Northern Europe is the northern part or region of the European continent. A United Nations report published in 2011 defines Northern Europe as including the following ten countries and dependent regions:
- Denmark
- Faroe Islands
- Estonia
- Finland
- Åland Islands
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Norway
- Svalbard and Jan Mayen
- Sweden
- United Kingdom
- Guernsey
- Isle of Man
- Jersey
Before the establishment of the Nordic Council in 1952, the term 'Nordic', or 'Northern', was commonly used to also refer to the Lutheran Baltic countries Estonia and Latvia, as well as the northern sections of European Russia.
The United Kingdom and Ireland are sometimes included in Western Europe; as is Iceland for historal, cultural, linguistic and political reasons (compare Greenland which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, but is geographically located in America, and is often considered to be in Northern Europe or the Nordic Countries, though rarely Scandinavia proper). The Baltic states are sometimes included in Eastern Europe due to their recent occupation by the Soviet Union.
Famous quotes containing the words northern and/or europe:
“I have found that anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the Northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)
“All the terrors of the French Republic, which held Austria in awe, were unable to command her diplomacy. But Napoleon sent to Vienna M. de Narbonne, one of the old noblesse, with the morals, manners, and name of that interest, saying, that it was indispensable to send to the old aristocracy of Europe men of the same connection, which, in fact, constitutes a sort of free- masonry. M. de Narbonne, in less than a fortnight, penetrated all the secrets of the imperial cabinet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)