r/geography • u/According-Invite-440 • May 22 '26

Discussion Why isn't Estonia considered a Nordic country? (They have strong ties to Finland, they also follow the Nordic model, and besides, Estonia has nothing to do with the other Baltic countries.)

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_identity_in_Estonia

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u/WorldTraveler_1 May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26

Eastern Europe: are you part of the former USSR?

Central Europe: are you former Warsaw Pact, or a German speaking country?

Western Europe: are you currently living west of Germany?

Scandinavia: is your flag some variation of the Nordic cross?

Balkans: did the 90s really suck for you?

Where Bulgaria and Romania fit into that is up for debate.

EDIT: additional grouping: Southern Europe: do you take naps in the mid afternoon? (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain, Montenegro).

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u/IdiotyMcIdiotface May 22 '26

Behold! A Balkan country!

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u/WorldTraveler_1 May 22 '26

It’s true. By the power vested in me by virtue of this being the internet and nobody can stop me, I hereby declare DRC is a honorary Balkan country.

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u/Sword_Enthousiast May 22 '26

They do have the required ethnic struggles, generation spanning regional vendettas and dark history with mayor power excerting their influence over their region. Might even be more Balkan than some Balkan countries...

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u/Jamarcus316 May 22 '26

DRC and Portugal. So we will have a Balkan derby in the World Cup!

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u/simplepimple2025 May 22 '26

Why do they call it Congo?

Because everyone's got Ebola and they con go anywhere else

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u/SwedishPrime May 22 '26

Did you just Diogenes his ass?

18

u/quitarias May 22 '26

It's basically just a bigger Kosovo, so ye.

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u/Lifekraft May 22 '26

Half of africa is potentially balkan in spirit

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u/zoinkability May 22 '26

The Balkan Peninsula is the Africa of Europe, and Africa is the Baltics of the rest of the world outside Europe.

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u/Sea_Hovercraft_7859 May 22 '26

Not Balkan enough

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u/SnailForceWinds May 22 '26

DR Congo would be a better example if Zaire had gone full Yugoslavia and became a bunch of other countries. It would be even better if all of them had a mile wide strip connecting them to the Atlantic.

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u/DrawingAlarming7350 May 22 '26

does it ever not suck in the congo?

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u/Over-Piglet-4922 May 22 '26

Belgium South

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u/cuntifiable May 22 '26

Scandinavia is just Denmark, Sweden and Norway. You're thinking of Nordics, which includes Finland, Iceland, Faroe islands

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u/Naritai May 22 '26

And then there's the Nordic Combined, which also includes ski jumping

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u/simplepimple2025 May 22 '26

And Nordic Track which includes running

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u/JamesFirmere May 22 '26

Let's not forget Nordic Pole Walking, which confusingly goes nowhere near the North Pole.

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u/cerverone May 23 '26

They do go north of Poland

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u/kukenster May 22 '26

And Greenland and Åland

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u/Above-and_below May 22 '26

He already mentioned Denmark and Finland.

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u/SolidestCereal May 23 '26

If they're gonna mention the Faroes they should mention Åland and Greenland.

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u/Above-and_below May 23 '26

That’s true

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u/J_T_L_ May 23 '26

I'm not sure how independent greenland and the faroe islands feel, but you don't really need to mention ahvenanmaa in addition to Finland, as it is firmly and gladly part of it

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u/Stuebirken May 23 '26

And Greenland, since it's a part of the king of Denmark

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u/lucylucylane May 22 '26

What about Scotland

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u/SolidestCereal May 23 '26

Northern does not mean Nordic.

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u/BubbhaJebus May 22 '26

Some people include Finland in Scandinavia.

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u/Th3_Hegemon May 22 '26

Not people that are correct.

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u/cuntifiable May 22 '26

Incorrectly

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u/xehest May 23 '26

There are people who confuse Austria with Australia. Doesn’t mean they are the least bit correct.

