Do you know that...

1) Sweden, Denmark and Norway make up the Scandinavian countries.

2) Add in Finland and Iceland and you will get the Nordic countries.

3) The Scandinavian countries are kingdoms and the three royal family have interwined family relations.

4) All Scandinavian countries are welfare state of some type.

5) In Norway, parents receive MONTHLY cash support of approx USD500 for each baby until the child is 3 years old. In addition, there is the montly child allowance until the child is 16 years old. (Imagine how much money the parent will receive from the goverment during the first 3 years of the child's life.)

6) In Norway, education is free in the public schools all the way up to university. You even get book allowances at the beginning of each year.

7)Both blue and white collar workers are unionized. (And to think management workers back home are usually not allowed to join unions.)

8) Norway has a population size of approx 4.5 million and about 1 million lives in Oslo. However, these 4.5 million people only occupy 19% of Norway's land!

9) Norway is not a member of EU but Sweden and Denmark are. However Sweden and Denmark rejected using Euros and continued to use their own currency.

10) Norway is ranked the world no. 1 place to live in for 2 consecutive years and is one of the world's wealthiest countries.