Facts and Figures

The ’Fehmarnbelt Region’ is as yet an imprecisely defined entity, but many stakeholders have expressed their interest in cross-border cooperation. The Region may be delimited to parts of Germany, Sweden and Denmark.

The region includes Scania in Sweden, Zealand in Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg as well as the north-western part of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Rostock, Wismar, Bad Doberan, Güstow and Nordwestmecklenburg).

Urban areas

The largest city in the region is Hamburg with 1.774.224 inhabitants in 2010. Copenhagen is the second largest city with a population measuring 1.680.271 inhabitants (2010). Other larger cities are Kiel with 238.281 inhabitants, Lübeck with 209.818 inhabitants and Rostock with 201.442 inhabitants on the German side (2010). On the Swedish side you find Malmö with 298.963 inhabitants and Helsingborg with 129.177 inhabitants (2010).

Population

In 2009 the population in the Fehmarn Region amounted to almost 9 million inhabitants: 5.2 million on the German side, 2.5 million on the Danish and 1.2 million on the Swedish side (2009).

The demographic change affects the region, especially the Danish and the German parts. This means that the amount of seniors (65 years old and above) will rise and at the same time, the amount of people in working age (20-64 years old) will decrease. According to the forecast for 2040 the working age group will decrease by 10 percentage points and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the decrease will be even larger, measuring 12 percentage points.

Politics and Language

In the Fehmarnbelt Region the differences between the political systems of the three countries are reflected by their political entities on a sub-state level. Denmark and Sweden have regions, while Germany has federal states. These federal states are self-ruling to a much higher extent than the regions of Denmark and Sweden.

All three languages, Danish, Swedish and German are Germanic. However, while Danish and Swedish both are North Germanic, the German language is West Germanic and thus not as close to the other two. This can make it more difficult for a German to understand the other two languages, than for a Swede to understand Danish or vice versa. Many Danes and Swedes learn German in school as a second or third language and this can improve the communication with their German neighbours.

Economic factors

The economic situation varies widely in the Fehmarnbelt region. The highest Gross Regional Product per employed person is to be found in and around the larger cities. People commute from more rural areas to the cities where more workplaces and production sites are to be found. The middle part of Scania and the German most north-eastern part are the two areas in the region where the Gross Product per employed person is lowest. In the north-eastern part of Germany there is also a high unemployment rate. In the middle part of Scania the unemployment rate is not dramatically high, and the low GRP can be explained by more people commuting to the larger cities on the coast sides.