Where is there most poverty? Who are the best educated? Which country pollutes the least? Take the temperature of the sustainable Nordic Region in a new database from the Nordic Council of Ministers: Nordic Sustainable Development Indicators.
The new collection of indicators reflects a number of key challenges for the Nordic welfare societies.
Iceland is not surprisingly the country with the most debt, but perhaps more surprising is that it is only slightly more debt-ridden that the EU average. Finland is the most sparsely populated country, but at the same time, the country which spends relatively most on research and education.
Denmark is seen as the pioneer in renewable energy but is in fact the Nordic country which does the least in this area. Norway is the country with the greatest population growth while Sweden leads the way in gender equality.
Inequality is growing in all the Nordic countries and in recent years most of the countries have increased emissions of greenhouse gases.
The new Nordic indicators for sustainable development show in fact, there there is still room for improvement.
"We have come a long way in the Nordic Region with regard to sustainability, but not far enough. We can and should do more," says the Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers, Dagfinn Høybråten.
"Sustainable development is a top priority in Nordic co-operation and a number of minsters are involved in the work. We are working in particular to protect that the Nordic welfare model and strengthen green growth in the Region, and the new data collection provides good tools for this," he adds.
Continue reading on norden.org - the website of official Nordic co-operation...
