[[Image:Europe subregion map UN
geoschme.svg|right|thumb|250px|Northern Europe as defined by the
United Nations(marked blue):
]]
Northern Europe is the
northern part or
region of
Europe. The
United
Nations defines Northern Europe as including the following
countries and dependent regions:
Nordic countries or Nordic region
include only a subset of the mentioned countries and
territories.
Before the 19th 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.
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 (Finland ) |
1,552 |
26,008 |
16.7 |
Mariehamn |
Belgium (Western Europe) |
30,528 |
10,754,528 |
352.2 |
Brussels |
Denmark |
43,094 |
5,519,441 |
128.0 |
Copenhagen |
Faroe Islands (Denmark ) |
1,399 |
49,006 |
35.0 |
Tórshavn |
Greenland (Denmark ) |
2,166,086 |
57,000 |
0.026 |
Nuuk |
Estonia |
45,226 |
1,340,415 |
29.6 |
Tallinn |
Finland |
336,593 |
5,349,200 |
15.8 |
Helsinki |
Guernsey |
78 |
61,811 |
792.4 |
St Peter Port |
Iceland |
103,000 |
319,246 |
3.0 |
Reykjavík |
Ireland |
70,280 |
4,459,300 |
63.4 |
Dublin |
Isle of Man |
572 |
80,000 |
139.8 |
Douglas |
Jersey |
116 |
89,300 |
769.8 |
Saint Helier |
Latvia |
64,589 |
2,254,000 |
34.8 |
Riga |
Lithuania |
65,200 |
3,349,872 |
51.3 |
Vilnius |
Luxembourg (Western
Europe) |
2,586 |
493,500 |
190.8 |
Luxembourg |
Netherlands (Western
Europe) |
41,526 |
16,571,800 |
399.0 |
Amsterdam |
Norway |
324,220 |
4,843,800 |
14.9 |
Oslo |
Svalbard
and Jan
Mayen Islands (Norway ) |
62,049 |
2,140 |
0.034 |
Longyearbyen |
Sweden |
449,964 |
9,316,256 |
20.7 |
Stockholm |
United Kingdom |
244,820 |
61,634,599 |
251.7 |
London |
Total |
4,053,478 |
126,571,222 |
31.22 |
|
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.
See also
Notes
- United Nations Statistics Division- Standard
Country and Area Codes Classifications (M49)
- World Population Prospects Population Database