In a sad omen for lovers of traditional postcards and missives, as well as anyone who prefers a paper bill or dislikes the ever-increasing shift to an online world, one of the planet’s oldest postal services is set to stop delivering letters at the end of 2025.
Denmark’s 400-year-old, state-affiliated PostNord, shared with Sweden and originally established in 1624, is making the switch to a parcel-only service, due to a 90% drop in letter volumes over the last two decades. That decline has steepened recently, falling off by 30% in the last twelve months alone, to hit a low of 110 million letters per year.
Anyone who has already purchased postage, which costs around 29 Danish krone (€3.89) will be allowed to claim a refund until a cut-off date in 2026, authorities say, but for some, the issue is about more than the price of a stamp.
Impact on elderly and isolated communities
Over 100 million letters still sent every year is not nothing and critics say around 271,000 people, including the older generation and remote communities will be hit hard by the decision. Speaking to Danish broadcaster TV2 Marlene Rishoj Cordes, from Aeldre Sagen (DaneAge) pointed out: “There are many who are very dependent on letters being delivered regularly. These include hospital appointments, vaccinations or decisions regarding home care.”
Danish parliamentarian and author Pelle Dragsted echoed those concerns and laid the blame on the privatisation of the national postal market in 2024 and the application of VAT to postage, which he says pushed up prices and drove customers elsewhere.
Great I took this postal box pic at the “Great Beach Alley” in Copenhagen🇩🇰. Interesting to read PostNord to end all letter deliveries at the end of 2025, 90% decline in 📩 volumes since the start of the century. The 400 years company with 1,500 📮will disappear this year! 😔📮💌 pic.twitter.com/WcBBdcTPeU
— Abel Aboh🇳🇬🏴🇬🇧 (@abel_DMChampion) March 7, 2025
Cultural switch to digital services
However, others note that Denmark has been a swift adopter of e-commerce, ranking as one of the biggest users of digital services in the world with people carrying everything from official ID to cash on their devices. It’s quite a cultural turnaround for a country whose literary stars, such as Charlotta Dorothea Biehl, built careers around the epistolary form. The rise and fall of Hans Christian Andersen’s friendship with British author Charles Dickens is also documented in their correspondence, which would have been handled by PostNord.
Transport Minister Thomas Danielsen has noted other private postal providers will still operate in Denmark, including distribution firm DAO, which is reportedly upping its letter-delivery in response to the state service’s closure. But the country’s 1,500 distinctive red, semi-capsule-shaped postboxes will be decommissioned over the coming months, and nearly a third of the workforce, 1,500 out of 4,600 PostNord workers, will be laid off as a result of the move.