The Nordic countries, or the Nordics, are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic, where they are most commonly known as Norden (literally "the North"). The region includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, as well as the autonomous countries of the Faroe Islands and Greenland, which are both part of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Åland Islands, an autonomous region of the Republic of Finland; Jan Mayen island and the archipelago of Svalbard, both unincorporated areas of Metropolitan Norway, are also included. Bouvet Island, a dependency of the Kingdom of Norway, is sometimes not considered a part of the Nordic countries due to its remote geographical location. Several regions in Europe such as the Northern Isles of Scotland and Estonia share cultural and ethnic ties with the Nordic nations, but are not considered to be part of the Nordic countries today. Scandinavians, who comprise over three quarters of the region's population, are the largest group, followed by Finns, who comprise the majority in Finland; other ethnic groups are the Greenlandic Inuit, the Sámi people, and recent immigrants and their descendants. The native languages Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, and Faroese are all North Germanic languages rooted in Old Norse. Native non-Germanic languages are Finnish, Greenlandic languages and several Sámi languages. The main religion is Lutheran Christianity.The Nordic countries have much in common in their way of life, history, religion and social structure. The Nordic countries 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 independence of Finland in the early 20th century, and Iceland in the mid 20th century, this movement expanded into the modern organised Nordic cooperation which includes the Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers. The Helsinki Treaty is the political agreement that sets the framework for Nordic cooperation in the Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers. 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 as well as the northernmost part of Finland.The combined area of the Nordic countries is 3,425,804 square kilometres (1,322,710 sq mi). Uninhabitable icecaps and glaciers comprise about half of this area, mostly in Greenland. In January 2013, the region had a population of around 26 million people. 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. With only four language groups, the common linguistic heterogeneous heritage is one of the factors making up the Nordic identity. The Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic and Faroese languages are all rooted in Old Norse, and Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are considered mutually intelligible. These three dominant languages are taught in schools throughout the Nordic region. For example, Swedish is a mandatory subject in Finnish schools since Finland by law is a bilingual country. Danish is mandatory in Faroese and Greenlandic schools as these self-governing regions are a part of the Danish state. Iceland also teaches Danish since Iceland too was a part of the Danish Realm until 1918 and in union with Denmark until 1944. Beside these and the insular Nordic languages Faroese and Icelandic which are also North Germanic languages, there are the Finnic and Sámi branches of the Uralic languages, spoken in Finland and in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland, respectively; and Greenlandic, an Eskimo–Aleut language, spoken in Greenland. The Nordics have a North Germanic official language, commonly called a Nordic language in the Nordic countries. The working languages of its two political bodies are Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.
Each of the Nordic countries has its own economic and social models, sometimes with large differences from its neighbours, but to varying degrees sharing the Nordic model of economy and social structure, namely a market economy combined with strong labour unions and a universalist welfare sector financed by high taxes. There is a high degree of income redistribution and little social unrest. These include support for universalist welfare state aimed specifically at enhancing individual autonomy and promoting social mobility; a corporatist system involving a tripartite arrangement where representatives of labor and employers negotiate wages and labor market policy mediated by the government; and a commitment to private ownership (with some caveats) within a mixed economy.