Danes

a nation (natsiia, nation in the historical sense), making up more than 98 percent of the total population of Denmark—over 4.8 million (1970, estimate); they also live in the northwestern parts of the Federal Republic of Germany (about 15,000), Sweden (about 25,000), and the USA (about 450,000). They speak Danish; most of the believers are Lutherans.

In ancient times the territory of present-day Denmark was settled by Germanic tribes of Cimbri, Jutes, Angles, and Saxons; during the fifth and sixth centuries the Germanic tribe of Danes intruded from southern Sweden. From the sixth through the eighth centuries there occurred a disintegration of the primitive communal structure among these tribes, and in the tenth and 11th centuries a unified Danish nationality was formed from them; an early feudal state took shape. During the 19th century the Danish nation was formed.