Maximum population of Denmark?

[Bastiram]

Inspired by the maximum population of Canada thread, what is the possible maximum population of Denmark?

How to increase the population I don't know, I have heard that the population in the 14th century reached around one million people in Denmark, this is probably with Scania.

The population declined after this, and first in the 19th century did it reach a million again, probably without Scania.

i don't have any sources on that, but something like plague or warfare must have done it, if it is correct.

 

[basileus]

Well, Jutland with its heathlands is not very fertile, and had to be literally (re)colonized during the XIXth century. That already put a cap on Denmark's population. A way to augment the country's population in rpevious century would be to make it less of a centralized monarchy, and more of an interconnected series of merchant republics, kept close by common language and interests. A Danish Hansa, with a strong navy dominating the Baltic and North Sea, capable of projecting (considerably more) power up to America and Africa, would make an intereseting scenario.

 

[Vingilótë]

Constant improvements to food yield and production, combined with improvements to food shipping and preservation. And more efficient farming worldwide.

 

[Tsochar]

If Denmark was historically the commercial center of basically all of Europe and this continued to present day, it could have an absolute maximum of maybe 30 million. However, this would require a pre-1900 POD.

For a post-1900 POD, the fastest-growing European country from 1900-2012 was apparently Greece, which grew nearly fourfold. This puts Denmark's estimated max population at around 8.4 million. If we can stretch this a bit, it *might* be possible for Denmark to hit 10 million, but it's very unlikely.

 

[ingemann]

Denmark in its modern borders can feed around 20 million people, if we include South Schleswig, Scania, Halland and Blekinge, it could feed 30 millions.

Realistic modern Denmark could have around 10 million people, through with the historical borders (the aboved mentioned provinces) around 15 millions. But that would need a change in the 17th centrum (no Swedish invasion).

BTW these numsers is with modern calorie and protein intake, if adopted a aggressive focus on calories, Denmark could feed a lot more people.

 

[Bastiram]

Interesting i didn't know that Jutland had to be "repopulated" I know it mostly compared to the islands, got hit by warfare and so on. But not that much.

When looking on farmland, i thought that Denmark (mosly Funen and Zealand) had pretty good farmland.

What i was thinking, was that maybe Denmark could have a population that was around the population of the Netherlands.

But maybe that is unrealistic

 

[Tsochar]

Denmark in its modern borders can feed around 20 million people, if we include South Schleswig, Scania, Halland and Blekinge, it could feed 30 millions.

[snip]

BTW these numsers is with modern calorie and protein intake, if adopted a aggressive focus on calories, Denmark could feed a lot more people.

Do you have a source for these numbers? I've been looking for a way to reliably measure carrying capacity for a country, but arable land area only goes so far.

 

[ingemann]

Do you have a source for these numbers? I've been looking for a way to reliably measure carrying capacity for a country, but arable land area only goes so far.

No it's based on modern Danish food production, right now Denmark produce around that amount of food, but if you want a good source of historical Danish food production "the Danish Revolution" revolution is a good place to start, a fellow Dane introduced it to mé and you can find it on googlebooks.

 

[Kalvan]

Well, in an ATL that could be placed in this forum, the best WI would be if Wrangel attacked Sweden in WWI before he could be reassigned, bringing Sweden in on the Central Powers' side, and Denmark entered on the Allies's side, gaining back Scania and Schleswig-Holstein, in the end.

 

[Thande]

I remember someone posting that Denmark once had an abortive project to reclaim land from the sea along the western coast of Jutland a la the Dutch, that might help.