The Nordic Region consists of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland,as well as the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland. The Nordic Region covers an area of about 3400 km2 and has a total population of over 26 million. Here you will find useful information about the Nordic Region and the individual Nordic countries.
The Nordic Council is the official inter-parliamentary body in the Nordic Region. The Nordic Council was formed in 1952. The Council has 87 elected members from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as from the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland.
The Nordic Council outward looking and has close co-operation with a number of international, regional and national parliamentary organisations outside the Region.
This history of the Nordic region from the Viking times to the present.
After conversion to Christianity in the 11th century, three northern kingdoms – Denmark, Norway and Sweden – emerged and what we today call the Nordic Region became a part of Europe.
Increased trade meant that the Nordic Region became increasingly integrated into Europe, and Nordic society became increasingly Continental. By the Late Middle Ages, the whole of the Nordic Region was politically united in the loose Kalmar Union.
The Kalmar Union fell apart, and the two new states, Denmark–Norway and Sweden, did their best to crush each other in constant wars to become the dominant power in the region. However, in the long term, both had to accept their role as small European states.
Population growth and industrialisation brought change to Europe and the Nordic Region in the 19th century. New social classes steered political systems towards democracy. International politics and nationalism created the preconditions for the independence of Norway, Finland and Iceland.
State-guaranteed welfare became the guiding principle for policy in the highly industrialised Nordic Region of the 20th-century. During the two world wars and the Cold War, the five small Nordic states were forced into difficult balancing acts, but retained their independence and developed peaceful democracies. Today, they face new challenges in an increasingly globalised world.