The Nordic countries are often known for their high quality of life, stunning landscapes, and progressive societies, but their everyday realities are filled with surprising and unusual details. Strange and Surprising Facts About the Nordic Countries explores the region’s unique traditions, innovative systems, and quirky cultural habits. From million-dollar traffic fines and free university education to saunas for everyone and random citizens answering global phone calls, these facts reveal how different – and fascinating – life in Northern Europe can be.
Capital Built On Fourteen Islands
1. Stockholm, Sweden’s capital, is constructed on 14 islands, and its city center is virtually located on the water.
2. Iceland is the sole country that does not have mosquitoes.
3. In Sweden, blood donors receive a text message each time their donated blood is used to save a life.
4. In Finland, some children read aloud to dogs and cows to boost their reading self-confidence because these animals enjoy listening and are very attentive.
5. In Finland, the term ‘kalsarikännit’ refers to getting drunk at home alone while wearing only underwear.
6. Until a 2006 change in voting laws that prohibited votes for nonexistent candidates, Swedish voters often cast ballots for Donald Duck or the Donald Duck Party as a nonexistent candidate.
7. Earlier in 2016, Sweden released a telephone number that connected callers to a random Swede. More than 32,000 Swedes agreed to take the calls by downloading an app, answering upwards of 180,000 calls from around the world.
8. In 18th-century Denmark, people who wanted to commit suicide feared that killing themselves would send them to hell. Instead, they killed other people to receive the death penalty and repented before execution, believing that doing so would send them to heaven.
9. In Sweden, you have a constitutional right called allemansrätten, which allows you to peacefully hike, camp, bike and enjoy nature anywhere in the country unimpeded, with the only restriction being very close to someone’s house or if you damage a garden.
10. Norway allows any student from anywhere in the world to study at its public universities for free.
Millionaires Hit With Massive Fines
11. In Finland, fines for speeding are set as a percentage of a person’s income, which results in some Finnish millionaires being issued penalties of more than $100,000.
12. Swede Göran Kropp cycled to Nepal, climbed Mount Everest alone without Sherpas or bottled oxygen, and then rode his bicycle back to Sweden.
13. Iceland zealously protects its language and, instead of adopting loanwords, repurposes older native terms: telephone is ‘simi’ meaning thread, jet plane is ‘thota’ meaning to zoom, and computer ‘tölva’ translates as number priestess or numbers witch.
14. Established in 930 A.D., Iceland’s Althing is the oldest active parliament in the world.
15. Becoming a police officer in Norway requires three years of higher education at a university college, and each graduate is awarded a bachelor’s degree in “Police Studies”.
16. In 2017 Norway became the first country in the world to shut down FM radio and switch to digital. Norway switched to DAB (which stands for ‘Digital Audio Broadcasting’) because FM is eight times more expensive.
17. Since Iceland became an independent republic in 1944, only one person has been killed by armed police.
18. Finland’s president Sauli Niinisto was in Thailand during the 2004 tsunami. He survived by climbing up a utility pole with his son.
19. In 1979 homosexuality was still classified as an illness in Sweden. Swedes protested by calling in sick to work, claiming they ‘felt gay’.
20. Finland has about two million saunas, enough for the entire Finnish population to take a sauna at the same time.
Copenhagen’s Two-Wheel Transport Boom
21. Copenhagen, Denmark, has more bicycles than people, with five times as many bicycles as cars, and about 400 km of cycle lanes that are not shared with cars or pedestrians in a city of roughly 600,000 people.
22. Sweden recycles so effectively that it does not have enough waste to process and therefore imports 80,000 tons of trash a year from Norway.
23. In Iceland, criminals are placed on a waiting list to serve prison sentences because there are not enough available jail cells, and many people on this list pay fines or perform community service instead of serving time in prison.
24. Norway has very strict rules governing advertisements that claim cars are “green”, stating that cars can do nothing good for the environment and only cause less damage than others.
25. Linje Akvavit is a flavored liquor from Norway that is shipped from Norway to Australia and back before it is bottled; the sloshing and temperature changes during the voyage alter the liquor, and the experiences on the ship impart certain flavors to the beverage. Akvavit is traditionally served as a holiday drink.
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