Why Sweden Dominates Scandinavia's Population

Scandinavia is a fascinating region of the world! For one, it's usually considered to be the happiest with each of its respective countries often topping the global happiness list. But also, there's not that many Scandinavians relative to its size! In fact, the entire region has less than 1/4th the population of Germany. What's even more interesting is that, within Scandinavia, Sweden has about twice the population as its three siblings: Denmark, Finland, and Norway. So how did Sweden grow so much larger if it shares pretty much the same geographic region?

In this video, we'll cover the incredible geography of Scandinavia and the surprising differences as you traverse each country, the history of how these four countries became independent and how they have been linked throughout time, and, finally, how Sweden managed to grow so much larger in population.

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Video editing support provided by Kat Olsen

[andrewtormanen]

You'd think that the geography person would know the difference between Scandinavia and the Nordic countries.

[vincedaprince]

”Sweden actually allowed German troops to traverse the country to invade Norway.” False, the Germans soldiers who used Swedish railway were only allowed in after the surrender of Norway. Very misleading information. Especially considering all the help Sweden gave the allies.

[ganjafi]

Sweden home of the Scandinavian mountains.

Shows drone video of Northern Norway 😂

[WilliamSun-nend]

Finland - too many lakes
Norway - too mountainous
Denmark - too small

[idw]

for a geography channel, you should be informing people that scandinavia is denmark, norway and sweden; finland along with iceland is part of the larger nordic country block

[evaandersson]

I don’t know what they teach in Swedish schools now but when I went to school in the 80’s and 90’s Finland was never included in Scandinavia. I’ve lived my entire life in Sweden and have never heard anyone from Sweden include Finland in Scandinavia. So this “Finland is sometimes excluded from Scandinavia” is not true, at least not in Sweden. We always exclude Finland when we talk about Scandinavia.
Just like others have said:
Skandinavien - Sweden, Norway and Denmark
Skandinaviska halvön - Sweden and Norway
Norden - Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland

[comedyriff]

It´s interesting that Sweden has a a bit of what all its neighbor has. It has mountains like Norway, it has forest and lakes like Finland, and it has farm land like Denmark. It´s the only Nordic country that has a bit if everything.

[charleslemos]

Finland is not a Scandinavian country. Finland + Scandinavia = Nordic.

[FXwashere]

Because Sweden has plenty of IKEA stores where people can work.

[jakoberson]

I would not credit the swedish imperial times with population growth, as it was a terrible time to be a swede. People were dying like flies in large wars interspersed by plague epidemics. The population started growing in the 1800's after the introduction of peace, potatoes and vaccines (according to a swedish proverb)

[lucone]

Sweden (with Finland) and Denmark (with Norway) fought for centuries who would be the leading country in northern Europe. There were eleven Dano-Swedish wars in 1521-1814 after the Kalmar Union broke and fourteen wars between Russia and Sweden in 1475-1809. Quite often the Kingdom of Sweden had to prepare to fight at the same time in east, west and south from the Crusaders to the Napoleonic Wars.

Denmark and Norway lost many regions to Sweden in 1645-1658: Gotland, Halland, Jämtland, Bohuslän, Blekinge and Skåne. Actually Turku (Åbo) in southwest Finland has been a part of Sweden longer (1229-1809) than Malmö in current southern Sweden (since 1658). During the modern times Nordic countries have been very good neighbours to each other and there are many common everyday habits. The only reason why Finland needs a proper army is our eastern neighbour.

[lovebaltazar]

7:36 map is wrong: The Russian and Ottoman empires did not exist during the Viking age, and the byzantine empire did not have those borders. Otherwise I'm enjoying the video!

[jamieholt]

Love your videos, Geoff! One suggestion: please stick to either instrumental or better yet no background music. I found the strange wailing vocals at a low volume to be distracting and irritating.

[thereal_mikegnorp]

Once again. Youtubers get it all wrong. Finland was never mostly controlled by Sweden. Sweden has never occupied Finland. Finland was Sweden until we lost it to Russia. What is today the country of Finland was the eastern part of Sweden from ca1300 - 1809.

[matsv]

9:20 Sweden never alowed nazi troops to cross to invade Norway. They allowed nazi troops to cross into Finland, not Norway.

Finland Was fighting a mostly defensive battle against USSR.

Here is where it gets really complicated. Denmark, Norway and Finland was the best trading partners of Sweden. Sweden wanted all 3 countries to remain independent.

During the early stages of the war, this was pretty simply. All 3 countries stood against the Ribbentrop pact.

But then Germany and USSR flipped. Because Finland was invaded by USSR and the other two Germany, this made it very complicated where Sweden supported both war against USSR as well as against Germany (sort of kind of on paper)

[KimmoOjala]

You forgot about the impact of immigration since the sixties

[elsalindgren]

9 seconds in to the video and I got pissed off because he got Scandinavia wrong, like that's not even all the Nordics (which would include Iceland) so he can't even say he got it mixed up.

His disclaimer makes no sense because Finland is not just "sometimes" excluded from Scandinavia, it's always excluded. You won't meet a scandinavian who would include Finland in Scandinavia, and in school Finland was never included when talking about Scandinavia. Finland is a nordic country.

[tonywestvirginia]

Geoff, I have to say that the background music is annoying. Thanks for all of your great videos. I don't miss very many.

[Mortac]

Sweden did not allow the Germans to transport troops to invade Norway. Rather, they allowed troops (but not equipment) to pass their territory only after Norway was already occupied.

The diplomatic game Sweden played to stay out of the war is a very interesting story in itself.

[acetylslicylsyra]

Geographically Sweden basically combines the agricultural features of Denmark in the south, and the forest and mining of Finland in the Mid to North..