Is LIX the same in Danish and Swedish?

Yes. The formula is identical because LIX was deliberately built to be language-independent. Danish schools use the same long-word and sentence-length inputs, so a Danish LIX of 40 means the same difficulty band as a Swedish one.

What counts as a long word?

A long word has more than six letters, that is seven characters or more. Danish compound nouns are frequently long, so factual Danish prose tends to score a few points higher than equivalent English.

What LIX score should I aim for?

Under 35 is easy and suits general readers. 35 to 45 is typical newspaper level. Above 55 is technical or legal. For public information in Danish, many style guides target under 40.

How are sentences counted?

Sentence count comes from terminal punctuation such as periods, exclamation marks, question marks, and colons. Trailing text with no terminator still counts as one sentence.

Is my text uploaded anywhere?

No. All counting and scoring runs locally in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server, stored, or logged, so private drafts stay private.

Danish LIX Readability Score

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LIX, or Læsbarhedsindeks in Danish, is the Scandinavian readability index created for Swedish and adopted across Danish and Norwegian education. It estimates how hard a text is from only word length and sentence length, which makes it reliable across languages without needing syllable rules.

How it works

LIX combines two measurements: the average sentence length and the percentage of long words. A long word has more than six letters. The score is:

LIX = (words / sentences) + (longWords × 100 / words)

The first term is words divided by sentences. The second is the share of long words as a percentage. Summing them gives one index that grows as sentences lengthen and as the text uses more long words.

Tips and example

Danish, like Swedish, builds long compound nouns, so the long-word percentage is often the dominant driver of a high LIX score. A simple letlæsning text for early readers scores below 25, while a ministry circular full of compounds and subordinate clauses can exceed 55. To bring a score down, split long sentences first, then unpack compound nouns into shorter phrasing where possible. Common Danish bands are: under 35 easy, 35 to 45 medium, 45 to 55 difficult, and over 55 very difficult.