Nordic countries facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Nordic countries Norden (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish) Nordę  (Elfdalian) Pohjoismaat  (Finnish) Norðurlöndin  (Icelandic) Norðurlond  (Faroese) Nunat Avannarliit  (Greenlandic) Davviriikkat  (Northern Sami) Nuorttarijkka  (Lule Sami) Tave-enâmeh  (Inari Sami) Noerhtelaanten  (Southern Sami) Tâʹvvjânnam  (Skolt Sami)
Land controlled by the Nordic countries shown in dark green. Bouvet Island and Antarctic claims not shown.
Capitals	Copenhagen Helsinki Reykjavík Oslo Stockholm Tórshavn Nuuk Mariehamn
Largest city	Stockholm
Official languages	Danish Finnish Icelandic Norwegian Swedish Faroese Greenlandic Sami
Recognised regional languages	Meänkieli Karelian Kven German Romani Tavringer Yiddish
Religion	Mainly Lutheranism
Composition	5 sovereign states  Denmark  Finland  Iceland  Norway  Sweden 2 autonomous territories  Faroe Islands  Greenland 1 autonomous region  Åland 2 unincorporated areas  Jan Mayen  Svalbard 1 dependency  Bouvet Island 2 Antarctic claims  Peter I Island  Queen Maud Land
Establishment
• Inauguration of the Nordic Council	12 February 1953
• Helsinki Treaty	23 March 1962
• Inauguration of the Nordic Council of Ministers	July 1971
Population
• 2021 estimate	27,562,156 (52nd)
• 2000 census	24,221,754
• Density	7.62/km2 (19.7/sq mi) (225th)
GDP (PPP)	2019 estimate
• Total	$1.6 trillion (19th)
• Per capita	$58,000 (13th)
GDP (nominal)	2021 estimate
• Total	$1.8 trillion (10th)
• Per capita	$66,900 (15th)
Currency	5 currencies Danish krone Euro Icelandic króna Norwegian krone Swedish krona
Driving side	right
Calling code	+45 (Denmark) +46 (Sweden) +47 (Norway) +298 (Faroe Islands) +299 (Greenland) +354 (Iceland) +358 (Finland) +358 18 (Åland)

The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or Norden; lit. the North) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden; the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland; and the autonomous region of Åland.

The Nordic countries have much in common in their way of life, history, religion and social and economic model. They have a long history of political unions and other close relations but do not form a singular entity today. The Scandinavist movement sought to unite Denmark, Norway and Sweden into one country in the 19th century. With the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden (Norwegian independence), the independence of Finland in the early 20th century and the 1944 Icelandic constitutional referendum, this movement expanded into the modern organised Nordic cooperation. Since 1962, this cooperation has been based on the Helsinki Treaty that sets the framework for the Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers.

The Nordic countries cluster near the top in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life and human development. Each country has its own economic and social model, sometimes with large differences from its neighbours. Still, they share aspects of the Nordic model of economy and social structure to varying degrees. This includes a mixed market economy combined with strong labour unions and a universalist welfare sector financed by high taxes, enhancing individual autonomy and promoting social mobility. There is a high degree of income redistribution, commitment to private ownership and little social unrest.

North Germanic peoples, who comprise over three-quarters of the region's population, are the largest ethnic group, followed by the Baltic Finnic Peoples, who comprise the majority in Finland; other ethnic groups are the Greenlandic Inuit, the Sami people and recent immigrants and their descendants. Historically, the main religion in the region was Norse paganism. This gave way first to Roman Catholicism after the Christianisation of Scandinavia. Then, following the Protestant Reformation, the main religion became Lutheran Christianity, the state religion of several Nordic countries.

Although the area is linguistically heterogeneous, with three unrelated language groups, the common linguistic heritage is one factor that makes up the Nordic identity. Most Nordic languages belong to North Germanic languages, Finno-Ugric languages and Eskimo–Aleut languages. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are considered mutually intelligible, and they are the working languages of the region's two political bodies. Swedish is a mandatory subject in Finnish schools and Danish in Faroese schools. Danish is also taught in schools in Iceland.

