipality or region. Each municipality and region constitutes an electoral district (constituency). Lists of candidates may be submitted by political parties or by local citizens’ groups and individuals with no party affiliation (local lists). In both cases, the lists must be signed by a number of voters acting as nominators.

For municipal council elections, 25 nominators are required, though in some of the larger municipalities the requirement is 50 and in Copenhagen Municipality it is 150. For regional council elections, 50 nominators are required, and in some regions 100.

If a list of candidates has parallel nomination, the candidates are elected in order of the number of personal votes received. Votes cast for the list therefore have no effect on the selection of candidates.

Party list: A list of candidates, where the candidates are arranged in a prioritised order. The selection of candidates is carried out as follows: First, the distribution number for the list is calculated. Candidates who have obtained a personal number of votes equal to or greater than the distribution number are elected.

Candidates who have not obtained the distribution number in personal votes are, in the order of the party list and as far as the list votes allow, allocated enough list votes so that the sum of personal votes and list votes just equals the distribution number. Candidates who in this way reach the distribution number are elected.

If more candidates are to be elected than those who have reached the distribution number, they are elected in order of the number of votes obtained. Candidates who are not elected serve as substitutes for the elected candidates from the same list, in order of the number of votes obtained.

Electoral pact: Two or more lists of candidates may support each other by entering into a technical cooperation. Such technical cooperation between lists of candidates from different parties etc. is called an electoral pact. At municipal and regional elections, electoral pacts are agreements between two or more lists of candidates intended to reduce the risk of wasted votes.

List pact: Two or more lists of candidates may support each other by entering into a technical cooperation. Such technical cooperation between lists of candidates from the same party etc. is called a list pact. At municipal and regional elections, list pacts are agreements between two or more lists of candidates intended to reduce the risk of wasted votes.

Invalid votes: A ballot paper is invalid e.g. if:

• it is blank
• the voter’s choice on the ballot paper is not marked with a cross
• it cannot with certainty be determined which party or which independent candidate the voter intended to vote for
• it must be assumed that the ballot paper was not issued at the polling station
• the ballot paper has been given a distinctive mark

Statistical unit

Municipalities and regions.

Statistical population

Listed and elected candidates in the municipal and regional council elections.

Reference area

Denmark

Time coverage

Since the municipal reform in 2007, elections to municipal and regional councils have taken place in 2009, 2013, 2017, 2021 and 2025.

Base period

Not relevant for these statistics.

Unit of measure

Persons, votes

Reference period

18-11-2025

Frequency of dissemination

Every four years.

Legal acts and other agreements

There is no collection authority or EU regulation applying to this set of statistics. Data are provided by KOMBIT/Netcompany. The job is carried out by Statistics Denmark as a service job for the Ministry for Interior and Health.

Cost and burden

The statistics are based on an administrative data. This means that there is no direct reporting task involved in the compilation of these statistics.

Comment

Further information can be found on the subject page or by contacting Statistics Denmark directly.