Who inherits without a will in Denmark?
In Denmark, with no will, the spouse takes half the estate and the children share the other half; with no children the spouse takes everything.
Updated October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
A spouse and children survive
The spouse inherits half and the children share the other half equally. How much that is in practice depends on the spouses' marital property, which is settled first. The spouse may keep the share that would go to their shared children undivided until they die or remarry.
A spouse survives, but no children
If there are no children, the spouse inherits the whole estate.
No spouse: who comes next
Children first, then the parents and their descendants, then the grandparents. If there are no relatives, the estate goes to the state.
A partner who is not married
Partners who are not married have no automatic right to inherit, however long they have lived together. A will is the way to provide for them.
What a will cannot take away
Children and the spouse have a protected share, a fixed fraction of what they would inherit by law, with a cap set each year. The detail is in the Succession Act.
If the person or the property is abroad
This EU country does not take part in the EU Succession Regulation, so its own rules decide which country's law governs an estate. An estate with a foreign element needs advice in each country involved.
What to watch for
- Denmark has not published its succession fact sheet in English on the e-Justice Portal, so this entry relies on the Succession Act (arveloven). Check the figures against the statute.
Understand the legal system first
Denmark belongs to the Civil law family. Succession law grows out of the legal tradition, so it helps to know how the system works.
Read the Denmark legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in Denmark? →
Official sources
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TheLawToKnow Tools’s inheritance guide is an educational overview of general rules. It is not legal advice, and it does not replace the official source or a lawyer in the country. Report a mistake.
