Historical Person Register designated as new national research infrastructure and awarded almost DKK 16 million
Historical Person Register designated as new national research infrastructure and awarded almost DKK 16 million
The Ministry of Higher Education and Science has published the new national roadmap for research infrastructure, which is expected to make a significant contribution to research across disciplines. The Historical Person Register (HisPeR) has been selected and will receive funding of almost DKK 16 million.
HisPeR on roadmap
The Ministry of Higher Education and Science has designated the Danish National Archives’ Historical Person Register (HisPeR) for inclusion on the roadmap for new digital national research infrastructures. This means that HisPeR will become an important contribution to Danish research and societal development as part of the strategic plan for research infrastructures in Denmark.
We at the Danish National Archives are very proud that HisPeR has been included on the roadmap for research infrastructure. It enables us, together with our partners, to realise an even greater share of the potential contained in the collections of the Danish National Archives for the benefit of research and thus Danish society as a whole. At the same time, the grant is an example of how new technologies are opening up entirely new possibilities for reusing the collections.
What is HisPeR?
HisPeR extends the Civil Registration System (CPR) backwards in time and brings together information about individuals in Denmark from 1645 up to the establishment of the CPR. When the infrastructure is fully established, it will contain around 100 million registered individuals and make it possible to trace life courses and family relations over as many as 15 generations.
400 years of personal history in one place
The establishment of HisPeR is already under way through existing projects and a basic infrastructure at the Danish National Archives. Funding via the Roadmap for Research Infrastructure will support the first steps in the further development of the infrastructure and the long‑term anchoring of HisPeR as a permanent data and research service for the benefit of both Danish and international researchers, as well as other interested users. HisPeR will aggregate approximately 100 million registered individuals from 1645 to the present day.
The research infrastructure will be continuously expanded with new datasets, which will be made available within the framework of the Danish Archives Act.
HisPeR combines historical sources from the Danish National Archives and other cultural heritage institutions, such as parish registers, censuses and administrative records, with modern data from the CPR and is designed to support research across a wide range of fields, including demography, education, health, migration and social conditions.
“By enabling the analysis of life courses, relationships and population developments across generations and periods, HisPeR gives researchers access to a historical depth that has not previously been possible in Denmark,” explains Senior Researcher and project leader at the Danish National Archives, Barbara Revuelta‑Eugercios.
HisPeR will also be available to others working with historical data. Users will be able to study population developments, health or social structures in new ways using the new research infrastructure. At the same time, the general public will gain the opportunity to search historical information about previous generations.
Historical Person Register
- HisPeR is being developed by the Danish National Archives in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University, Aalborg University, Roskilde University and the University of Southern Denmark. Other partners include the Royal Danish Library, the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen City Archives, the Organisation of Danish Archives, the Federation of Local Archives, Statistics Denmark, the Danish Health Data Authority and the Coordinating Body for Register-based Research.
- The project will run in the period 2026–2030.
- Read the news item from the Ministry of Higher Education and Science: