Northern European Countries: Full List, Capitals, and Map

Northern Europe is the northernmost subregion of the European continent.

As with other world regions, its exact boundaries vary depending on whether the definition is based on political groupings, statistical systems, or cultural geography.

For clarity and consistency, this page follows the United Nations (UN) geoscheme, which classifies Northern Europe as consisting of 10 sovereign countries.

List of countries in Northern Europe

• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• Iceland
• Ireland
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Norway
• Sweden
• United Kingdom

This UN-defined version is the standard regional breakdown used in international statistics, development reporting, and global data comparisons.

Northern European countries table

The UN geoscheme recognizes the following sovereign states as part of the Northern Europe subregion:

Countries in Europe Map

Northern Europe spans the Scandinavian Peninsula, the British Isles, and the Baltic region.

The subregion includes long Arctic and North Atlantic coastlines, extensive forests and lake systems, low-lying plains around the Baltic Sea, and rugged mountainous terrain in Norway and Iceland.

The Baltic Sea, North Sea, and North Atlantic Ocean play a central role in shaping settlement, trade routes, and climate patterns across the region.

How Northern Europe is defined

UN geoscheme (most common)

This is the definition used by:

• The United Nations
• The World Bank
• Most international statistical agencies

It includes the 10 countries listed above and is the standard system used for population, land area, economic, health, and development data.

Nordic countries (cultural grouping)

The Nordic countries are a cultural and political grouping that overlaps with, but does not fully match, the UN definition of Northern Europe. The Nordic region includes:

• Denmark
• Finland
• Iceland
• Norway
• Sweden

It also includes several autonomous territories such as Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and the Åland Islands. These territories are not classified as sovereign states under the UN geoscheme.

Baltic states

The Baltic states form another commonly referenced subgroup within Northern Europe:

• Estonia
• Latvia
• Lithuania

They are grouped together based on shared geography along the Baltic Sea and closely linked modern political history.

Physical geography definition

In physical geography, Northern Europe is mainly defined by:

• The Scandinavian mountain system
• The Baltic Sea basin
• Extensive glacial lake districts
• Long North Atlantic and Arctic coastlines

This version focuses on climate zones, glacial landforms, and coastal systems rather than political borders.

It is widely used in climatology, marine geography, and environmental science.

Global regions map

To help place Northern Europe within the wider UN classification system, the global regions map below shows how all world subregions are organized.

The UN geoscheme groups every member state into a clearly defined region, which allows for consistent comparisons across countries and continents.

Antarctica is excluded because the framework applies only to UN member states.

Within Europe, the UN recognizes four subregions:

• Northern Europe
• Western Europe
• Eastern Europe
• Southern Europe

Across the entire world, the geoscheme identifies 22 geographical subregions in total.