The quiet migration out of the capital

As housing pressure grows in Denmark’s largest cities, Kelly Draper Rasmussen explores the shifting movement of internationals toward overlooked municipalities.

Photograph / Graphs: Pexels: Ketut Subiyanto / Kelly Draper Rasmussen

Text: Kelly Draper Rasmussen

Between 2020 and 2025, 110,000 international migrants arrived in Copenhagen. Over the same period, an estimated 16,600 left Copenhagen for other parts of Denmark. The city's international population still grew, but the internal outflow is accelerating. In 2020, it was 1,900 people. In 2025, it was 3,500. Copenhagen is gaining internationals through the front door but losing them out the back.

Presumably, the majority end up in Copenhagen's western suburban belt, and the internationals commute to their job. Nine municipalities, Høje-Taastrup, Ballerup, Herlev, Brøndby, Greve, Glostrup, Rødovre, Ishøj, and Vallensbæk, gained a combined 11,100 international residents through internal migration over the six years. For some of these places, the numbers are striking relative to their size.

Herlev's internal intake equals 29% of its entire 2020 international population. Ballerup's is 26%. These are not marginal adjustments. The composition of these communities is being reshaped.

Beyond Copenhagen, the same pattern repeats

Copenhagen dominates the headline numbers, but the same dynamic runs through every major Danish city. Aarhus lost an estimated 2,714 international residents internally over the period. Odense lost 2,853. Aalborg 1,296. In each case, the surrounding towns absorbed part of the loss. Five towns along the E45 corridor: Horsens, Vejle, Fredericia, Hedensted and Favrskov gained a combined 1,679, roughly two-thirds of Aarhus's loss.

The towns and suburbs gaining more international residents share two things: they are cheaper than the cities people are leaving, and there are more jobs. A house in Horsens costs around 14,400 DKK per square metre. In Herning, 12,500. In Vejen, 10,900. Copenhagen apartments average 72,600. That differential is significant and growing. Copenhagen apartment prices rose 52% between 2019 and 2025, while Herning house prices rose 7%. Whether people are moving toward affordability or toward employment (or both), the data cannot say.

The urbanisation story Denmark is missing

The broader picture is one of mid-sized Danish cities growing faster than anyone expected. Horsens just overtook Randers to become Denmark's sixth-largest city, having gained 7,376 residents over the past decade compared to Randers' 2,332. Herning has crossed 50,000. The share of Denmark's population living in cities with more than 50,000 residents has risen from 15.9% in 2016 to 18.2% today. Internationals are a significant part of this shift.

These figures are estimates, not direct measurements. Internal migration is inferred since the data are not available, so true internal gains are likely slightly higher than reported. The housing price data is for purchases, not rentals, and many internationals rent. The price picture describes where people end up, not necessarily why they moved. What it cannot do is tell us whether someone left Copenhagen for Horsens because of a job offer, a cheaper flat, a partner or all three. What it can tell us is that they left, consistently, every year, in growing numbers.

The story of Danish urbanisation is usually told as a Copenhagen story. Record arrivals, housing pressure, a city pulling in people from across the world. That story is true. It is also incomplete. A rebalancing is happening largely outside the national conversation about population and migration. Horsens and Vejen are not obvious destinations. They do not feature in Denmark's integration debate despite the major contribution of internationals there.

The distribution of people across this country is shifting - internationals are part of that shift, and the places absorbing it are mostly places that nobody is paying much attention to.

Sources:

Statistics Denmark

FOLK1C - foreign population by municipality, quarterly

VAN1AAR - international immigration by municipality

VAN2AAR - international emigration by municipality

Finans Danmark: BM011 - Realised transaction prices per m², by postal code

TV2 Nyheder: Population figures for Horsens/Randers and urbanisation stats (13 May 2026)