- Info
Commuting across Öresund
Number of Commuters
In 2010 about 20,000 persons commuted daily between their homes and workplace on the other side of Öresund. Most of these persons, or 18,000, commuted via the Öresund Bridge.
Since the opening of the Öresund Bridge in 2000, commuting across Öresund has increased by about 600 percent. The increase in the number of commuters across Öresund was exceptionally large during 2006 and 2007, when both the Danish shortage of labour and differences in housing prices accelerated the movements across Öresund. However, in 2008 and 2009 the financial crisis and the resulting economic downturn caused a halt to the nearly explosive increase in commuting. In 2008 and 2009, the number of commuters across the Öresund Bridge increased by six and two percent respectively. Forecasts from 2010 show that this was the first year when the number of commuters fell slightly, approx. by 4.5 percent compared to the previous year. This number is lower than the numbers previously published in TendensÖresund as these were based on forecast numbers. The commuter figures are expected to rise again in 2011 and 2012, but note that this is also a forecast.
- Number of commuters across Öresund
Source: The Öresund Bridge
The work commute up to 2025
The significant increase in commuter traffic up until 2007 places high demands on the capacity of the Öresund Bridge. According to the present development forecast for traffic on the Öresund Bridge, drawn up by the Öresund Bridge Consortium, traffic jam problems are to be expected during morning hours between 8 and 9 am in the year 2035.
In the most recent traffic forecast of the Öresund Bridge, commuting to work is expected to increase to 39,000 persons in 2025. The economic downturn of today is predicted to generate a low increase in commuting in the coming years, but in the long term commuting to work is expected to increase due to the demographic development. The proportion of older persons is increasing much quicker in Zealand than in Skåne, but towards the end of the 2020s the dependency ratio will be about the same on both sides of the sound.
However, the age group between 20 and 64 years in Skåne is expected to increase more quickly, and thus it could be in the Danish interest to recruit more labour from Skåne.
The significant differences in housing prices between Skåne and Zealand – including the islands - have already decreased, and will probably even out in the long run, but it is still economically more favourable for many Danes to live in Skåne and commute to work in Denmark. However, the price differences are not as sharp as during the early years of the bridge.
Actual and Expected Commuting to Work Across Öresund Bridge 2001-2025
- Actual and expected commuting to work across Öresund Bridge 2001-2025
Source: Öresund Bridge, (HH is the ferry route between Elsinore in Denmark and Helsingborg in Sweden).
Comments on the Statistics
The numbers of commuters across the Öresund Bridge are counted as the number of full-time commuters, that is, persons who commute five times a week between their homes and places of work. This definition has been chosen because it is based on the number of trips across the Öresund Bridge by either car or train, since there are no statistics compiled for commuter travel frequency. Historically, this method of calculation provides results very near to the register-based commuting statistics compiled by Statistics Denmark and Statistics Sweden, which are not released until about two years after the time of measurement. The register-based commuting statistics for Öresund follow the same definition used to describe the commuting between municipalities in both Denmark and Sweden. The commuting between Helsingør-Helsingborg is an estimate based on the register-based commuting statistics.
