Nordic vs Scandinavian Countries

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Last updated: Wednesday July 8th, 2020
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So what the heck is Scandinavia? And how is it different from the Nordics? If you're from the United States, you might have used these terms interchangeably. Much of the English speaking world uses the terms as synonyms of each other. However, Scandinavia and Nordic refer to completely different things. Hopefully in this blog I can try to define what these terms actually mean.

Scandinavian Peninsula

The Scandinavian Peninsula is a geographic region located in Northern Europe that is comprised of the mainland of Sweden and Norway along with Northwest Finland. With an area of about 750,000 km², it's the largest major peninsula in Europe. It borders the North, Norwegian, Barents, and Baltic seas. The Scandinavian Peninsula is purely geographical, so it's not the same thing as Scandinavia.

Scandinavian Peninsula

Scandinavia

The term Scandinavia generally refers to the Kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark because of their linguistic, cultural, and historic ties. It doesn't include territories such as Greenland or Svalbard however. Skandinavien loosely translates to Scandinavia in Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian. Scandinavia and Scandia (Skåne), a province in the southern tip of Sweden that was formerly part of Denmark, have the same etymological origins, however, it is disputed on what they are.

The countries of Scandinavia

Nordic Countries

Nordic is derived from the word "Norden", literally meaning "the North". The Nordics are comprised of the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway which account for roughly 3/4 of the total population. The countries of Finland and Iceland and the territories of the Åland Islands, Faroe Islands, Svalbard, Jan Mayen, and Greenland are also included. There are also other places, such as Estonia, that have close ties with Nordic countries but aren't generally considered to be a part of them. These countries have good relations and have even formed a Nordic Council to cooperate with each other after the independence of Iceland and Finland.

Nordic countries

Fennoscandia

Fennoscandia is a peninsula that encompasses all of mainland Norway, Sweden, and Finland along with Karelia and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. It comes from the Latin words Fennia (Finland) and Scandia (Scandinavian). But if you use this term, everyone will look at you weird because no one except the nerdiest of geography nerds uses that word -CGP Gray.

Fennoscandia

TL;DR: Scandinavia refers to the countries Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, while Nordic countries include those as well as Finland, Iceland, and their territories. If you don't know which one to say, use Nordics because it includes a wider range.

Here's a table listing what many places are a part of.

Place	Scandinavian Peninsula	Scandinavia	Nordics	Fennoscandia
Norway (Mainland)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sweden (Mainland)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Denmark (Mainland)	No	Yes	Yes	No
Finland	Partly	No	Yes	Yes
Iceland	No	No	Yes	No
Faroe Islands	No	No	Yes	No
Åland Islands	No	No	Yes	No
Svalbard	No	No	Yes	No
Jan Mayen	No	No	Yes	No
Greenland	No	No	Yes	No
Russia	No	No	No	Partly