Sharing best practices, understanding other folk’s cultures, and aspiring to improve by assimilating positive attributes can be an important benefit of travel—whether local, regional, national, or international.
A thoughtful professional colleague spent a year in Norway, shared some thoughts, and in the process stimulated a desire to visit and learn from the three Scandinavian countries—Sweden, Copenhagen, and Norway. Finland and Iceland are part of the Nordic Countries which include all five but due to historical, cultural, and language evolution are not formally Scandinavian.
The Scandinavian countries' life expectancy exceeds America’s current 79.11 years which has had a modest 0.08% increase since last year. Sweden—83.3, Norway—83.54, and Denmark—82.03 are about three years longer than ours and growing faster at 0.18% since last year.
How is Scandinavia different? Three robust objective policies contribute mightily: (1) Education is free including higher education for everyone; (2) Medical care, with a focus on prevention, is high quality, well-organized, and has low out-of-pocket costs; (3) Immigration policies encourage assimilation by providing three years of free language instruction. Obviously, growing the middle class is overwhelmingly positive for all.
Additionally, many subjective attitudes are also embraced. The focus on well-being in Scandinavia is heartwarming and may contribute to longevity. Despite the climate and daylight/night-darkness seasonal extremes, people are happy.
“Just the right amount,” is a characteristic of finding balance and not just striving to be the most opulent, ostentatious, or excessive in any attribute. Being satisfied is much less stressful than constantly “going for the gold” both figuratively and literally.
Embracing work/life balance and enjoying friends and family are practiced on a microscale by taking formal coffee breaks with a sweet treat away from one’s desk with colleagues. On a grander scale, maternity and paternity leave averages around a year with fathers sharing caring for infants. Everyone returns to work when the kids start in pre-school/nursery at age one.
Winters are long, dark, and cold. Instead of dread as an anticipated emotion, getting comfortable and cozy with healthy self-care wins the winter for these hardy and happy folks. Don’t fight what you can’t control but rather take advantage of an environment with appropriate indoor and outdoor activities.
Happiness may be another important reason life expectancy in Scandinavia is among the best in the world. The World Happiness Report uses six metrics to assess joy: Gross Domestic Product per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and corruption.
“From 2013 until today, every time the World Happiness Report (WHR) has published its annual ranking of countries, the five Nordic countries – Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland – have all been in the top ten, with Nordic countries occupying the top three spots in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Clearly, when it comes to the level of average life evaluations, the Nordic states are doing something right, but Nordic exceptionalism isn’t confined to citizen’s happiness. No matter whether we look at the state of democracy and political rights, lack of corruption, trust between citizens, felt safety, social cohesion, gender equality, equal distribution of incomes, Human Development Index, or many other global comparisons, one tends to find the Nordic countries in the global top spots,” states the 2020 World Happiness Report.
The environment matters. Scandinavia is well on its way to becoming carbon neutral. Norway is almost 100% hydropower with the rest thermal and wind, Sweden is 83% hydropower and nuclear, and Denmark plans to be an example for the rest of the world by becoming the first CO2-neutral capital by 2025. Eighty percent of new cars sold in Norway this year are electric. A very common taxicab model is a Tesla Model 3 and Norway has the highest concentration of electric charging stations in the world. Gas stations will need to be repurposed while traditional garages servicing gasoline-powered cars will disappear along with the carbon monoxide and noise pollution. Even the new ferries are electric and recharge in about five minutes.
Nothing and no one is perfect. The region was scarred by WWII in many ways. The Holocaust and resistance movements are memorialized in museums and monuments. During the war, clandestine resistance efforts were infiltrated by collaborators exacerbating an already modern tragedy by having neighbors turn on neighbors while countries clashed with each other. In war, everyone loses according to the Changing World Order. With time, countries heal.
Brave heroes emerged including Raoul Wallenberg who, as a Swedish special envoy in Poland, saved thousands of lives by granting diplomatic immunity to people who were about to be deported. “Between 1940 and 1945, approximately 770 Jews were deported from Norway. Only about 34 survived.”
Learning from others, avoiding previous tragedies, and embracing well-being and health are universal truths that help everyone live longer, happier, and healthier lives.
