An independence referendum was held in the Faroe Islands, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, on 14 September 1946. Although a narrow majority of valid votes were cast in favour of the proposal (50.7%), the number of invalid votes exceeded the winning margin. Although independence was declared by the Speaker of the Løgting on 18 September 1946, the declaration was not recognised by Denmark. Danish King Christian X dissolved the Løgting and called fresh elections, which were won by unionist parties. The islands were subsequently given a greater level of self-rule.

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Danish. (November 2022) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Danish Wikipedia article at [[:da:Folkeafstemningen på Færøerne 1946]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|da|Folkeafstemningen på Færøerne 1946}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Faroese. (November 2022) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Faroese Wikipedia article at [[:fo:Fólkaatkvøðan 14. september 1946]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|fo|Fólkaatkvøðan 14. september 1946}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Quick Facts Outcome, Results ...

1946 Faroese independence referendum

14 September 1946 (1946-09-14)
Do you want the Faroe Islands to separate from Denmark?
Outcome	Results not recognised by Denmark. Home rule established on the Faroe Islands.
Results
Choice Votes  % Independence 5,660 50.72% Home Rule with Denmark 5,499 49.28% Valid votes 11,159 95.87% Invalid or blank votes 481 4.13% Total votes 11,640 100.00% Registered voters/turnout 17,216 67.61%
Results by island   Union   Independence

Close

The result – without taking the invalid votes into regard – was 50.7% in favour of full independence to 49.3% in favour of home rule within Denmark.^[1]

However, there were 4.1% invalid votes, mostly voters who rejected both proposals. Some politicians from the People's Party had suggested that a third option of a sovereign Faroe Islands within a union with Denmark should be on the ballot (similar to the status the Kingdom of Iceland had 1918–44), but since this proposal was not put on the ballot, they suggested that voters write 'no' to the first proposal оn the ballot instead of choosing either alternative, while some Social Democrats in favour of keeping the status quo recommended writing 'no' to the second proposal.^{[citation needed]}

Subsequently, there was disunion about the interpretation of the result, as there was no full majority for either proposal; only a slight plurality for option 2, the full independence.^{[citation needed]}

The chairman of the Løgting subsequently declared independence on 18 September 1946, but this was not recognised either by a majority of the Løgting or the Danish parliament and government. King Christian X of Denmark dissolved the Løgting on 24 September and called for new elections.^[2][3] The dissolution of the Løgting was on 8 November followed by the Faroese parliamentary election of 1946 in which the parties in favour of full independence received a total of 5,396 votes while the parties against received a total of 7,488 votes.^[4] New negotiations followed, and Denmark granted the Faroe Islands home-rule on 30 March 1948.^[2]

• Faroese independence movement
• Faroese language conflict