Denmark

The Kingdom of Denmark is a constitutional monarchy and sovereign state consisting of the country of Denmark in northern Europe and two autonomous constituent countries, the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic and Greenland in North America. Denmark proper is the hegemonial part, where the residual judicial, executive and legislative power rests. According to the Faroese home rule act, the Faroe Islands constitutes a community of people within the kingdom. The Greenlandic self-government act does not contain a similar definition, but instead describes the Greenlandic people as a people as defined in international law with the right to self-determination. A High Commissioner (Danish: Rigsombudsmand) represents the Danish government in each.

Denmark itself is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, located southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark's shores extend to both the Baltic and North Seas. The country consists of a large peninsula, Jutland (Jylland) and many islands, most notably Zealand (Sjælland), Funen (Fyn), Vendsyssel-Thy (commonly considered a part of Jutland), Lolland, Falster and Bornholm, as well as hundreds of minor islands often referred to as the Danish Archipelago. Denmark has long controlled the approach to the Baltic Sea (dominium maris baltici); before the digging of the Kiel Canal, water passage to the Baltic Sea was possible only through the three channels known as the "Danish straits".

The kingdom is a unitary state with some power being devolved from Denmark to Greenland and the Faroe Islands; this federacy is referred to as Rigsfællesskabet. One of the results of this arrangement is that Denmark became a member of the European Union in 1973 (but remains outside of the Eurozone), while both Greenland and the Faroe Islands have opted to remain outside of the EU. A founding member of NATO and the OECD, Denmark is also a member of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). With a mixed market economy and a large welfare state, Denmark ranks as having the world's highest level of income equality. It has frequently ranked as the happiest and least corrupt country in the world. The national language, Danish, is closely related to Swedish and Norwegian, with which it shares strong cultural and historical ties. Denmark, along with Sweden and Norway, is part of the cultural region known as "Scandinavia".