Indbygger

Indbygger is a Danish noun meaning a person who resides in a particular place, such as a municipality, city, town, or country. The term denotes residence rather than citizenship and is commonly used in demographic contexts, government statistics, and media to refer to the local population.

The word is formed from ind- (in, inside) and bygger (dweller or resident; related to by, town). In practice, indbygger refers to all people living in a place, regardless of nationality, legal status, or length of stay. It is a neutral term and is typically contrasted with terms for social or legal status such as indvandrer (immigrant) or udlænding (foreigner) and with borger (citizen).

In Danish statistics, indbyggertal or the number of indbyggere is used to denote the population of a city, municipality, or country. The term is commonly seen in official reports, news reporting, and academic writing. Plural usage is indbyggere, and the collective form indbyggertal refers to the total count of inhabitants.

Cognate terms exist in other Nordic languages, such as innbyggare in Swedish and innbyggere in Norwegian, which share the same root and meaning of a resident or inhabitant. The concept remains centered on where people live rather than their legal status or national affiliation.