The combined area of the Nordic countries is 3,425,804 square kilometres (1,322,710 sq mi). Uninhabitable ice caps and glaciers comprise about half of this area, mainly Greenland. In September 2021, the region had over 27 million people. Especially in English, Scandinavia is sometimes used as a synonym for the Nordic countries, but that term more properly refers to the three monarchies of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Geologically, the Scandinavian Peninsula comprises the mainland of Norway and Sweden and the northernmost part of Finland.

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  Nordic countries (orange and red) and Scandinavian countries (red)

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  The Barents Region

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  A satellite photograph of Northern Europe

List

Sovereign states

Sovereign state	Kingdom of Denmark	Republic of Finland	Iceland	Kingdom of Norway	Kingdom of Sweden
Flag
Coat of arms
Official local name	Kongeriget Danmark	Suomen tasavalta Republiken Finland	Ísland	Kongeriket Norge Kongeriket Noreg Norgga gonagasriika	Konungariket Sverige
Local common name	Danmark	Suomi Finland	Ísland	Norge Noreg Norga	Sverige
English common name	Denmark	Finland	Iceland	Norway	Sweden
Population (2021 estimate)	5,894,687	5,587,442	354,234	5,509,591	10,261,767
Area	43,094 km2	338,145 km2	103,000 km2	385,207 km2	450,295 km2
Population density (2015 estimate)	129.5/km2	16.2/km2	3.2/km2	13.5/km2	22.9/km2
Capital city	Copenhagen	Helsinki	Reykjavík	Oslo	Stockholm
Largest urban areas	Copenhagen – 2,135,634 Aarhus – 330,639 Odense – 213,558 Aalborg – 205,809 Esbjerg – 116,032	Helsinki – 1,576,438 Tampere – 370,084 Turku – 315,751 Oulu – 200,400 Jyväskylä – 140,812	Reykjavík – 247,590 Akureyri – 18,103 Reykjanesbær – 14,000 Akranes – 6,699 Selfoss – 6,512	Oslo – 1,546,706 Bergen – 265,470 Stavanger/Sandnes – 229,911 Trondheim – 191,771 Fredrikstad/Sarpsborg – 117,510	Stockholm – 2,415,139 Gothenburg – 1,015,974 Malmö – 707,120 Helsingborg – 272,873 Uppsala – 253,704
Form of government	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy	Unitary parliamentary republic	Unitary parliamentary republic	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
Current head of state and government	Frederik X (King) Mette Frederiksen (Prime Minister)	Alexander Stubb (President) Petteri Orpo (Prime Minister)	Halla Tómasdóttir (President) Bjarni Benediktsson (Prime Minister)	Harald V (King) Jonas Gahr Støre (Prime Minister)	Carl XVI Gustaf (King) Ulf Kristersson (Prime Minister)
European Free Trade Association	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
European Union	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
European Economic Area	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Official languages	Danish	Finnish and Swedish	Icelandic	Norwegian and Sami	Swedish
Official or recognized minority languages	German (in South Jutland)	Sami, Romani, Sign Language, Karelian	Sign Language	Kven, Tavringer, Romani	Finnish, Sami, Romani, Yiddish and Meänkieli
Main religions	74.8% Lutheran 5.3% Islam 19.9% other, unspecified or no religion	67.8% Lutheran 1.1% Orthodox 1.7% other religion 29.4% unspecified or no religion	63.5% Lutheran 11.7% other Christian 3.3% other religion 21.5% unspecified or no religion	68.7% Lutheran 7.0% other Christian 3.4% Islam 0.8% other religion 20.2% no religion	60.2% Lutheran 8.5% other 31.3% no religion
GDP (nominal) (2016)	$306.7 billion	$236.8 billion	$20.0 billion	$370.4 billion	$511.3 billion
GDP (nominal) per capita (2016)	$53,744	$43,169	$59,629	$70,392	$51,165
GDP (PPP) (2016)	$273.8 billion	$231.3 billion	$16.5 billion	$364.4 billion	$498.1 billion
GDP (PPP) per capita (2016)	$47,985	$42,165	$49,136	$69,249	$49,836
Real GDP growth rate (2019 est.)	2.85%	1.15%	1.94%	0.86%	1.29%
Currency	Danish krone	Euro	Icelandic króna	Norwegian krone	Swedish krona
Military expenditure	1.41% of GDP	1.99% of GDP	0.13% of GDP	1.4% of GDP	1.18% of GDP
Military personnel	72,135	900,000	130	69,700	57,000
Labour force	2,962,340	2,677,260	197,200	2,781,420	5,268,520
Human Development Index rank (2021 data, 2022 report)	6	11	3	2	7
Corruption Perceptions Index rank (2022)	1	2	14	4	5
Press Freedom Index rank (2022)	2	5	15	1	3
Fragile States Index rank (2022)	175	179	177	178	170
Economic Freedom rank (2023)	10	9	13	14	11
Global Competitiveness rank (2019)	10	11	26	17	8
Environmental Performance rank (2020)	1	7	17	9	8
Good Country rank (2022)	2	5	20	11	1
Global Gender Gap Report rank (2022)	31	2	1	3	5
World's Mothers report rank (2014)	6	1	4	2	3
World Happiness Report rank (2023)	2	1	3	7	6
The figures in this table do not include the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Åland, Jan Mayen, Svalbard, Bouvet Island, Peter I Island, and Queen Maud Land.

