What are the Scandinavian countries?

Scandinavia is a region in Northern Europe. So, countries the lie in this region are called Scandinavian countries. Scandinavian countries are three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. They called Scandinavian countries because of the Scandinavian peninsula. That’s the simple reason behind this. Another reason is that these countries have strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties. The term also originated from the region of Scania (also known as Skåne), the southernmost province of Sweden. The word Scandinavia came into existence in the late 18th century during the linguistic and cultural Scandinavist movement.

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Norway and Sweden share the Scandinavian peninsula region that covers a total area of 289,500 square miles. Denmark doesn’t have land in Scandinavian peninsula, but it occupies the land known as the Jutland peninsula. Denmark used to have the lands in southern Sweden. It is also said that the original homeland of the Danes was in southern Sweden. That’s the reason it is also one of the Scandinavian countries even if it doesn’t occupy any land of the Scandinavian peninsula region now.

There’s one more interesting theory being the Scandinavian region. There’s a common word called Skandinavien in Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish languages. The word Skandinavien re refers to the ancient territories of the Norsemen that include Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. This definition is commonly accepted.

Finland is not the part of Scandinavia but it could be considered Scandinavian geographically. At one time, it was a part of the Swedish Kingdom and most Finns used to be Scandinavians. But Finnish is not a Scandinavian language and people of Finland are also ethnically distinct.

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But there’s another term called Nordic countries. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Greenland are considered to be Nordic countries. So, Nordic countries are all five of the northern European countries.

Here is the map showing the Nordic region.

Now you know what are Scandinavian countries. Just three countries are Scandinavian countries. Finland is not one of the Scandinavia countries. Nordic countries include Scandinavian countries.

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