Northern Europe

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A satellite photograph of northern Europe
Regions used for statistical processing purposes by the United Nations Statistics Division which classifies Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Turkey in Asia:
  Northern Europe
  Eastern Europe

Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. Although no definitive borders or definition exist for the term, geographically speaking, northern Europe can be said to consist of (from west to east): Iceland, Ireland, Great Britain, Scandinavia, Northern Germany, Finland, the Baltic States and Northwest Russia. Greenland, a constituent country of Kingdom of Denmark, geographically a part of North America, is politically a part of the Northern Europe because of its strong historic ties to the European mainland, and is sometimes included depending on the context.

History

A map of northern Europe after Ptolemy

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.

Geography

European sub-regions according to EuroVoc

Northern Europe consists roughly 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 and Ireland to the Scandinavian mountains peaking in Norway, 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 around 50 degrees north and a northern extreme of 81 degrees north. The entire region's climate is mildly affected by the Gulf Stream. 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.

Just as both climate and relief are variable across the region, so too is vegetation 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.

With the exception of the UK and Ireland, northern European countries are known for harsh winters with temperatures reaching as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius in some parts.[1]

Demographics

Many countries in northern Europe have large, developed economies and some of the highest standards of living in the world.[citation needed] They often score highly on surveys measuring quality-of-life, such as the Human Development Index.

Countries of Northern Europe

 Denmark
 Estonia
 Finland
 Iceland
 Ireland
 Latvia
 Lithuania
 Norway
 Sweden
 United Kingdom

See also

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References

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