Einar H. Dyvik
Research expert covering Nordics and global data for society, economy, and politics
Key economic indicators of the Nordic countries - Statistics & Facts
The Nordic economies of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden are among the world’s wealthiest. Their inhabitants enjoy some of the highest standards of living in the world due to relatively small wage gaps, high employment, and high taxation combined with accessible education and social security. From a macroregional perspective, the Nordic countries form a coherent region, performing well above EU and OECD averages. However, the are some internal differences: While Sweden has the highest gross domestic product (GDP) overall, Norway has the highest GDP per capita. All five Nordic countries are among the 20 countries in the world with the highest GDP per capita, showing just how economically successful the region is.
The impact of COVID-19
Despite being among the world’s wealthiest countries, economic growth has been sluggish following the economic crisis in 2008. Especially Iceland's economy was hit hard by this crisis. Furthermore, the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) had a significant negative impact on the Nordic economies. All five faced slowed economic growth due to the pandemic but have been recovering in the last two years. While imports and exports recovered relatively fast, unemployment rates only started to decrease again in 2022. Despite the impact of COVID-19, the unemployment rates remain low in the Nordic countries compared to the rest of the world. The employment to population ratio is high among both men and women, despite some variations between the countries. Iceland has the highest ratio, whereas Finland has the lowest.Trade and account balance
Foreign trade plays an important part in the economy of the five Nordic countries. Unsurprisingly, they constitute important trading partners for one another. Meanwhile, Germany remains an important trading partner for all five countries. Denmark, Sweden, and Finland are all members of the EU, whereas Norway and Iceland only are members of the European Economic Area (EEA). Sweden and Denmark have the highest net trade. The former both has the highest values of imports and exports of goods, while for the latter, import and export of goods is most important for the country’s GDP. Furthermore, three out of five countries had a positive account balance in 2022. Only Iceland and Finland had a negative account balance with Finland slowly moving towards a neutral account balance during the past decade. Iceland´s economy seems to have been impacted quite heavily by the pandemic since they had not experienced negative trade since 2012. They also have the highest debt rate of the Nordic countries. Finally, inflation rates increased in all the Nordic countries in 2022, following global inflation trends.
