Nordic Statistical Yearbook 2012

The Nordic countries have much in common – their way of life, history, language and social structure. Many of these common features and the results of their joint efforts may be described by statistics. This is why the Nordic Council of Ministers publishes the Nordic Statistical Yearbook.

This edition of the Yearbook is the 50th. The first edition was published in 1962. To celebrate this jubilee, we have produced around 20 tables and diagrams, which show the development within many different aspects of Nordic life over the last 50 years. You can find the statistics on our webpage www.norden.org. In this years’ edition of the printed yearbook we have included a number of short 'Did you know that...' containing facts about the development in the Nordic countries from the early sixties to the present.

Our ambition is to provide comparable statistics on the life in the Nordic countries – to shed light on the similarities and the differences. Against the background of globalization, data on conditions in the Nordic in relation to other Western European countries are also provided in a number of areas. The emphasis has been on making the data easy to understand and relevant to the way we live, and thus useful in many contexts.