What if the Nordic countries united?

the nordic countries are often regarded as being some of the best countries in the world in terms of human development living standards and economy strength this region comprises of five sovereign states denmark finland iceland norway and sweden there are also autonomous regions and territories such as the pharaoh islands and greenland which both belong to the kingdom of denmark these five nations have a combined population of 27.5 million the nordic countries are rather sparsely populated if we were to combine them they would have a population density of around 7.6 people per kilometer squared which would make them one of the least densely populated countries on earth the combined gdp or economy size of this region would be a very impressive 1.8 trillion us dollars which would place them in the top 10 in the world giving them a similar economy size to that of south korea and in fact more than russia a country with a population over five times larger the gdp per capita of this country will be close to 67 000 us dollars which would rank them 15th in the world which is extremely impressive as most of the countries at the top of this list are small extremely wealthy nations like monaco hong kong and liechtenstein area size of this country would be around 3.4 million kilometers squared which would make it the seventh biggest country on earth placing them above india and below australia and quite a bit below australia too at roughly half the size so so far very impressive from the nordic people if they were a single country they'll be competing with the big boys on the world stage and again for a population of less than delhi this is admirable now this next section believe it or not is even more impressive let's take a look at how each of these countries rank in quality of life statistics so first things first in the human development index all five nations rank in the top 11 with norway actually taking the crown for the most developed nation on earth combined they would place around seventh in the world for the corruption index denmark takes the crown as the least corrupt nation in the world combined they would rank about sixth in the world with only iceland letting them down for the fragile state index finland norway and iceland rank as first second and third respectively denmark ranks as fifth and sweden eighth for economic freedom they would rank around the 17th mark for global economy competitiveness they would rank about 14th for environmental performance around ninth in which denmark places first in the world in the good country ranking they would place around ninth with finland securing that first place spot the global gender gap places them fifth in the world most notably iceland finland and norway ranking first second and third respectively only denmark lets the team down here placing in 28th place for the world mothers report which analyzes countries based on the health of mothers and their children they would rank fourth with finland taking yet another top spot crown and finally one of the most important rankings when it comes to determining the quality of life of citizens is the world happiness ranking quite simply the more developed safe and prosperous a country is the happier the people will be for this the combined nordic nations would rank fourth in the world with finland and denmark being the happiest and second happiest nations respectively when it comes to military personnel there is one country who would be pulling its weight far more than other nations finland the nordic countries have a combined military size of 1.1 million personnel 900 000 of which would come from finland iceland would give by far the least as iceland has no official military force they are said to have just 130 personnel however iceland is still part of nato although it has no troops to offer it has very valuable airspace which would seriously aid nato if war did break out across the planet okay so enough stats for now we can clearly see these nations are all extremely successful and if they were to merge together they will be an economical powerhouse all whilst offering their citizens some of the highest living standards in the world but how on earth have they achieved this well there is something called the nordic model but what exactly is it the nordic model is a term used to capture the unique combination of free market capitalism and social benefits that have given rise to a society that enjoys large amounts of top quality services such as free education and health care these benefits are funded by the citizens of these countries aka the taxpayers and these citizens have a high degree of trust in their government which allows them to work together to reach compromises and address societal challenges through democratic processes to put it simply these countries have some of the highest tax rates in the world in return social programs are of extreme high quality those who don't earn a lot can still live a good life through social programs and those who earn a lot will usually have a pretty good life anyway whether you agree with this economic strategy is another thing but objectively these are some of the best countries in the world to live in in terms of quality of life now of course this strategy is not perfect there are flaws in this model which these countries are now starting to experience two of the biggest concerns are an aging population and an influx of immigrants in terms of an aging population a large base of young taxpayers and a small population of older residents receiving services is the ideal scenario however as the population balance shifts the other way benefit reductions are a likely outcome in terms of immigration these countries attract a notable influx of newcomers seeking to enjoy the generous public benefits imagine you are from a developing nation that has been part of a decades-long civil war your education will likely have been severely hindered and you will most likely be very poor now imagine moving to a well-developed nation like one of the nordic countries which is extremely expensive and not only that you don't speak a single word of their language the chances of securing a high-paying job to feed your children is very unlikely meaning many of these immigrants will have to survive purely on the social programs offered by the government which in terms of economic progress isn't ideal if the nordic countries did combine to become one super country they would claim some very strategically important territories land air and sea they would dominate parts of the north sea the norwegian sea the denmark strait and north atlantic ocean all the way up to the arctic ocean iceland and greenland's territorial claim would combine together to create the perfect choke point in the north atlantic an invaluable asset to have if a world war was to break out the newly created union would have rich oil and gas fields thirty percent of all iron ore of europe fifty percent of all the forest resources in europe and twenty percent of all fresh water in europe it would be a true northern powerhouse now here's an interesting question if this nordic union was to happen where would its capital city be the candidates would certainly be three existing capitals in my mind it would be oslo stockholm or copenhagen helsinki is far too east and close to russia and reykjavic is far too west and largely inaccessible copenhagen makes sense as it's just a stone's throw away from sweden although with sweden being the biggest country of all these nations perhaps they would want the capital to be within their borders in this case it could be gothenburg or stockholm let us know in the comments which nordic city you think would make the best capital city another interesting question is what would the official language be of this union these scandinavian languages are very similar to each other already so there are a few options for a common language the main ones being english due to the fact that most people especially the younger population speak english fluently across the nordic countries swedish as it is the most widely spoken nordic language or a pan-nordic language which would require learning and would take a long time to formulate in my opinion i believe english would be the best bet denmark norway sweden and finland all scored in the top 10 for the 2021 english proficiency index english is also the most widely spoken language in the world and considers the language of business this would give the region an economic advantage if it were to choose the current most spoken language in the region swedish this would not give them any economic advantage as not many people outside of sweden actually speak swedish the only benefit is that it would preserve the nordic identity so how successful do you think a united nordic region will be let us know in the comments and as well which city you think should be its capital thank you for watching this video and as always drop a like if you enjoyed it dislike it if you didn't enjoy it and subscribe if you haven't already it's completely free and you can always unsubscribe at any time thanks again for watching and we will see you very soon in the next video [Music]

Channel: The Geography Bible

Views: 237,311

Keywords: nordic countries, nordic, nordic country, scandinavian countries, nordic countries map, host nordic countries, nordic countries history, nordic class, nordic countries countries, nordic flags of countries, population nordic countries, nordic countires, scandinavian and nordic countries, nordic people, scandinavian, scandinavia, scandinavian style, scandinavian interior design, scandinavian design, scandinavian defense, scandinavian home, norway, sweden, finland, iceland, denmark

Id: -R6mDGBL1ZQ

Length: 10min 4sec (604 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 26 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/PumparN]

So good to have you back man! The subreddit can finaly be more active now!

[u/OohBoy2020]

I think we should leave Norway out of it for the memes