Associated territories and other areas

Territory / Area	Faroe Islands	Greenland	Åland	Svalbard
Flag
Coat of arms
Official local name	Føroyar Færøerne	Kalaallit Nunaat Grønland	Landskapet Åland	Svalbard
Population (2016 estimate)	49,188	56,483	29,013	2,667
Area	1,393 km2	2,166,086 km2	1,580 km2	61,022 km2
Population density	35.5/km2	0.028/km2	18.36/km2	0.044/km2
Capital city	Tórshavn	Nuuk	Mariehamn	Longyearbyen
Largest urban areas	Tórshavn – 12,648 Klaksvík – 4,681 Hoyvík – 2,951 Argir – 1,907 Fuglafjørður – 1,542	Nuuk – 16,464 Sisimiut – 5,598 Ilulissat – 4,541 Qaqortoq – 3,229 Aasiaat – 3,142	Mariehamn – 11,521 Jomala – 4,646 Finström – 2,529 Lemland – 1,991 Saltvik – 1,827	Longyearbyen – 2,144 Barentsburg – 471 Ny-Ålesund – ~30–130 Isbjørnhamna – ~10–12
Sovereign state	Kingdom of Denmark		Republic of Finland	Kingdom of Norway
Status	Autonomous territory		Autonomous region	Unincorporated area
Form of government	Devolved parliamentary within a constitutional monarchy	Devolved parliamentary within a constitutional monarchy	Unitary parliamentary republic	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
Current head of state and government	Frederik X (King) Aksel V. Johannesen (Premier)	Frederik X (King) Múte Bourup Egede (Premier)	Alexander Stubb (President) Katrin Sjögren (Lantråd)	Harald V (King) Jonas Gahr Støre (Prime Minister)
European Union	No	No, OCT	Yes	No
European Economic Area	No	No	Yes	No
Nordic Council	Associate member	Associate member	Associate member	No individual representation
Main languages	Faroese, Danish	Greenlandic, Danish	Swedish	Norwegian
Main religions	89.3% Lutheran 6% unspecified 3.8% none	96.08% Lutheran 0.79% Inuit spiritual beliefs 2.48% atheist+agnostic	72.0% Lutheran 1.3% Other religion 26.7% No religion
GDP (nominal)	$2.77 billion	$2.22 billion
GDP (nominal) per capita	$50,300	$43,365
GDP (PPP)	$1.471 billion	$2.173 billion	$1.563 billion
GDP (PPP) per capita	$36,600	$37,900	$55,829
Real GDP growth rate	5.90% (2017 est.)	7.70% (2016 est.)
Currency	Faroese króna Danish krone	Danish krone	Euro	Norwegian krone

History

Timeline

Italics indicates a dependent territory.

National symbols

Flags of the Nordic countries, its territories, and the Nordic Council from left to right: Finland, Åland, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Nordic Council

The Nordic countries, including the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Åland, have a similar flag design, all based on the Dannebrog, the Danish flag. They display an off-centre cross with the intersection closer to the hoist – the "Nordic cross" or "Scandinavian cross"– however each has a different aspect ratio. Greenland and Sápmi have adopted flags without the Nordic cross, but they both feature a circle which is placed off-centre, similar to the cross.

