Denmark reaches record 61,540 registered heart runners

A record 61,540 people in Denmark are now registered as active ‘heart runners’, according to a report from TrygFonden covering the first half of 2026. This represents approximately 1.3 percent of the population over the age of 18.

The heart runner program, which launched in the Capital Region in 2017 and expanded nationwide in 2020, uses an app to alert the 20 nearest registered volunteers when a cardiac arrest is reported. During the first half of the year, the average time from an alarm being activated to the first heart runner arriving was 3.30 minutes.

Medical researcher Victor Kjærulf from Region Hovedstadens Akutberedskab noted that these volunteers are critical because they often arrive well before professional emergency services. While ambulances arrive in an average of eight to nine minutes, Kjærulf emphasized that brain cells begin to die after three to five minutes without blood supply, making the rapid response of civilian volunteers vital for survival.