Farewell to letters: Denmark’s postal system enters history

Beside the railroad tracks at Copenhagen’s central train station stands a red-brick building with an ornate façade and a copper-clad cupola slowly turning green with age. When it opened in 1912 as the Central Post Building, its grandeur reflected the importance of Denmark’s booming postal and telegraph services. More than a century later, the building—now a luxury hotel—overlooks a city, and a country, where letter delivery is coming to an end, CNN reports.

Denmark’s state-run postal service, PostNord, will deliver its final letter, marking the conclusion of a 400-year history as the digital age renders physical mail neither essential nor economically viable. Denmark has become the first country in the world to formally abandon nationwide letter delivery.

The decline mirrors a broader trend across the Western world as communication increasingly shifts online. In Denmark, letter volumes fell by more than 90% between 2000 and 2024. By comparison, the US Postal Service delivered 50% less mail in 2024 than in 2006.

As correspondence has moved into digital spaces—taking the form of WhatsApp messages, video calls, and exchanges of memes—communication styles and language have evolved. Letters themselves “will change status,” said Dirk van Miert, a professor at the Huygens Institute in the Netherlands who specializes in early modern knowledge networks, noting they now tend to represent more intimate messages than digital alternatives.

The knowledge networks once sustained by letters are “only expanding” in their online form, van Miert told CNN, accelerating access to information while also contributing to the spread of disinformation.

Since June, PostNord has been removing the 1,500 mailboxes scattered across Denmark. When the company sold them to raise money for charity on December 10, hundreds of thousands of Danes attempted to purchase one. Buyers paid either 2,000 Danish kroner ($315) or 1,500 kroner ($236), depending on the condition of the mailbox.

Going forward, Danes wishing to send letters must drop them off at kiosks in shops, from where they will be delivered domestically and internationally by private courier DAO. PostNord will continue to deliver parcels, reflecting the continued growth of e-commerce.

Denmark’s transition reflects its status as one of the world’s most digitally advanced nations. The public sector relies heavily on online portals, significantly reducing the need for physical correspondence.

“Almost every Dane is fully digital, meaning physical letters no longer serve the same purpose as previously,” Andreas Brethvad, PostNord Denmark’s public affairs and communications director, told CNN. “Most communication now arrives in our electronic mailboxes, and the reality today is that e-commerce and the parcel market far outweigh traditional mail.”

While Denmark is the first country to implement such changes, experts suggest others may follow. Van Miert noted that in his town in the Netherlands, mailboxes have already disappeared, forcing residents to visit shops to post letters.

Globally, however, the need for physical mail persists. According to the UN-affiliated Universal Postal Union, nearly 2.6 billion people remain offline, while many more lack meaningful connectivity due to limited devices, poor coverage, or insufficient digital skills. Rural communities, women, and people living in poverty are among the most affected.

Advocacy groups warn that even in highly digital societies like Denmark, vulnerable groups may be disadvantaged. “It’s very easy for us to access our mail on the phone or a website… but we forgot to give the same possibilities to those who are not digital,” said Marlene Rishoej Cordes, a spokesperson for the DaneAge Association.

She noted that while DAO offers a home mail collection service, “it still demands you are digital because you have to pay for this service and you can only pay digitally.”

Historically, letters have undergone multiple transformations. “It changed formats from papyrus or wax tablets… then paper later on, vellum in the Middle Ages, and now we have electronic devices,” van Miert said. He added that in the 17th century, students were formally taught different styles of letter writing, from diplomatic correspondence to personal letters.

Today, letters increasingly symbolize nostalgia and permanence. Nicole Ellison, a professor at the University of Michigan specializing in computer-mediated communication, told CNN that handwritten correspondence offers “an element of nostalgia” that technology cannot replicate.

At the same time, digital communication has adapted to convey emotional nuance. “We have figured out ways to infuse those signals into the stark medium,” Ellison said, pointing to emojis, GIFs, and visual cues in texts and emails.

She cautioned against attributing too much agency to technology itself. “We’re humans,” she said. “And at the end of the day, we will do our best to use whatever channel we have to communicate the rich universe of emotions.”

In Denmark, the disappearance of the mailbox has already prompted reflection. “Look closely at the picture here,” one Danish user wrote on X alongside an image of a red mailbox. “Now in five years I will be able to explain to a five-year-old what a mailbox was in the old days.”

By Vafa Guliyeva