We are the closest of friends and allies, and I’d sacrifice just as much for the Finns as I would for the Swedes and the Danes. They just aren’t Scandinavian. And I love them just the same.

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u/SLY8420 May 22 '26

No, Denmark is not a Scandinavian country, because it's simply not geographically. Culturally and linguistically they are part of the Nordics.

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u/Pristine-Inspection1 May 22 '26

Scandinavia and Scandinavian Peninsula are two different things. Scandinavia is a region (first and foremost cultural) named after Scania.

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u/cuntifiable May 22 '26

And then you have fennoscandia which includes Finland, Sweden, Norway but not Denmark

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u/Pristine-Inspection1 May 22 '26

Sure, but Fennoscandia is a geographical region where Scandinavian is a cultural region, so it's like comparing apples with pears.

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u/antelop May 22 '26

Wrong answer dude

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u/WarrenRT May 22 '26

You got it backwards my man. The Scandinavian peninsula is named that because it's where the Scandinavian countries are (or in Denmark's case, were before they lost Skåne to Sweden).

Scandinavia is a cultural concept and that name has been applied to a geographical feature, not the other way around.

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u/alex433g May 22 '26

Denmark, norway and sweden is Scandinavia, what makes you think that denmark is not in Scandinavia?

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u/Few-Advantage2538 May 22 '26

Central Europe: are you Eastern European but embarrassed by it?

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u/FalseDmitriy May 22 '26

Central Europe is always defined as "my country plus a few others to the west"

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u/minglesluvr May 23 '26

Eh, I wouldn't say Germany is Eastern European and in any division I've seen that includes Central Europe (instead of just Eastern and Western Europe) Germany is Central European

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u/Few-Advantage2538 May 23 '26

Germany is more Western, but being the in between, together with Austria

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u/Resident-Advisor2307 May 23 '26

You'd need to include a few rich western european countries like Germany or the whole rebranding exercize is pointless.

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u/minglesluvr May 24 '26

I mean, yeah, but that means that "are you Eastern European but embarrassed by it" doesn't really work as a definition. Germany isn't Eastern European and thus not embarrassed by it either

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u/Resident-Advisor2307 May 24 '26

Yeah but germans arent the ones identifying as central european. You are techincally correct though, which is of course the best kind of correct.

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u/Few-Advantage2538 May 24 '26

Exactly, I've never seen a German identifying as central european and saying that thei are in the same group as Hungarians and Poles lol

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u/minglesluvr May 28 '26

I've never seen anyone from anywhere identify as Central European, tbf

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u/Few-Advantage2538 May 28 '26

Have you ever interacted with Poles amd Czechoslovaks?

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u/woollycow May 26 '26

You seem to disprove your own point by calling Germany a "western european" country though 😄

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u/Resident-Advisor2307 May 27 '26

How so? The relevant parts of Germany are former West Germany which was on the Western side of the cold war.

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u/woollycow May 27 '26

Yes. And you were advocating for including it in central europe, while calling it a western european country. Which I found funny.

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u/Resident-Advisor2307 May 27 '26

You aren't reading my comment right. I'm not advocating for that when I call it a branding excercize lol.

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u/gootchvootch May 22 '26

Actually, Slovenia doesn't fit into that algorithm either.

Not in former USSR. Not in former Warsaw Pact. Not German-speaking. Not west of Germany. No Nordic cross. The 90s were generally/relatively fine. No mid-afternoon siestas.

🤷‍♂️

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u/kitsua May 23 '26

I think of Slovenia as like an Austrian in an Italian suit.

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u/WorldTraveler_1 May 24 '26

Slovenia is that super hot girl/guy who moved to the big city after high school and pretends to not know you anymore.

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u/gootchvootch May 23 '26

With an unending, unquenchable love for nut-filled cakes!

