Some 6,600 people have registered to take Denmark’s gruelling citizenship test today, of whom about 5,153 will take the Infødsretsprøven citizenship test, which tests knowledge of Danish society, culture and history. 

But according to an analysis by state broadcaster DR, the learning material they are given to study has not been updated since 2015, meaning it is now seriously out of date, making the already challenging test even more difficult.

Mats Dang, a 35-year-old from Canada who has lived in Denmark for 7.5 years, said he had bought study materials from private providers who had alerted him to the outdated passages in the material provided by the immigration and integration ministry. 

“They point out that the teaching material is outdated. But those who can not afford to buy it, will have to rely 100 percent on the official learning material and they will flunk the test if there are questions in those areas,” he told DR. “They require us to be switched on in relation to the many rules, so I expect them to also be up to date. That would be only fair.” 

The Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI), which is responsible for the tests, told DR that no questions would be asked about any facts which were out of date in the learning materials. 

“SIRI is aware that the teaching material contains certain outdated and inaccurate information, as it was last updated in 2016,” the agency told DR.  “In preparing the citizenship tests, SIRI ensures that no questions are asked about the parts of the teaching material that are no longer up to date.”

The agency said that an up-to-date version of the material was expected to be ready before the next round of citizenship tests in November 2021.

The current learning materials, among other things, claim that:

• there are 28 members of the European Union (since the UK left, it’s 27)
• the Danish holiday year runs from May 1st to April 30th (it has been reorganised to run from September 1st to August 31st)
• 80 percent of the Danish population are members of the Church of Denmark (the up-to-date figure is 74 percent)
• 5.7 million citizens live in Denmark, and 580,000 in Copenhagen (the latest figures are 5.8 million and 799,000)
• Pia Kjærsgaard of the Danish People’s Party is chair of the Parliament (it is Social Democrat Henrik Dam Kristensen)
• Prince Henrik and the musician Kim Larsen are alive (they are not).