Medborgerskabsprøven vs Indfødsretsprøven: Which Danish Test Do You Need?

Denmark has two knowledge tests with similar names and the same test day, and they are constantly confused. Medborgerskabsprøven is for permanent residence: 25 questions, 30 minutes, 20 to pass, and it is one of four optional conditions. Indfødsretsprøven is for citizenship: 45 questions, 45 minutes, 36 to pass including 4 of 5 values questions, and it is compulsory. A pass in one does not count for the other. This guide sets them side by side so you can book the right one before the 21 October 2026 deadline.

SIRI pages for both tests; BEK 452/2024 and 453/2024; SIRI dates page.

• You are applying for permanent residence and need a second (or fourth) supplementary condition → Medborgerskabsprøven, unless you can show a year of active citizenship.
• You are applying for Danish citizenship → Indfødsretsprøven. Medborgerskabsprøven will not count, however well you pass it.
• You are planning both, years apart → you will need both tests, because neither counts for the other. The two learning materials overlap in subject (history, democracy, culture), so preparation for one is not wasted on the other — but they are different books with different questions.
• You already meet two supplementary conditions through work and income → you may not need Medborgerskabsprøven at all for the eight-year route (see our guide on the 2-of-4 rule).

Medborgerskabsprøven is a test of one book. Every question is written from its 26 fact sheets, and 20 official papers since 2016 show heavy repetition — in recent sittings roughly half of each paper matched an earlier question. A disciplined candidate can cover the whole syllabus in a few weeks. Indfødsretsprøven is longer and harder in three ways: its book is about half as long again (246 pages); ten of its 45 questions — current affairs and Danish values — cannot be prepared from the book at all; and its pass line of 36 must include four of the five values questions. About half of Indfødsretsprøven candidates fail; there is no published figure for Medborgerskabsprøven.

SIRI and the ministry publish pass rates for Indfødsretsprøven after every sitting — 47.2% in November 2025 and 58.6% in June 2026, for example. They do not publish pass rates for Medborgerskabsprøven. Some English-language pages quote the citizenship-test percentages as if they belonged to Medborgerskabsprøven; they do not. The only official Medborgerskabsprøven figure we found is that 1,613 people registered for the November 2024 sitting, against 6,505 for Indfødsretsprøven the same day. SIRI said in December 2024 that pass rates for both tests would be published in 2025; we found figures only for the citizenship test.

For most people the two tests come years apart. Permanent residence normally requires eight years’ lawful residence (four if all four supplementary conditions are met), Prøve i Dansk 2 and — as a basic condition — full-time work for 3½ of the last 4 years (the supplementary work condition is a stricter 4 of the last 4½); Medborgerskabsprøven is one way to meet one of the supplementary conditions. Citizenship then normally requires nine years’ continuous residence, two years with permanent residence, Prøve i Dansk 3, 3½ years’ full-time work in the last 4, and Indfødsretsprøven. The two learning materials cover overlapping ground — history, democracy, the welfare state, culture — but they are separate books with separate question styles, and the citizenship book is about half as long again. Reading the permanent-residence material first gives a useful base for the later one, as long as you switch to the citizenship material, and its current edition, when that test comes into view. So a typical path is: Prøve i Dansk 2 → Medborgerskabsprøven (if needed) → permanent residence → Prøve i Dansk 3 → Indfødsretsprøven → citizenship application.

Taking Prøve i Dansk 3 early can serve both goals at once: it is one of the four supplementary conditions for permanent residence and the normal language condition for citizenship. It also helps with Indfødsretsprøven itself, which is written at PD3 reading level — in the ministry’s November 2023 analysis, adult immigrants holding PD3 passed the citizenship test at 64%, against 21% for those with PD2.

SIRI’s timetable puts Medborgerskabsprøven at 11:00–11:30 and Indfødsretsprøven at 13:00–13:45 on 25 November 2026, both held by language centres, and each has its own registration and fee. No official source forbids sitting both, but none says so explicitly either, so confirm with your centre. It rarely makes sense — someone ready for citizenship usually already has permanent residence — but it can suit a candidate whose permanent-residence application is still pending while they prepare for citizenship.

Whichever test you need, most of the practical rules are shared, because both are held by the same language centres under almost identical regulations (BEK 452/2024 and BEK 453/2024): register with a language centre by 21 October, bring original ID (a non-EU passport only with a residence sticker; never a driving licence), no sick re-sit, results within about four weeks, and a certificate you collect yourself and send with your application.