A new report from Denmark’s Economic Council finds that severe stress permanently pushes about one in ten affected people out of the labor market, and that it lies behind more than a third of all disability pensions.
The findings were published on October 20, 2026 and reported by the Danish daily Information. The report comes from Det Økonomiske Råd, the council of independent economists known in Denmark as the vismænd.
According to the newly appointed chairman, Jakob Roland Munch, professor of economics at the University of Copenhagen, it is striking how many people are affected permanently. He describes the result as an important and new finding, bad for the individual and for the wider economy.
What the numbers show
The analysis is built on Danish register data from 1995 to 2023. A person counts as affected if they received a stress-related hospital diagnosis, started certain antidepressants, reported a stress-related occupational illness, or had a long period of sick leave without hospital treatment.
Under that definition, a stress reaction could be measured in 2.5 percent of all Danish adults in 2023. The council finds no rising trend over the past 15 to 20 years, with the level broadly stable since 2006.
In a hypothetical Denmark where nobody had developed severe stress since 1995, labor supply would have been 99,000 people higher. Direct contributions to public finances were 30 billion kroner lower in 2023, equal to 1.1 percent of GDP. Work-related stress alone is estimated to cut labor supply by between 16,000 and 39,000 people.
Risk differs more between workplaces than between sectors
Risk is higher in public administration and in the health and education sectors, and lower in construction, agriculture and forestry. Working in the public sector carries a higher risk than working in the private sector, the report states.
No single industry stands out overall. The sharpest differences appear between individual companies inside the same industry. The 10 percent of workplaces with the worst record have three times the stress risk of the 10 percent with the lowest, and lifting them to the average could improve public finances by 1.6 billion kroner.
Munch says the problem is that there is no clear consensus on which workplace measures actually work. The government’s finance bill proposal sets aside 50 million kroner for a prevention fund covering stress prevention and early intervention. Arbejderbevægelsens Erhvervsråd, chaired by Aarhus University economics professor Michael Rosholm, has called on the Ministry of Finance to start calculating the gains from investing in the work environment, while FH chairman Morten Skov Christiansen urges faster action on workplace stress.
What the report means for foreign workers in Denmark
Førtidspension is Denmark’s permanent disability pension, awarded when working capacity is judged lastingly reduced. The report says most public spending caused by severe stress goes to these payments, which is why the council sees money to be saved. Danish workplaces are also covered by rules on the working environment, and employee rights are set out in law and in collective agreements, explained in our guide to labour law rights in Denmark.
For internationals, the sector pattern matters because many foreign residents work in healthcare, education and public administration, the areas the council identifies as higher risk. The report does not change any rules, and it does not break its figures down by nationality or residence status. What happens next is not yet settled, since the 50 million kroner prevention fund is still part of a finance bill proposal.
