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Objectives To describe absence during pregnancy in the Danish workforce according to occupation, industry, and changes over time (1998-2018).Methods The Danish register-based cohort DOC*X-Generation was used to identify all pregnancies among women (18-50 years) engaged in regular employment in Denmark from 1998 to 2018. The cohort holds individual-level data on occupations coded according to the Danish versions of the International Standard Classification of Occupations and of EU’s nomenclature, NACE rev. 2. Data on absence from work was retrieved from the Danish Register for Evaluation and Marginalization. The study population comprised 884,616 pregnancies in 547,870 women.Results In 48% of the included pregnancies, the women had at least one week with registered absence with a median of eight weeks with absence (5-95% percentile; 1-27 weeks). The highest proportion of pregnancies with absence was observed among painters (75%) and women in the manufacture of meat products industry (68%). The lowest proportions were seen among professionals (physics, mathematics, engineering, architecture, 30%) and in the research and university education industry (32%). The difference between the lowest and highest number of cumulated weeks with absence was 9 weeks (5 to 14). From 1998-2018 the proportion of pregnancies with registered absence decreased, whereas the extent of absence per pregnancy increased.Conclusions Absence during pregnancy was consistently high over time, but with vast differences across occupations and industries. A deeper understanding of underlying reasons for pregnancy-related absence is essential to develop targeted strategies for reducing absence, such as providing better opportunities for early adjustments or other tailored interventions.