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   Scandinavia   
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   This article is about Scandinavia as a cultural-linguistic region. For the   
   broader group of northern European countries including Finland and Iceland,   
   see Nordic countries. For the peninsula named after the region, see   
   Scandinavian Peninsula. For other    
   uses, see Scandinavia (disambiguation).   
   Scandinavia   
   Scandinavia.svg   
   Languages	   
   Danish   
   Norwegian   
   Swedish   
   Finnish   
   Icelandic   
   Faroese[1][2]   
   Regional languages   
   German   
   Kven   
   Meänkieli   
   Romani   
   Sami   
   Yiddish[1][2]   
   Demonym(s)	Scandinavian   
   Composition	 Denmark   
    Norway   
    Sweden   
   Sometimes also:[3]   
    Finland   
    Iceland   
    Faroe Islands   
    Åland Islands   
   Area   
   • Total   
   928,057 km2 (358,325 sq mi)   
   Population   
   • 2017 estimate   
   ~21 million[citation needed]   
   • Density   
   22.7/km2 (58.8/sq mi)   
   Time zone	UTC+1 (Central European Time)   
   • Summer (DST)   
   UTC+2 (Central European Summer Time)   
   Internet TLD	   
   .dk, .no, .se   
   .ax, .fi, .fo, .gl, .is, .sj   
   Snow cover across Scandinavia, as imaged by MODIS on board NASA's Terra   
   satellite in 2002   
   This article is part of a series on   
   Scandinavia   
   Contemporary countries   
   Denmark Norway Sweden   
   History   
   Prehistory Stone Age Bronze Age Iron Age Norsemen Old Norse Migration Period   
   Viking Age Viking art Mythology Christianization History of Denmark History of   
   Norway History of Sweden Sweden–Finland Kalmar Union Great Northern War   
   Denmark–Norway Sweden-   
   Norway Monetary Union Defence Union Nordic Council   
   Geography   
   Mountains Peninsula Baltic Sea North Sea   
   Other topics   
   Languages Scandinavism Nordic Council Monetary Union Defence Union   
   Scandinavian Airlines   
   vte   
   Scandinavia[a] (/ˌskændɪˈneɪviə/ SKAN-dih-NAY-vee-ə) is a region in   
   Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties. The   
   majority national languages of the region, and their many dialects, belong to   
   the Scandinavian dialect    
   continuum, and are mutually intelligible North Germanic languages.[4] The term   
   Scandinavia in local usage covers the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and   
   Sweden. However, in English usage, the term also sometimes refers to the   
   Scandinavian Peninsula,    
   or to the broader region including Finland and Iceland, which is always known   
   locally as the Nordic countries.[3][5]   
      
   While part of the Nordic countries, the remote Norwegian islands of Svalbard   
   and Jan Mayen are not in Scandinavia, nor is Greenland, a constituent country   
   within the Kingdom of Denmark. The Faroe Islands are sometimes included.[6]   
      
      
   Contents   
   1	Toponymy   
   2	Terminology and use   
   2.1	Societal and tourism promotional organizations   
   3	Use of "Nordic countries" vs. "Scandinavia"   
   3.1	Pliny the Elder's descriptions   
   3.2	Germanic reconstruction   
   3.3	Sami etymology   
   3.4	Other etymologies   
   4	Geography   
   5	Languages in Scandinavia   
   5.1	North Germanic languages   
   5.2	Finnish   
   5.3	Sami languages   
   6	History   
   6.1	Scandinavian unions   
   7	Political   
   8	See also   
   9	Notes   
   10	References   
   11	External links   
   Toponymy   
   The name Scandinavia originally referred to the former Danish, now Swedish,   
   region of Scania. Scandinavia and Scandinavian entered usage in the late 18th   
   century, being introduced by the early linguistic and cultural Scandinavist   
   movement.[7] The    
   majority of the population of Scandinavia are descended from several North   
   Germanic tribes who originally inhabited the southern part of Scandinavia and   
   spoke a Germanic language that evolved into Old Norse. Icelanders and the   
   Faroese are to a    
   significant extent descended from the Norse and are therefore often seen as   
   Scandinavian. Finland is mainly populated by Finns, with a minority of   
   approximately 5%[8] of Swedish speakers. A small minority of Sami people live   
   in the extreme north of    
   Scandinavia. The Danish, Norwegian and Swedish languages form a dialect   
   continuum and are known as the Scandinavian languages—all of which are   
   considered mutually intelligible with one another. Faroese and Icelandic,   
   sometimes referred to as insular    
   Scandinavian languages, are intelligible in continental Scandinavian languages   
   only to a limited extent. Finnish and Meänkieli are closely related to each   
   other and more distantly to the Sami languages, but are entirely unrelated to   
   the Scandinavian    
   languages. Apart from these, German, Yiddish and Romani are recognized   
   minority languages in parts of Scandinavia.   
      
   Terminology and use   
      
   Satellite photo of the Scandinavian Peninsula, March 2002   
   "Scandinavia" refers to Denmark, Norway and Sweden.[9] Some sources argue for   
   the inclusion of the Faroe Islands, Finland and Iceland,[6][10][11][12][13]   
   though that broader region is usually known by the countries concerned as   
   Norden (Finnish:    
   Pohjoismaat, Icelandic: Norðurlöndin, Faroese: Norðurlond), or the Nordic   
   countries.[5]   
      
      
   Scandinavia originally referred vaguely to Scania, a formerly Danish region   
   that became Swedish in the 17th century.   
      
     Scandinavia according to the local definition   
     The extended usage in English, which includes Iceland and the Faroe Islands,   
   the Åland Islands and Finland   
   The use of "Scandinavia" as a convenient general term for Denmark, Norway and   
   Sweden is fairly recent. According to some historians, it was adopted and   
   introduced in the eighteenth century, at a time when the ideas about a common   
   heritage started to    
   appear and develop into early literary and linguistic Scandinavism.[7] Before   
   this time, the term "Scandinavia" was familiar mainly to classical scholars   
   through Pliny the Elder's writings and was used vaguely for Scania and the   
   southern region of the    
   peninsula.[7]   
      
   As a political term, Scandinavia was first used by students agitating for   
   pan-Scandinavianism in the 1830s.[7] The popular usage of the term in Sweden,   
   Denmark and Norway as a unifying concept became established in the nineteenth   
   century through poems    
   such as Hans Christian Andersen's "I am a Scandinavian" of 1839. After a visit   
   to Sweden, Andersen became a supporter of early political Scandinavism. In a   
   letter describing the poem to a friend, he wrote: "All at once I understood   
   how related the Swedes,   
    the Danes and the Norwegians are, and with this feeling I wrote the poem   
   immediately after my return: 'We are one people, we are called S   
   andinavians!'".[14]   
      
      
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