The Danish order of precedence is a symbolic hierarchy of Danish officials used to direct protocol. It has no official status and entails no special privileges, but has been established in practical use, e.g. determining seating arrangements at formal occasions in the royal house. The order of precedence is very elaborate, and especially the lower classes include many relatively obscure civil servant positions; the following is only an excerpt.

The royal family

Members of the royal family are not part of the official order of precedence, but are traditionally placed on top of the hierarchy. Their order is as follows: When the King is out of the country or otherwise unable to perform his duties, the heir apparent becomes regent. If the heir apparent is also out of the country or otherwise not able to be regent, one of four people, whom the King has chosen, can become 'rigsforstander'. These people are:

The order of precedence

The 1st Class is the highest, and 5th Class is the lowest. Classes 1 and 2 are exhaustively listed here by the most recent officially published ranking, while classes 3–5 are summarized and only an excerpt. Within the individual classes themselves there are also secondary orders of precedence, shown here with the numbers.

Statutory basis

The Danish order of precedence is decided by royal regulation, which was first published in 1671. The current ranking is from 1746 – The Royal Regulation of 14 October 1746. Throughout time, there have been multiple revisions and changes to the order of precedence, the most recent being on 16 December 1971.

1st Class

2nd Class

3rd Class

4th Class

5th Class