Capital Region of Denmark

Capital Region
Region Hovedstaden (Danish)
Official logo of Capital Region
Location of Capital Region
CountryDenmark
CapitalHillerød
Largest cityCopenhagen
Municipalities
Government
 • ChairpersonLars Gaardhøj (Social Democrats)
Area
 • Total
2,568.29 km2 (991.62 sq mi)
Population
 (1 October 2023)[1]
 • Total
1,910,395
 • Density740/km2 (1,900/sq mi)
GDP
 • Total€169.941 billion (2022)
 • Per capita€88,956 (2022)
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
ISO 3166 codeDK-84
HDI (2022)0.970[3]
very high · 1st of 5
Websitewww.regionh.dk

The Capital Region of Denmark (Danish: Region Hovedstaden, pronounced [ʁekiˈoˀn ˈhoːð̩ˌstæðˀn̩]) is the easternmost administrative region of Denmark, and contains Copenhagen, the national capital.

The Capital Region has 29 municipalities and a regional council consisting of 41 elected members. As of 1 August 2021, the chairperson is Lars Gaardhøj, who is a member of the Social Democrats party of Denmark.

The Capital Region was established on 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish Municipal Reform. This reform abolished the traditional counties (Danish plural: amter, singular: amt) and created five regions. As part of this reform, 271 smaller municipalities were merged into larger units, reducing the number of municipalities to 98.

The reform dramatically diminished the power of regional governments while enhancing that of local governments and of the central government in Copenhagen. It was implemented on 1 January 2007.

Unlike the former counties (1970–2006) (Danish Amtskommune [da], literally 'county municipality'), the regions are not municipalities and are thus not allowed to have a coat of arms, only logotypes.

The regions do not collect taxes and are financed primarily through block grants, they are unable to transfer money from one area of expenditure to another, and they must return any unused money to the central government.

  1. ^ FOLK1A: Population quarterly database from Statistics Denmark (in Danish)
  2. ^ "EU regions by GDP, Eurostat". www.ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  3. ^ "Sub-national HDI - Area Database". Global Data Lab. Retrieved 2018-09-13.