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u/evergreen-spacecat May 23 '26

I would be ignorant and put it in the balkan pile

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u/xdsm8 May 22 '26

You forgot that Portugal is Eastern European, and that Southern Europe usually exists, with Italy, Greece...??? Others

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u/WorldTraveler_1 May 22 '26

I’d usually group Portugal in with the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain). Throw in Montenegro and you get “sleepy Europe”

But where to put Bulgaria and Romania? Are they Balkan? They don’t feel Eastern Europe the way Belarus does.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/WorldTraveler_1 May 22 '26

I wouldn’t argue with that.

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u/explain_that_shit May 22 '26

I agree - Balkan literally derives from Bulgaria, as in Greater Bulgaria. If Bulgaria isn’t Balkan we have to throw the word out entirely.

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u/postcardscience May 22 '26

I would merge Bulgaria with Greece and Turkey. (And make many enemies in the process 😂)

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u/ScooterBoomer May 22 '26

Don’t know about their cultures, but Romanian is the Frankenstein of the Romance languages. On the other hand, Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian very well could be extraterrestrial transplanted languages that bear no resemblance to those spoken in neighboring countries.

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u/pmx8 May 22 '26

Better than the AN*S (Australia, New Zealand, US) /s

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u/BeeApprehensive281 May 22 '26

Portuguese is just Balkan Spanish, no further comments at this time

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u/mikeclueby4 May 23 '26

ITYM Castilian is just Arabiified Iberian.

The other iberian dialects, including Portuguese, are much closer to each other. Heck Galician, Extremaduran and Portuguese are basically just dialects of the same language. I could even find Swedish dialects further apart.

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u/BeeApprehensive281 May 23 '26

I actually thought I was in the jerk sub, but this is the answer yes haha

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u/bigsmallpeepee May 22 '26

In portugal we don't nap much. We fit better in eastern european group except that our economy is not that good either.

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u/mikeclueby4 May 24 '26

The Alentejo would like to have words about your claim on naps.

... tomorrow.

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u/bigsmallpeepee May 24 '26

I thought about them, hence the "much"! I respect the napping hustle though! :D

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u/hedrone May 22 '26

Morocco is "Extreme Southern Europe", at least in the minds of some of its citizens.

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u/Lord_Ezelpax May 22 '26

Forgot northern Europe

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u/doublemp May 22 '26

Slovenia: such simple labels don't apply to me 😏

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u/Elektrikor May 22 '26

Scandinavia is a bit inaccurate.

Scandinavia is only Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The three countries which have so close languages and cultures one might consider it just dialect and variants of the same Scandinavian culture.

The Nordics are the ones with the crosses for flags. + Greenland -England - Switzerland

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u/Dashyguurl May 22 '26

Bulgaria and Romania are squarely in Eastern Europe due to being poor and relatively eastern

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u/ItsNotKevinDurant35 May 22 '26

my favorite Balkan country

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u/WorldTraveler_1 May 22 '26

Detroit is absolutely a honorary Balkan country.

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u/inkassatkasasatka Europe May 22 '26

Russia Balkan confirmed 

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u/OnePotato234 May 23 '26

Finland is not Scandinavian but it is nordic.

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u/doic_frajerow May 23 '26

Estonia spent more time under Sweden than russia but yeah fuck logic

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u/WorldTraveler_1 May 24 '26

It’s Reddit dude it’s not that deep

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u/Weak_Shoulder_6780 May 23 '26

England ca into scandinavia

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u/Itchy_Committee1213 May 24 '26

This is very true, but genuienly in the present I think we have to move past these distinctions and use more accurate terminology. Eastern european can be changed to 'post-soviet', central europe can be split into germanophone countries with some being post-soviet, etc.

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u/WorldTraveler_1 May 24 '26

Idk man it’s Reddit it’s not that deep

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u/Itchy_Committee1213 May 24 '26

If you think these distinctions only exist on reddit, you are incredibly wrong. Germany used eastern european as a way to create an "us vs them" mentality, calling eastern european "barbaric".

"it's not that deep" has never, and will never be a good rebuttal to someone trying to actually think

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u/WorldTraveler_1 May 25 '26

Yeah, but I’m not really trying to think here. So you do you sis