Sorting through bundles of small packages and magazines, postman Herman Moyano prepares for his morning round north of Copenhagen. For seven years, he has delivered Denmark’s mail, but he has watched the loads get lighter. “I have seen the mail going down gradually. But that’s picked up pace over the last couple of years. Nowadays, it seems… it’s going really, really down,” he says.
This decline has prompted PostNord, Denmark’s state-owned postal service, to announce it will cease letter deliveries at the end of 2025, ending four centuries of operations. A third of its workforce - 2,200 jobs - will be cut, though 700 new roles will open in the profitable parcel business. “Danes hardly receive any letters anymore. They’re receiving one letter a month on average, it’s not a lot,” says PostNord chief Kim Pedersen. “On the contrary, Danes love to shop online.”
Letter volumes have fallen by over 90% since 2000, from 1.4 billion to 110 million last year. Fifteen years ago, PostNord had several sorting facilities; now, just one remains. Contributing factors include the government’s “digital by default” policy and the high cost of postage, with stamps now costing 29 Danish krone ($4.55) after VAT was applied in 2024.
Across Europe, mail volumes have plunged. Physical letters have dropped by 30% or more worldwide, with declines of 50-70% in most European countries since 2008. Germany’s Deutsche Post and the UK’s Royal Mail have also cut jobs and scaled back services.
In Denmark, private courier DAO will take over letter services, expecting to handle 30-40 million items annually from 2026. Still, advocacy groups fear rural and elderly citizens will struggle. Yet some, like Copenhagener Jette Eiring Williams, remain attached: “I think the young generation wants that old school feeling. She loves the physical touch of something, so not just an email or a text anymore.”
