Areas to Avoid in Copenhagen

What the figures say

Copenhagen came first in the Economist Intelligence Unit's Safe Cities Index in 2021, which is the single most useful thing to know before you start reading forum threads about neighbourhoods. Denmark's murder rate was 0.8 per 100,000 in 2018, and the country ranked 8th in the Global Peace Index in 2025 with a score of 1.393, down one place from the year before. That is the context any list of “bad areas” has to sit inside.

The advice that is actually useful

Watch your bag around the Central Station and on busy shopping streets, because crowds are where opportunistic theft happens in every European city. Keep your phone in a pocket rather than a back pocket. Do not leave a bicycle unlocked. Late at night, walk on lit streets rather than through empty parks, the same as you would at home. None of that is Copenhagen-specific and none of it needs a neighbourhood attached.

Night walking and the ghost walk

The guided ghost walk runs on public streets in the centre, from Nytorv to Kongens Nytorv, and it runs rain or cold. In the darker half of the year it will be genuinely dark, because sunset on 31 October is at 4:35 pm; in June it will not be dark at all, because the sun sets at 9:57 pm. That is a planning question rather than a safety one — see when it gets dark and is Copenhagen safe. On the question people usually ask next, see the red-light district page.

Frequently asked questions