This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Denmark and its Scandinavian neighbors often appear at the top of many of the world's "best of" lists, from happiest and least corrupt to the best place to raise a family. The Danish way of parenting has inspired a slew of manuals that have become bestsellers.
To parents elsewhere, the picture presented is a near utopia of supportive government policies and effortless rearing of happy babies. But how different is parenting in Denmark really from other countries, like the UK? I am a professor of psychological science at Aarhus University in Denmark.
My research focuses on mental health and parenting in the early years. Here's what the evidence shows. Denmark and the UK differ on leave for new parents in two striking ways: how much compensation is provided and how leave can be shared between parents.
Denmark provides more generous leave compensation than the UK and assigns equal amounts of leave to each parent that cannot be transferred. In 2022, Denmark implemented a reform offering 11 weeks of leave to fathers and an equivalent amount to mothers that is "use it or lose it," and fathers are now estimated to take most of their nontransferable leave. For fathers in the UK, the statutory leave entitlement is much shorter, at just two weeks.
It is also less well paid, at around 19% of average earnings, compared with about 50% in Denmark. Employers in both countries can offer enhanced paternity leave that provides more time off or higher pay than the legal minimum. Nonetheless, UK fathers take much less leave than fathers in Denmark, with a recent survey finding that most took around two weeks.
Danish nontransferable paternity leave is intended to make the sharing of infant care more equal between parents and help mothers stay in paid work. Along with subsidies of at least 75% of early child care expenses, these policies help explain why Denmark has markedly higher rates of mothers in employment than in the UK. Child care does seem to be shared more than is the norm in the UK, and financial support helps to smooth mothers' transition back to work.
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