Denmark to end letter deliveries - what does this mean for stamps?

This article has been jointly written by Xanthe and her dad, Andrew. The Danish Post Office, Post Danmark - which trades as PostNord Danmark - has taken a decision to end letter deliveries later this year.

The reasons given are not really surprising. PostNord explains that volumes are decreasing. In 2000, Post Danmark handled 1.4 billion letters - in 2024 this was just 110 million. Kim Pedersen, chief of PostNord Danmark, said: "Danes hardly receive any letters anymore. It's been going down for years and years. They're receiving one letter a month on average, it's not a lot. On the contrary, Danes love to shop online... global e-commerce is growing significantly, and we are moving with it." Denmark has a population of around 6 million people so he is right to say that people are receiving, on average, around one letter per month. Compare that with the UK, where Royal Mail delivered 6.6 billion letters to just under 70 million people - an average of eight letters per month - and you can see that something in Denmark has to change.

I don't know very much about how Post Danmark have operated, although I know they have added VAT to domestic postal deliveries which may not have helped things. High postage costs were also criticised: the cost of a domestic letter is 33DKK (£3.83) while the international rate is 50 DKK (£5.81). There seem to have been wider concerns however; I have read this article that Alex Berger wrote over 10 years ago and clearly there were serious problems, which he called "outrageous" and "ridiculous". Denmark abolished the universal postal service obligation in January 2024 and since then questions have been asked about how sustainable PostNord's service is. Last year, many asked about whether this was the beginning of creating a modern postal service. Others predicted that PostNord would try to end unprofitable letter deliveries at the earliest opportunity. PostNord's full statement is interesting. It says: "With the rise in digitalization, the number of letters in Denmark is declining rapidly... This means that, as from 2026, PostNord will stop handling letters in Denmark and focus exclusively on becoming the Danes’ favorite parcel delivery service. "Digitalization is changing the way we communicate and make purchases. As a Group, we need to adapt our business constantly to accommodate societal developments and customer demand. A consistent theme throughout the Group is our strategy to ‘Win in Parcel.’ We are therefore continuing to develop our unique network with the intention of becoming the favorite parcel carrier for the entire Nordic region. We must be at our best where our customers need us most."

There is a lot of business-talk in that statement, but the bottom line is that it is going to do what is profitable and cut out the parts of the service that don't make money. It has nothing to do with customer need and everything to do with markets.

This is not too different from how Royal Mail has tried to rebrand itself as a "parcels delivery company" in recent years. It is understandable. Post Danmark (known as Postvæsenet until 1995) has delivered letters for 400 years, having been founded in 1624 by King Christian IV, but tradition counts for nothing in the world of business. It has been a struggle to make the service work.

There are some important questions to answer. Are the "market conditions" PostNord describes unique to Denmark, or is this a sign of what will happen in other countries in the next few years? Is there a place for letter deliveries in a "modern postal service"? Should a postal service be primarily driven by the need to make a profit?

It is interesting to note that in countries such as Switzerland and Germany the decline in letters seems to be much slower, but even in the latter Deutsche Post has just axed 8,000 jobs due to the need to cut costs. Do letter deliveries have to be a burden on postal companies, or can they be incorporated into a forward-looking, modern, sustainable postal system? Of course, even in Denmark letter deliveries won't actually come to an end. They simply won't be delivered by PostNord Danmark. A rival company, DAO, will instead take on this responsibility. Last year it handled 21 million letters (a fifth of PostNord's total volume) and has already developed a reputation as being more efficient that PostNord with quicker deliveries. What DAO's model will be remains to be seen, but while it is true that more and more communication is happening digitally there will always be a need for documents to be delivered.

What does PostNord Danmark's decision mean for Danish stamps? Well, they will cease to be used. Stamps currently valid for postage will be able to be used until the end of the year and then, for a short while, will be able to be refunded. Thereafter they are expected to disappear and traditional postage stamps will presumably be replaced by digitally-created labels. While for many of us it will be sad to see Denmark go the same way as Iceland and stop creating new stamps, we also realise that postal history is still being made. Barcodes and QR codes won't find their way into many albums but if we have learned anything in the last 185 years since the very first postage stamp it is that nothing stays the same. Perhaps the way we collect will change as the way we send mail does - after all, from the point of view of someone interested in postal history, isn't a digital tracking label from a Danish DAO parcel more interesting than expensive Royal Mail miniature sheets that never go near a Post Office counter? Denmark has created many beautiful stamps in the past and I cannot deny I feel quite sad that after this year there will be no more. I'm not sure whether PostNord Danmark's decision to end letters delivery is necessarily the big news it seems, especially if another company is going to do it. I don't know whether Denmark's problems are a sign of what will happen elsewhere or the result of local issues, but I am certain that the digital world is having a huge impact on the way we communicate with each other. If we're not using little squares of sticky paper to send each other messages then eventually those little squares of sticky paper become extinct.