Geography

Satellite map of the European part of the Nordic countries, except for Jan Mayen and Svalbard

The Öresund Bridge between Malmö in Sweden and Copenhagen in Denmark

The Nordic countries and self-governing regions in alphabetic order – number of inhabitants (2018), area (km²) and population density (people/km²):

Denmark is by far the most densely populated country, whilst Sweden, Norway and Finland are low populated and similar to each other from this perspective. Iceland has both the lowest population and by far the lowest population density. But large areas in Finland, Norway and Sweden, like most of Iceland, are unpopulated. There are no such areas in Denmark. Denmark has a population density around continental average, higher than for instance France and Poland but lower when compared to the United Kingdom, Italy or Germany. Finland, Norway and Sweden has a population density that is a little lower than the United States, but higher than Canada. In round figures, Iceland's population density resembles Canada's.

Land and water area

Share of total area in the Nordic countries in 2012

This list includes dependent territories within their sovereign states (including uninhabited territories), but does not include claims on Antarctica. EEZ+TIA is exclusive economic zone (EEZ) plus total internal area (TIA) which includes land and internal waters.

Denmark

The exclusive economic zones and territorial waters of the Kingdom of Denmark

The Kingdom of Denmark includes the home-rule (hjemmestyre) territory of the Faroe Islands and the self-rule (selvstyre) territory of Greenland.

The Nordic countries have a combined area of around 3.5 million square kilometres and their geography is extremely varied. The area is so vast that it covers five time zones. To the east the region borders Russia, and on the west the Canadian coastline can be seen from Greenland on a clear day. Even excluding Greenland and the Norwegian islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen, the remaining part of the Nordic countries covers around 1.3 million square kilometres. This is about the same area as France, Germany and Italy together. To the south, the countries neighbor the Baltic states, Poland, Germany and the United Kingdom, while to the north there is the Arctic Ocean.

Notable natural features of the Nordic countries include the Norwegian fjords, the Archipelago Sea between Finland and Sweden, the extensive volcanic and geothermal activity of Iceland, and Greenland, which is the largest island in the world. The southernmost point of the Nordic countries is Gedser, on the island of Falster in Denmark. The northernmost point is Kaffeklubben Island in Greenland, which is also the northernmost point of land on Earth. The largest cities and capitals of the Nordic countries are situated on the southern parts of the region, with the exception of Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm are all close to the same latitude as the southernmost point of Greenland, Egger Island (Itilleq): about 60°N.

Images for kids

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  Nordic flags

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  Effigy of Queen Margaret, founder and ruler of the Kalmar Union

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  Nordic prime ministers at the Nordic Council meeting in 2014 in Stockholm

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  The Öresund Bridge between Malmö in Sweden and Copenhagen in Denmark

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  Share of total area in the Nordic countries in 2012

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  Average temperatures in the capitals of the Nordic countries in 2012

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  Copenhagen Central Station with S-Trains

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  Statfjord oil platform in Norway is owned and operated by Equinor, which is the largest company in the Nordic countries

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  The Port of Gothenburg is the largest port in the Nordic countries.

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  During the recent years, Denmark has invested heavily in windfarms

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  Population density map of the Nordic countries (1996)

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  Historical reenactment of a farmer wedding in Jomala, Åland

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  Sami man at Honningsvåg, Norway, wearing the traditional Gákti

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  Faroese folk dancers in national costumes

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  ABBA is one of the best-selling music artists of all time

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  Søren Kierkegaard is considered to be the first existentialist philosopher

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  Swedish author Astrid Lindgren together with Finnish author Tove Jansson in Stockholm in 1958

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  Flag of Åland

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  The Barents Region

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  A satellite photograph of Northern Europe

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  The Finnic languages in Northern Europe

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  The Sami languages in Northern Europe

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  Share of total population of the Nordic countries by country in January 2013

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  Life expectancy at birth in the Nordic countries in 2012

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  Marriages and divorces in the Nordic countries in 2012

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  Immigrants in the Nordic countries in 2012

See also

In Spanish: Países nórdicos para niños