PostNord, Denmark’s national postal service, has taken a bold step. In fact, they’ll eventually eliminate all deliveries of letters, moving with the times toward the changing nature of communication. This decision represents the end of more than 400 years of an era for the state-run enterprise. It is a moment of crisis for the postal service, as it faces an unprecedented plunge in letter volumes. Collapsing under its own weight, in the last fiscal year, it delivered just 110 million letters a day—down from 1.4 billion in 2000. The decrease amounts to a jaw-dropping loss of over 90% within just 20 years.
PostNord’s chief executive, Kim Pedersen, believes that this reduction is due to a long-term trend caused by the ongoing digitization of communication. He emphasized that while the need for physical letters may diminish, certain services will remain essential, particularly for medical correspondence and vulnerable populations such as the elderly and disabled.
“I don’t think letters will completely disappear due to the need to protect medical letters and services for the elderly, disabled, and rural areas,” said Pedersen. This acknowledgement highlights how mail remains essential in certain areas even as the overall trend moves towards more digital forms of communication.
With the Danish government pursuing a “digital by default” policy, letter deliveries have plummeted even faster. Denmark ranks among the world’s most digitalized nations, trailing only South Korea according to the OECD’s 2023 Digital Government Index. This shift to digital has made consumers more inclined to prefer electronic, or e-consumer, communication over the print mail approaches of the past.
Pedersen was pragmatic about the fact that Denmark is going through this evolution step ahead of much of the world. “We are facing this natural evolution of a digitalised society, earlier than maybe some other countries,” he said. “In Denmark, we are maybe five or 10 years ahead.”
PostNord’s plan to revamp the state-owned mail operator includes stopping letter deliveries entirely while concentrating on the postal service’s lucrative parcel business. At the end of this strategy there will be 700 new positions created. It won’t just cut 2,200 jobs from its letter division – one-third of its workforce. The postal service had historically operated large letter-sorting facilities across the country. Today it’s down to just one facility, and it’s on the western edge of greater Copenhagen.
Sending a letter in private competition with PostNord costs a prohibitive 29 Danish kroner, roughly $4.55 or £3.35. This exorbitant price set by the USPS has only accelerated the drop in letter volumes. PostNord’s powerful response to declining mail. To make this transition, they intend to pull up 1,500 of their classic, red pillar post boxes from Danish streets.
Urban Mobility’s Hazel King, an industry expert, reflected on the wider importance of this trend. “Letters across Europe have been declining for years,” she said, indicating that Denmark’s situation mirrors that of many other countries. “I think PostNord’s decision is a reflection of how the whole market has gone, and the way the consumer is moving.”
The death of physical mail is not only occurring in Denmark. On the consumer side, major global markets—including physical remittance markets—have fallen 30% or more below their historic high-water marks on mail volume. Germany and Switzerland are seeing much slower declines than what has occurred in Denmark. Yet, this trend has not spared them from the large scale shift to digital communication.
Nikolaj Brøchner Andrès, a resident reminiscing about the transformation, likened his life now to living outside the realm of traditional mail. “I don’t think I’ve sent a letter in years… I’m not even sure how to do it anymore, to be honest,” he stated, highlighting a growing unfamiliarity with sending physical correspondence.
Even with these trends, there are those who deeply appreciate the tangible, touchable quality of mail. As Jette Eiring Williams told us, the joy of the tangible connection that real mail offers is something you only get once you fall in love with it. “I think the young generation wants that old school feeling,” she said. “She loves the physical touch of something, so not just an email or a text anymore.”
As PostNord makes its move to end letter deliveries, it fits into an overarching story of social change driven by technology. These reforms bring in a fresh new era for public communication in Denmark while respecting the unique needs of localized communities.