Øresund is the Danish strait connecting the Kattegat and the Baltic Sea. It lies between Denmark’s island of Zealand and Sweden’s southwestern coast, where the cities of Copenhagen and Malmö face one another.
The strait is about 118 kilometres long, although its width varies considerably. Its narrowest point is near Helsingør in Denmark and Helsingborg in Sweden. The Øresund Bridge, opened in 2000, carries both road traffic and railway traffic across the southern part of the strait.
Øresund is also spelled Öresund in Swedish, while Danish uses Øresund. It should not be confused with the Great Belt, another Danish waterway between Zealand and Funen. Together with the Great Belt and Little Belt, Øresund forms part of the Danish straits, an important maritime route between the North Sea and the Baltic.