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Denmark: the network everyone else is compared to
Over 26 000 registered defibrillators and over 55 000 volunteer heart runners, built by a foundation with the regions. What the Danish model actually consists of, and which parts of it travel.
CPR in sixty seconds
- Unresponsive and not breathing normally? Gasping is not breathing. Treat it as a cardiac arrest.
- Call 112 (113 in Norway). Speaker on, phone on the floor. Stay on the line — the dispatcher will coach you.
- Push hard and fast in the centre of the chest: 5–6 cm in an adult, 100–120 per minute, letting the chest come all the way back up.
- Send somebody else for a defibrillator. Do not go yourself unless it is seconds away. Keep compressing.
- Turn the device on and do what it says. It decides whether to shock. After a shock, go straight back to compressions.
This is a reference written for bystanders, not a diagnosis, a training course or medical advice. It cannot tell you what is wrong with a particular person, and it does not replace the dispatcher on the other end of an emergency call — they can see what is near you and they will talk you through it. If you are worried about your own heart, or about a symptom, that is a conversation with a clinician rather than a page on a website.
The scale, in the operator's own numbers
Denmark's Hjertestarter-Netværket holds over 26,000 registered defibrillators, and the associated TrygFonden Hjerteløber volunteer scheme has over 55,000 active participants, on the operator's published figures. The foundation describes the defibrillator network as the largest of its kind in the world. Both are searchable and joinable by the public at hjertestarter.dk, and both feed the emergency medical dispatch: when an arrest is reported, volunteers are alerted, some straight to the patient and some via the nearest registered device.
How the model is put together
Three components, and it is the combination rather than any one of them that produces the result. A national register with genuinely good coverage, so the dispatcher can see devices. A volunteer alerting scheme with enough participants that somebody is nearly always closer than the ambulance. And a sustained public campaign that has made hjertestarter.dk and the heart-runner idea broadly familiar, which is what recruits both devices and volunteers. Funding has come from a private foundation working with the Danish regions, which run the prehospital emergency services, and the parties have set out arrangements to secure the scheme's long-term operation.
Which parts travel and which do not
The register travels: any country can run one, it is cheap, and the value is immediate. The volunteer scheme travels if there is an emergency medical dispatch system able to alert responders and a population willing to sign up — Sweden and Norway have their own versions. What does not travel automatically is the density: Denmark is small, flat and urbanised, and the arithmetic of a volunteer within a few minutes' walk is easier there than in Lapland or on a Baltic island. The lesson for a sparser country is the register plus outdoor, round-the-clock siting rather than the responder count.
Availability, not just count
A device count is a vanity metric on its own; what matters is how many devices are reachable at three in the morning. The Danish network reports availability alongside the count and has pushed hard for outdoor, publicly accessible cabinets rather than devices locked inside businesses during opening hours. That is the single most transferable operational lesson on this page: moving a device from inside a shop to a heated cabinet on its outside wall roughly doubles the hours in which it can save somebody.
If you are the one standing there
Call 112, speaker on, phone down, compressions immediately. Heart runners may well be alerted before you have finished the call; keep compressing until one arrives, and hand over cleanly rather than stopping. If you live in Denmark and are willing, joining the scheme takes minutes, and declining an alert when you cannot attend is a normal and expected part of using it.
| Item | How it works |
|---|---|
| Emergency number | 112 |
| Prehospital services | The five regions |
| National AED network | Hjertestarter-Netværket, over 26 000 devices |
| Volunteer scheme | TrygFonden Hjerteløber, over 55 000 volunteers |
| Operator | TrygFonden with the Danish regions |
| Public access point | hjertestarter.dk — search, register, sign up |
| Cost to register | Free |
| Notable emphasis | Round-the-clock outdoor availability, not just device count |
Sources: hjertestarter.dk · TrygFonden Hjertestart og Hjerteløber · Danske Regioner on the heart-runner scheme and the defibrillator network · Hjerteforeningen (Danish Heart Foundation) on defibrillators · checked 2026-09-08
Frequently asked questions
How many defibrillators are there in Denmark?
Over 26 000 are registered in TrygFonden's Hjertestarter-Netværket on the operator's published figures, alongside over 55 000 active volunteer heart runners. The network is described by its operator as the largest of its kind in the world.
What is a hjerteløber?
A volunteer who has signed up to be alerted by phone when a suspected cardiac arrest happens nearby, and who is sent either directly to the patient or via the nearest registered defibrillator. Anyone willing can join and any alert can be declined.
Can the Danish model be copied?
The register can be copied anywhere and cheaply. The volunteer scheme needs a dispatch system able to alert responders and enough participants; in sparser countries the transferable lesson is outdoor, round-the-clock device siting rather than raw volunteer numbers.
Country by country
Estonia: 112, kiirabi and no national AED register
One number for everything, a dispatch centre that coaches CPR down the phone, and defibrillators scattered by municipalities, employers and shops with no single public list. What that means if you are the one calling.
Finland: defi.fi and the 112 Suomi app
The best-organised defibrillator register in the Baltic Sea region: a national database run by the heart association with the resuscitation council and the Red Cross, feeding device locations to the emergency services app.
Latvia: NMPD, 112 and a patchwork of devices
The state emergency medical service answers the medical side of 112 and publishes guidance for defibrillator owners, but there is no single public register. Where devices have actually appeared, and what to do with yours.
Lithuania: a legal requirement and a service database
The one country in the region where the law names the venues that must have a defibrillator. How the 112 centre and the emergency medical service work together, and how the device database reaches the dispatcher.
Sweden: a register, a research base and SMS lifesavers
A national defibrillator register run by the resuscitation council, a quality register that has published cardiac-arrest outcomes for decades, and a volunteer scheme that grew out of the research.
Everything on this subject
Before the emergency, there is a long quiet stretch
Blood pressure, resting heart rate, movement and sleep are the part of this you can act on for years beforehand. TempoLife keeps them in one place, free to start.