According to an article in The Copenhagen Post, the statistical office of Denmark shows an increasing number of Danes marrying foreigners.
For women, the foreign men they mostly marry are from Germany and Great Britain. However, the men prefer to go further east to Thailand and the Philippines.
The article mentions different experts’ opinions about how these increasing marriages could have an effect on the Danish culture.
With more than 50,000 marriages between a Dane and a foreigner since the turn of the millennium, Professor Peter Gundelach from the Sociology Department of the University of Copenhagen argued that the Danish culture is bound to be affected.
“The growing variation in the composition of couples will inevitably mean that new traditions and practices are imported to Denmark, for example from people with different faiths,” Gundelach told Berlingske newspaper.
Professor and Demographics Researcher at Aalborg University Lisbeth B. Knudsen argued that there was little need to worry about Danish traditions changing over time.
“Many of the traditions that we think are Danish are actually appropriated from abroad,” Knudsen said.
“For example the tradition of placing a Christmas tree in the living room is actually German. So I see it not as a threat to Danish values but as a natural development,” she said.
In 2011, there were more than double the number of marriages between Danish men and foreign women (2,277) than between Danish women and foreign men (1,035).
The rise in the number of marriages with foreigners arrives despite strict immigration rules such as the 24-year rule, which prohibits marriage with a foreigner from most non-western countries if either party is under that age.
Here is a list from the article of th ten most common countries of origin of foreign-born spouses
| Husbands | Wives | |
| 1 | Germany | Thailand |
| 2 | Great Britain | Philippines |
| 3 | Norway | Germany |
| 4 | Sweden | Sweden |
| 5 | Netherlands | Norway |
| 6 | Turkey | Poland |
| 7 | USA | Russia |
| 8 | France | Ukraine |
| 9 | Poland | China |
| 10 | Iran | Iceland |
