Northern Europe

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Northern Europe as defined by the United Nations (marked blue):      Northern Europe      Western Europe      Eastern Europe      Southern Europe
Location of the Nordic countries and of the Baltic states:      Nordic countries      Baltic states

Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. The United Nations defines Northern Europe as including the following countries and dependent regions:[1][2]

Nordic countries or Nordic region include only a subset of the mentioned countries and territories. Before the 20th century, the term 'Nordic' or 'Northern' was commonly used to mean Northern Europe in a sense that included the Nordic countries, European Russia, the Baltic countries (at that time Estonia, Livonia and Courland). The United Kingdom and Ireland are sometimes included in Western Europe.[3].

Contents

[edit] History

A Dutch map of Northern Europe, printed in 1601.

Historically, when Europe was dominated by the Mediterranean region (i.e. the Roman Empire), everything not near this sea was termed Northern Europe, including Germany, the Low Countries, and Austria. This meaning is still used today in some contexts, such as in discussions of the Northern Renaissance. In medieval times, the term (Ultima) Thule was used to mean a mythical place in the extreme northern reaches of the continent.

Northern Europe:
Country Area
(km²)
Population
(2009 est.)
Population density
(per km²)
Capital
Åland Islands Åland (Finland) 1,552 26,008 16.7 Mariehamn
Belgium Belgium (Western Europe) 30,528 10,754,528 352.2 Brussels
Denmark Denmark 43,094 5,519,441 128.0 Copenhagen
Faroe Islands Faroe Islands (Denmark) 1,399 49,006 35.0 Tórshavn
Estonia Estonia 45,226 1,340,415 29.6 Tallinn
Finland Finland 336,593 5,349,200 15.8 Helsinki
Guernsey Guernseyd[›] 78 61,811 792.4 St Peter Port
Iceland Iceland 103,000 319,246 3.0 Reykjavík
Republic of Ireland Ireland 70,280 4,459,300 63.4 Dublin
Isle of Man Isle of Mand[›] 572 80,000 139.8 Douglas
Jersey Jerseyd[›] 116 89,300 769.8 Saint Helier
Latvia Latvia 64,589 2,254,000 34.8 Riga
Lithuania Lithuania 65,200 3,349,872 51.3 Vilnius
Luxembourg Luxembourg (Western Europe) 2,586 493,500 190.8 Luxembourg
Netherlands Netherlands (Western Europe) 41,526 16,571,800 399.0 Amsterdam
Norway Norway 324,220 4,843,800 14.9 Oslo
Norway Svalbard and Jan
Mayen Islands
(Norway)
62,049 2,140 0.034 Longyearbyen
Sweden Sweden 449,964 9,373,379 20.7 Stockholm
United Kingdom United Kingdom 244,820 61,634,599 251.7 London
Total 4,053,478 126,571,222 31.22

[edit] Geography

Northern Europe consists of the Scandinavian peninsula, the peninsula of Jutland, the Baltic plain that lies to the east and the many islands that lie offshore from mainland northern Europe, Greenland and the main European continent. The area is defined by the volcanic islands of the far northwest, notably Iceland and Jan Mayen, the mountainous western seaboard, extending from the mountainous sections of Great Britain & Ireland to the Scandinavian mountains, the central north mountains and hills of Sweden (which are the foothills of the Scandinavian mountains) and the large eastern plain, which contains, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland.

The region has a south west extreme of just under 50 degrees north and a northern extreme of 81 degrees north. The entire region's climate is affected by the Gulf Stream which has a mild influence on the climate. From the west climates vary from maritime and maritime subarctic climates. In the north and central climates are generally subarctic or Arctic and to the east climates are mostly subarctic and temperate/continental. As the climate and relief varies vegetation is also extremely variable, with sparse tundra in the north and high mountains, boreal forest on the north-eastern and central regions temperate coniferous forests (formerly of which a majority was in the Scottish highlands and south west Norway) and temperate broadleaf forests growing in the south, west and temperate east.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

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