A society in which people have so much trust that they leave their babies in strollers on the street and their bikes unlocked has many advantages. How did the Danes come to rely so much on each other?
Denmark has become the global center of trust in recent years. Almost 74% of Danes believe that „people are trustworthy” – more than in any other country.
The level of trust in strangers and civic trust (trust in authorities) in Denmark is also the highest in the world, with similar values in neighboring Nordic countries, as noted by The Guardian.
Trust, a Quarter of National Wealth
Political scientist Gert Tinggaard Svendsen argues that trust represents 25% of Denmark's wealth. According to his calculations, a quarter of this wealth comes from the country's physical capital (means of production and infrastructure), half from human capital (education level and population innovation), and the remaining quarter is trust: people don't sue each other, don't waste money on burglar alarms, and companies often make verbal agreements.
Those in positions of power in Danish institutions - government, police, judiciary, health services - enjoy the trust of the population, who believe they work in their favor. This is also because the level of corruption is very low.
A simple example of trust is a charity center in Copenhagen run by the Red Cross, where there is a QR code on the door. If the door is closed, you download the app, enter, choose what you want from there, and leave the money on the counter.
This practice has spread worldwide and has timidly started to emerge in Romania as well. But in Denmark, trust has reached another level.
The widespread cliché globally states that the trust of the Danes is so high that they leave their babies to sleep in strollers outside cafes and restaurants. Alma, a 21-year-old working at a café in Copenhagen, smilingly confirms it's not a myth. "If a baby cries outside, people raise their hands and say, 'Whose baby is it?'"
Monica, 28, takes her eight-month-old son inside only because he needs to breastfeed. She grew up in Denmark and the US and says she only locks her stroller outside when it's empty. "There's currently a stroller thief on the loose. I read it on Facebook. I only lock it when it's empty; a thief wants the stroller, but surely doesn't want the child," she says. Her only concern is that an elderly woman might lift the cover over the child to greet him, scaring him.
Julie, Monica's friend, wouldn't do such a thing in the Bronx, not just because of the level of violence there - 4,839 incidents per 100,000 residents, while in Denmark, it's nine times lower - but also because she could be arrested, as a Danish woman experienced in the US in 1997.
It all starts from childhood in the block courtyard and education
Adults who trust each other continue in the same way even when their children grow up and play unsupervised. Jesse Shapins, an entrepreneur who moved from Colorado to Denmark, explains this through what he calls the "block typology," inspired by blocks built around a common courtyard.
This architectural style has a long history in Denmark, and its benefits have been reinforced in the last 30 years thanks to municipal investment: concrete structures have been removed, trees have been planted, offering the public space a welcoming atmosphere so that people treat it and behave there as they would in their homes.
"I felt the greatest freedom to let my daughter move and manage on her own," he says. His eight-year-old daughter has been riding a bike alone since she was six.
"The environment is very important - there is much less dependence on cars and spaces dominated by cars. But I had to learn social trust," Shapins confesses.
How do you achieve such trust? Education plays a decisive role, of course.
When children in Denmark reach the age of 14, they can choose to go to efterskole, which sounds like an after-school, but actually means a boarding school where they can stay for one to three years. They pay for meals and materials, but the state provides a subsidy.
The system is the legacy left by the 19th-century poet, pastor, and politician NFS Grundtvig, who founded the folk high school (with tuition or scholarships available for low-income families), where Danes can attend for six months before starting university.
One-third of Danes choose to go and live in one of these intellectual communities in kibbutz style, where urban meets rural and social grades mix. "You build your character, practice democracy, learn society," says Lea Korsgaard, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the online newspaper Zetland. Her eldest son, 14, is about to go to efterskole.
There are no tuition fees for university studies. You also receive an allowance of 813 euros per month, and if you work part-time, you can rent a room, which costs between 528 and 704 euros per month in a shared housing in Copenhagen where several people live.
Outside the capital, rent in this system can cost only 176 euros per month. Those who plan to stay in these conditions for a long time must know that you can't drag out your studies - there is a maximum limit of six years.
The son of a Romanian, an example of integration
Uffe Elbæk, former Minister of Culture and founder of the Danish progressive party Alternativa, said in a masterful speech that you can tell if a society is trustworthy when people pick up a bike left on the sidewalk.
The entire story of trust in Denmark can be described through the lens of the country's relationship with the bicycle, which has become the easiest and most affordable way of getting around the city and is encouraged by authorities in many countries.
Franciska Rosenkilde, leader of the Alternativa party, says that in Denmark, prosperity has been built on mutual trust.
This country has a universal welfare model that states all citizens are entitled to certain benefits and essential services, unlike the UK and the US, which have a "residual model," with minimal benefits for the poorest and "skeletal" services for everyone except the wealthiest.
"I think the basic idea is for people to be as equal as possible, which underpins this trust. We have this connection because there aren't many very poor or very rich people," Rosenkilde continues.
Egalitarianism, she says, has decreased in the last three decades as Denmark is caught in the global neoliberal trend but still ranks sixth among OECD countries in terms of social equality.
"A nation is an imagined community. What does that mean? It means I am able to consider myself part of a community with someone I don't know. And to do that, they must resemble me more or less. People can't be very different when it comes to class," Korsgaard also says.
However, not only this class homogeneity cements social ties. Denmark has a population of five million people, quite homogeneous until relatively recently, with many Danes having fairly deep-rooted connections from a very young age. And for foreigners, it's not difficult to integrate into this country.
Bijoe (50) and Kris (29) from Nepal say Danes are not racist. Politicians, however, are very xenophobic. The most illustrative case is the so-called "ghetto list," started in 2010, which set a threshold of 50% migrants (first or second generation) who could live in an area. Exceeding this threshold classified the area as a "ghetto" and led to mass evacuations of foreigners.
"We were so used to this idea about ourselves as a nation: we were Christians, we were white, we were equal, we spoke Danish," Korsgaard says.
The entire century has been fraught with questions of inclusion and integration, and many Danes will frame the ghetto policy as a matter of perspective: from one angle, undoubtedly, it seems incredibly racist; from the other, it tries to eliminate social deprivation.
The other criteria for a ghetto are above-average unemployment and crime rates and lower-than-average education levels. The good part is that no one was left homeless following this social regeneration policy, as reported by The Guardian.
Commitment to social equality has helped Danish society better face the challenges of the pandemic. With fewer anti-vaxxers, low political polarization regarding COVID management, reduced misinformation, and a high "samfundssind" (community spirit), Denmark was one of the few countries in the world where life expectancy increased in 2020.
Many people see positive aspects in what followed: restaurants and bars are busier; Monica says that the period of isolation made people more sociable.
"You feel that people have goodwill. I think it's a top-down reaction. We have a system that supports us and creates the foundation for our trust in each other," says a 27-year-old young man, Valdemar.
The son of an immigrant from Romania and a teacher with Danish and Swedish citizenship, he is another simple example of social equality in Denmark: Valdemar went to school with the son of former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.