In this solo episode of the "How to Live in Denmark" podcast, host Kay Xander Mellish introduces the "Danish Year" series and focuses on January, a month marked by very short daylight hours in Denmark. Mellish contrasts the experiences of the bottom 80% of earners—who spend dark evenings at home, relying on "hygge" rituals or solariums—to those of the top 20% (especially the top 10%) who escape to ski resorts in Sweden, Norway, France, or Switzerland, flaunting luxury items like Rolex watches. The episode uses these divergent January routines to illustrate how income inequality in Denmark has widened over recent decades despite the country's egalitarian self‑image. Evidence includes Reddit’s salary‑slip forum (Dækolønsættel), a rise in the Gini coefficient from 22 in the late 1980s to 30.6 today, soaring real‑estate prices (from 7,000 DKK/m² in 1995 to 57,000 DKK/m² near Copenhagen), and the loosening of the top‑tax (top skat) threshold. Mellish also notes the growing popularity of private services—private schools, private medical insurance, and faster access to specialist care—as further signs of stratification. The episode closes with calls to follow the series, purchase related books, and book Mellish for presentations.
Chapters
Hello and welcome to the How to Live in Denmark podcast. I'm Kay Xander Mellish. I've referred to the Danish Year before on this podcast. It's a series of events that are simply expected to happen every year in Denmark. In 2025, I'm going to try to do a podcast every month about aspects of the Danish Year and how they fit into the overall context of where Denmark is coming from. And where it's going. January is part of the dark times in Denmark. Usually the sun comes up around 8:30 and it's gone by 4:30. If you work in an office all day, you might not see it at all. And if you're part of the bottom 80% of Danish earners, you'll probably spend most of your dark January evenings and weekends at At home, hoping your bank account can recover from the Christmas excesses. Restaurants have a lot of empty tables this time of year. Shops mostly process the return of unwanted Christmas presents. Now, this can, and often is, packaged as Hygge— candles, TV, sweaters, Warm slippers, hot tea. But often it's just being broke and not being able to go anywhere. Yet if you're one of the top 20% of earners in Denmark, maybe even the top 10%, in January you go skiing. Not in Denmark, which doesn't have any mountains for downhill skiing or enough snow for cross-country skiing. You go to Sweden for cheap skiing, Norway for slightly more expensive skiing, or to France or Switzerland for luxury skiing, where you can show off your Rolex Explorer wristwatch on the slopes. For Danish skiers, Val d'Isère in France, which caters to families, is especially popular. The nickname for Val d'Isère For those in the know, is Val d'Isère. You going to Val d'Isère this month? Those of us not in the know heard a lot about Val d'Isère in 2020, along with the Austrian resort Ischgl, known for its wild after-ski parties. We heard about them because wealthy Danes skiing down those slopes brought the very first cases of COVID back to Denmark. Anyway, the 2 different types of Januaries illustrate how the gap between rich and poor in Denmark has widened in recent decades. Denmark is still culturally an egalitarian culture, and it's considered bad taste to show off your Rolex watch here in Denmark. But there's no debating that as the country has become more prosperous over the past 30 years, The gap between rich and poor has widened. It's evident on Reddit, where Danes share their salary slips so you can see what other people are making, in a forum called Dækolønsættel. I will link to it at howtoliveindenmark.com. In the forum, you can see the difference between a medical engineer bringing home 80,000 kroner a month and a healthcare worker Bringing home 20,000 kroner a month. The gap between rich and poor is also evident in the popularity of private services that compete with the public services that everyone pays for with taxes. More and more Danish parents skip the tax-funded folkeskole and send their children to private schools. About one out of six children nationally and one out of four in Copenhagen. go to private schools. Private medical insurance, which pays for private doctors and private clinics, is increasingly popular. This private insurance offers quicker access to treatment than the public sector, in particular for non-emergency health needs like a sports injury or cataracts. It also pays for counseling, addiction treatment, and other types of psychotherapy that can require a wait Sometimes a long wait— from the public health service. Economists can also see Denmark becoming more unequal. The Gini coefficient measures economic inequality in a country. 100 is maximum inequality, and 0 is perfect equality. In the late 1980s, the Gini coefficient in Denmark was 22. Now it is 30.6, according to Denmark's official statistics agency. That compares to 32 for the United Kingdom, 41 for the USA, and 52 for Brazil. So Denmark is more equal than those places, but less equal than it used to be. Part of the reason is soaring real estate prices. A house near Copenhagen that might have been 7,000 kroner a square meter in 1995 Is now 57,000 kroner a square meter, according to the Association of Danish Mortgage Banks. That's a lot of wealth you've acquired if you bought at the right time. Denmark's Social Democratic government has also been loosening the top skat or top tax. These are extra taxes paid by people who make over 600,000 Danish crowns a year, roughly 80,000 US dollars per year. Some of the people who pay top skat are precisely the ones who are currently just back from a ski trip, or on their way to a ski trip, in Switzerland or Austria or Val d'Isère, where the attraction is not just ski snow and parties, but sun. Ski areas are often what the Danes call frostklar, or frost clear. Golden sun sparkling on a cold winter's day. It's funny to think of going skiing just to get some sun, but that's often what happens. For the bottom 80% of earners in Denmark, solariums are very popular this time of year. And that's the How to Live in Denmark podcast for this week. You can follow the Danish Year series at howtoliveindenmark.com or follow us on your favorite social media network. You can buy our books at books.howtoliveindenmark.com or book me, Kay Xander Mellish, for a presentation to your group or organization at events.howtoliveindenmark.com. See you next time. See you next time.
