Jim McMahon/Mapman®
Snail mail is losing its stamp of approval in Denmark: When 2025 ends, so will letter delivery by PostNord, the European country’s national postal service.
Package delivery is still big business. But in recent years, the number of letters handled by PostNord has plummeted: from more than 1.4 billion in 2000 to about 110 million in 2024. “The market for letters is no longer profitable,” says PostNord executive Kim Pedersen.
Why the huge drop? Since 2014, Danish law has required all residents ages 15 and older to have a secure digital mailbox for communications from public authorities. As a result, 95 percent of Danes now send and receive business mail digitally. And many Danes connect with distant family and friends via text and social media.
The United States and other countries are seeing similar nosedives, largely because of the paper-to-digital switch. Between 2000 and 2024, the number of postcards and letters sent by Americans dropped by 57 percent. Is a letter-free world in our future?
—Kathy Wilmore