Income and Inequality in the Nordic Countries

43 comments

1. Old data but I found the map interesting.

2. I like how everywhere it’s extremely complicated, and then Iceland is just pure red, lol

3. For a change, Greenland is “no data”…

4. Wake up babe, new political compass just dropped

5. Honestly surprised my county is considered blue lol

6. Proof of what we’ve all known all along: Norway is better than Sweden.

7. Why is USA in the picture? /s

8. Norway is just the Switzerland of the Nordics

9. Hyper-concentrated map, damn.
   Norway is apparently winning, Sweden and Denmark have problems, Finland has southern issues and a couple of problem areas in the north.

   I’ve been assured by reliable sources that the Scandinavian countries are perfect and have maxed out ideal living. Have I been misinformed?

   I want to say “there is no cow on the ice” in Swedish, but it seems like there are a few cows on the ice.

   edit: google tells me that in Swedish it is *‘Det är ingen ko på isen’*

10. I find it hilarious that Iceland is classified as low income.

11. So basically.

    Norway is fucking rich.

    Sweden is Mid

    In Denmark it’s good to be rich.

    In Finnland there are a lot of poor people.

12. I’m red, green would make a lot more sense at least for my town. Maybe it’s a lot worse inland?

13. Why is Danderyd grey… (Well done Järfälla, Vallentuna.)

14. “Low income, low inequality”. So… everybody is just poor lol

15. It’d be interesting to also show population by using low saturation for low population and high saturation for high population

16. Norway is incredibly wealthy because of oil and also has no significant agricultural or low tech industries so they don’t need low income or migrant workers, they simply import most of their food (except fish) and goods. Unsurprisingly then inequality is low and incomes high.

    I’m sure it’s great to live there but as model for the rest of the world it’s hardly repeatable.

17. Can we get the same for eu?

18. I like that on all “nordic” maps there is a convenient corner to place the legend/data.

19. I mean, it seems like who is following the Norwegian model the closest seems to be doing the best.

    …Rest of the world, hello?

    https://www.oslo.kommune.no/english/welcome-to-oslo/norwegian-society/the-norwegian-model/

20. I think about rural Swedes a lot.

21. Yay for living in a red dot surrounded by blue

22. Norway always somehow looks good on any metric… has anyone ever seen a map where Norway isn’t among the best?

23. The power of oil money. And I wonder if Iceland is red because Olafur is making too much money from Youtube

24. Is that only me who saw it ?

25. One thing to note is that this is on a Nordic scale. Being ”poor” in the Nordics can still mean you’d be wealthy in some other European nation. For example, our mean income is 3700€ in Finland

26. Is northern Sweden richer because of mining?

27. High/low equality/inequality, as compared to what? This has to be quantified somehow. There must be a point where low becomes high and equality becomes inequality. How is any of that calculated?

28. Denmark is wrong

29. The income inequality issue is the real reason why Trump wants to invade Greenland.

30. What’s the only red place in the middle of Norway?

31. Just to highlight: the chart is comparing household disposable income with Gini coefficient

    While income and inequality are good proxies, they’re not the same thing

    Case in point, your HDI can be low despite having a high income if, for example, you live in an area with high local taxes, live in an expensive area or are single, among many others

    Also, frustratingly, the map doesn’t clarify which Gini coefficient is being compared – wealth or income!

32. What is the general living situation in north norway for current years, pros and cons?

33. Apologies but i am genuinely confused, low and high income is self explanatory but inequality is not.

    Legitimately asking, what inequality? men to women pay? something else? sorry lol legit looking for the context.

34. kino

35. Why is Estonia not on this map ?

36. Here be petrol and gas.

37. Strange to use 2017 data in 2025 though.

38. What doesa it mean by “high income”. Because Gotland has one of the lowest average incomes for all of Sweden, yet it’s shown as high income here? Does it mean disposable income? Because cost of living is a lot cheaper there compared to the big cities.

    Edit: Sent to a friend and saw it literally says disposable income lol

39. So Finland in general is just poor, got it. Lol.

40. Honest question, I have no idea of economy or know too much about scandinavia, but has this gap in equality any correlation to EU membership? Or is it just that norway is fucking rich and the others are “normal”?

41. It’s almost as if having oil helps

42. Classic Greenland: No data.

43. Norway is alot more social democratic than even sweden or Finland. There’s a large number of state owned enterprises as well as state investment in private companies. Iceland is also somewhat less social democratic than the others, being ruled by a right wing, economically liberal party for most of existence. However labor unions are still extremely strong there.

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