Leading universities in Denmark 2023, by number of students

Among the eight universities in Denmark, the University of Copenhagen hosted the largest number of students in 2023. Founded more than 540 years ago, the university is not only the oldest in Denmark, but even one of the oldest universities in Northern Europe. Over 36,000 students were enrolled at the university of the capital city of Denmark, representing around one fourth of the roughly 144,000 university students in the country. Aarhus University and the University of Southern Denmark were the second and third largest universities that year.

Bachelor and master students

After peaking in 2014, the number of university students has decreased annually since. This trend can be observed for both bachelor's and master's degrees. In fact, the number of students enrolled at a master’s program began to drop after 2015, while for bachelor's degrees the decline started one year earlier. As of 2023, there were approximately 63,600 master students and 72,000 bachelor students in Denmark.

Most popular study

With over 3,100 applicants, medicine was the most popular study among Danish university students in 2025. Considering vocational studies, psychology received the most applications.