Nordic Federation (Future Map Game 3)



The Federation of Nordic States (shortly FNS), simply known as Nordic Federation, is an federation in northern Europe that includes the states of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Estonia and Latvia with its territories. The Nordic Federation is bordered with Germany in south, Lithuania in Latvia's southern border and Russia in east. On the right picture, you can see the flag of the Nordic Federation, used since 2018.

At 3,425,804 square kilometers, the Nordic countries form the 7th-largest area in the world, though 51.7% of this area is uninhabitable and formed by icecaps and glaciers (mostly in Greenland). Though the Nordic population is at 27 million in year that state founded, but now the population begins to grow faster at 1,36% each year, marking on place 98th in United Nations's List of countries by growth rate. Its capital is Stockholm and the main Nordic host is Sweden, which creates the Nordic Federation in 2017. Before the state was created, Nordic Council was an organization for Nordic countries which is founded after the end of World War 2.

Administrative divisions
The Nordic Federation is currently divided into seven member states: Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Estonia and Latvia. Each state has its own official flag and coat of arms, government, parliament, education, healthcare, judicature and administrative divisions. But some things have to be common to all Nordic countries, such as Nordic Federation's own currency named Nordic Crowns. Although the military is also common throughout the Nordic region. This means that each Nordic member state may never leave Nordic Federation.

Economy
The Nordic Federation is an export-oriented mixed economy in which command a gross domestic product of US$1.60 trillion, making it the twelfth largest economy in the world, larger than that of Australia, Spain, Mexico or South Korea. Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden have for example experienced constant and large excess exports in recent years. Iceland is the only country which has balance of payments deficits as of 2011. At the same time, unemployment is low in most of the Nordic Federation compared with the rest of Europe. As a result of the cyclical down-turn, the public balance is now in deficit, except for Norway. Over the past ten years, the Nordic Federation had a noticeably larger increase in their gross domestic product (GDP) than the Eurozone. The only exceptions were Denmark and Åland which had a lower growth. Measured by GDP per capita, the Nordic Federation have a higher income than the Eurozone countries. Norway’s GDP per capita is as high as 80 percent above the EA17 average, and Norway is actually one of the countries with the highest standard of living in the world.

Industries
Since the late 1990s, the Nordic manufacturing industry has accounted for a slightly declining proportion of the gross domestic product, with Norway being a distinct exception. In Norway the manufacturing industry’s proportion of GDP is still at a high level of around 35 per cent due to the large oil and natural gas sector. In the rest of Nordic Federation, the proportion lies between 15 and 20 per cent. Despite growing production, the manufacturing industry accounts for a decreasing proportion of total employment in the Nordic countries. Among the Nordic Federation, Finland is today the number one Nordic industrial country, as the manufacturing industry in Finland accounts for the greatest proportion of the country’s jobs, around 16 per cent. By way of comparison, in Denmark, Norway and Iceland it only accounts for less than 13 per cent of total employment.

Energy
The Nordic Federation is one of the richest sources of energy in the world. Apart from the natural occurrence of fossil fuels such as oil and gas, the Nordic Federation also have good infrastructure and technology to exploit renewable energy sources such as water, wind, bio-energy and geothermal heat. Especially Iceland and Sweden, but also Finland and Norway, have a significant production of electricity based on hydro power. Geothermal energy production is the most important source of energy in Iceland, whilst nuclear power is produced in both Finland and in Sweden. The indigenous production of energy in the Nordic countries has risen considerably over the last couple of decades – especially in Denmark and Norway due to oil deposits in the North Sea.