No more letters: Denmark ends its 400-year-old delivery service

As the New Year bells chimed, Denmark marked an end to 401 years of traditional postal operations. 

The country's national postal service, PostNord, ended its traditional letter delivery service on New Year's Eve, as it shifts focus to parcel delivery.

According to PostNord, letter volumes in Denmark have declined by more than 90 percent since 2000, from around 1.4 billion to 110 million in 2024, while the need for parcel delivery continues to grow each year.

The company, which announced the change last March, said most communication now arrives in electronic mailboxes, underscoring the changing habits of consumers.

A third of PostNord's workforce has been made redundant, a total of 2,200 positions, while 700 new jobs have been created in its parcel business.

To mark the change, PostNord released a campaign film with its last letter to the public read aloud by the actress Ellen Hillingsø that explains the end of the letter's role in everyday life in Denmark.

Denmark is the world's second most digitalized nation, according to the OECD's 2023 Digital Government Index, with an abundance of smartphone apps for almost every area of daily life.

The dramatic fall in letter writing is mirrored across Europe, with Germany's Deutsche Post slashing its workforce last March and the UK's 500-year-old Royal Mail reducing its second-class delivery service. 

Danish traditionalists will still be able to post letters via private delivery firm DAO, although the 3F Postal Union fears that rural services will worsen.