Copenhagen cycles: 45 percent of all trips happen by bike, more than in any other capital. Harbor baths, sea air and a sports club rate of 30 percent stand against long dark winters and a Danish fondness for pastries and beer.
cinalia health index
44 of 100Air, green space, doctors, sun, sports, cycling, life expectancyAverage conditions: here your own lifestyle counts more than the surroundings.
cinalia suggests
- Cycle everything: the network is safe and faster than the car, 45 percent of the city already does it.
- Harbor baths as cold training: Islands Brygge and the winter bathing clubs are open all year.
- Light in winter: 1,800 sunshine hours but very dark Decembers; morning light outdoors and vitamin D from October.
- Hygge in moderation: the candles are healthy, the pastries and beer that come with them less so.
Life expectancy and care
Copenhagen reaches 81.5 years, slightly above the Danish average, which long lagged its Nordic neighbors because of smoking and alcohol. Both are falling, and life expectancy has risen by five years in two decades. Rigshospitalet and a tax-funded system with a family doctor for everyone secure care, with 3.5 outpatient doctors per 1,000 residents.
Air, green space and water
Forty percent of the city is parks, lakes and harbor. The harbor is clean enough to swim in, and the city has turned it into public baths. The fine dust value of 9 micrograms is kept low by wind from the sea and the small share of car traffic.
Movement and daily life
Cycling is not a sport here but transport: 45 percent of all trips, in every weather, with children, groceries and in office clothes. Thirty percent of residents are in a sports club, winter bathing clubs have waiting lists. The weaknesses are Danish: pastries, beer and a smoking rate that is only now catching up with Sweden.
What the city gets right
Copenhagen has built movement into the commute so thoroughly that nobody has to plan it. Whoever cycles, swims in the harbor and keeps beer to the weekend lives here as healthily as anywhere in the north.
Try it
Vitamin D CalculatorMonth, city, skin type, minutes and how much skin is exposed: how much vitamin D your skin makes and whether it is enough in winter.Step CalculatorSteps, height, weight and pace: kilometers, calories, minutes and how much is missing to your daily goal.Share
