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What is it like to live in Scandinavia?

151 replies

Glitterbiscuits · 04/07/2026 13:37

DH and I are having a debate.

He says Scandinavian countries are the most developed socially, economically and in regard to the environment, equality, etc. He assumes there is not much poverty or homelessness in Scandinavian countries. He thinks the high taxes leads to good public services such as transport.

Is his positive view justified?

OP posts:
WatermelonSalad1 · 04/07/2026 20:33

Oh, and one friend of ours worked in Sweden for a bit but complained that they don't really have a drinking culture

I would really like to go to a place that doesn't have a drinking culture. It sounds like a plus

Echobelly · 04/07/2026 20:36

One of DH's best friends moved to Sweden decades ago. It's great in many ways but according to friend it's pretty xenophobic. Incomers can never really expect to be treated as a native- he's an actor and when joining a theatre company was told he could never expect to be a principal because he wasn't Swedish, for example.

Other friend who moved to Denmark has found it not without its challenges but great for her autistic son, as care is so much better and more joined up there

IdenticalHandTwin · 04/07/2026 20:38

RedToothBrush · 04/07/2026 20:30

It depends on where you are talking about. Iceland isn't technically Scandinavian but yep corrupt as all hell. Simply because a smaller population.

It makes me feel really sad thinking about it actually. So many officials have been sacked here - chief of police, head of the prison service. The whole lot of them are a fucking disgrace 🤬🤬🤬

Natsku · 04/07/2026 20:39

Don't know about the Scandinavian countries, which tend to have a bit more of Jante's Law to them but Finland has its eccentrics and in my experience people quite like them, there's one in my work place that's very eccentric! Also people are a lot friendlier than stereotypes indicate (though not as friendly as Brits)

TheOliveFinch · 04/07/2026 20:46

@RedToothBrush Sweden has had a significant uprise in organised crime , particularly Stockholm, although outside of the cities felt very safe when I last visited and no sign of trouble in Stockholm during the day

RedRosie · 04/07/2026 20:49

I love, love, love Norway. I'd live there in a heartbeat. No chance of that, what with Brexit (not in the EU but the same free movement), being old, and Norwegian being so hard! Wonderful country.

ChipswithMayonnaise · 04/07/2026 20:54

WatermelonSalad1 · 04/07/2026 20:32

@ChipswithMayonnaise thanks I'm always interested in peoples experiences of living abroad

Maybe we could do it in future
I think that most places will change over 10 years though

What I've heard about Scandinavian cities being really clean and everything just sounds amazing! In terms of a holiday destination people certainly rave about it

But I have also heard about gang issues in Sweden
For sure

I have only visited for work and friends, never stayed more than 6 weeks. Especially on holiday and going into the countryside, Scandinavia can be marvellous.

Iceland, Finland and Japan, especially outside Tokyo, would be my top picks for a clean holiday destination.

Ineffable23 · 04/07/2026 20:56

I have a friend who lives in Malmö, which is a city that seems to get "bad press" in terms of migrants etc. I have spent a fair amount of time there and a lot of time talking to my friend about it, and honestly it does seem basically idyllic.

We went round to the area of the city that's supposedly a no go area/dodgy etc and it was nicer than the moderately dodgy bits of the UK town I live in.

The public transport is amazing - you can lend your tickets to others, they do a special discounted ticket for the summer holidays to allow you to travel round your region. The trains are designed to line up with the buses and there are buses out to the national parks so you can go for walks easily.

When we went and visited the national parks, there was spring water that was marked up as being fit for human consumption and it was the nicest water I have ever tasted. They had set up an area where you could camp, free of charge, and when trees came down in the forests they were transported to that area with some municipal axes left so you could use them to make fires to have a barbecue. There was a composting toilet and an old fashioned water pump for water.

The food seems broadly similar to UK prices for eating out, alcohol is more expensive. Editing to add: oh yes, an annoying thing is that you can't buy wine or any alcohol over like 3.5% ABV in the supermarket, only special government stores that have limited opening hours.

My friend's work gives her a contribution each month towards sports clubs she wants to be a member of, because it's been determined that your workplaces should be facilitating you being active.

The apartment building she lives in has nicely kept communal gardens. The washing machines are also communal, which I was initially a bit horrified by, but you book the room and then because they're massive industrial ones they seem to work really quickly. They then have drying rooms with fans, as well as tumble dryers and also this concept of a drying cabinet, which is like an industrially sized airer in a box where warm air is pumped in and a dehumidifier runs. So you can use it for delicate stuff that isn't suitable for tumble drying. And your whole massive load of washing can be done and dusted and dried in an hour or so. I was remarkably impressed.

There seemed to be a lot on in terms of free stuff happening in the town/city, but where they had done some studies and concluded that the events improved the local economy by substantially more than the cost of the events.

In addition to all the public transport, there is a city wise cycle hire scheme that's something ridiculous like £30 a year for infinite use. Oh and on public transport, if you have a season ticket but aren't using it at that moment you can lend it to someone else by sending a link to their phone - totally legitimately.

Add on top of that the amazing sea front and sea front saunas and I can say it's somewhere I would be delighted to live. And if Brexit hadn't happened I probably would have moved there by now. But I would need to work in Copenhagen really, and it's very difficult to live and work in two different countries post Brexit, unfortunately.

Editing again: oh and as an immigrant my friend is eligible for (and has been taking) regular group Swedish lessons to get her up to fluency.

Glitterbiscuits · 04/07/2026 21:12

We have had holidays in Stockholm, Iceland and Finnish Lapland but it’s not enough to go on to picture life there.

OP posts:
WatermelonSalad1 · 04/07/2026 21:15

RedToothBrush · 04/07/2026 20:29

This is bullshit.

Is it I don't know how it compares to other countries, but it's a bit worse than London in Malmo and there seems to be a lot of issues with guns

or maybe I'm out of date and it's been fixed now?

FettleOfKish · 04/07/2026 21:15

WatermelonSalad1 · 04/07/2026 20:33

Oh, and one friend of ours worked in Sweden for a bit but complained that they don't really have a drinking culture

I would really like to go to a place that doesn't have a drinking culture. It sounds like a plus

Clearly they did not meet DH’s Brother 👀

We’ve considered moving there but my lack of Swedish (I can understand a lot but speaking it well alludes my Northern English tongue) is the major drawback, although I believe the Swedish government provides free lessons for all non-Swedish speakers. When we’ve visited I enjoy the lifestyle and the approach to family life and education. If we sold our 2 bed flat here we could buy a decent sized family home with some land there. Our Swedish raised teen relatives seem much more mature and independent than their British raised teen cousins but that could just be the individuals.

DH talks of the immigration and crime issues in cities but he’s lived here his entire adult life so I’m not sure how much of the information he largely gathers from his Mum is fact and how much is biased by her age and outlook (in the same way my Grandparents would have told you that 1990s Bradford was on a par with the slums of Johannesburg or Caracas).

cookbookjunkie · 04/07/2026 21:19

RedToothBrush · 04/07/2026 20:29

This is bullshit.

Which bit?

The first is pretty indisputable, I'd have thought.

The second you have a point, although if you live in Malmo these days it might feel like the whole country is one of the least safe in Europe.

Dearg · 04/07/2026 21:27

I lived in Norway for a bit. Like anywhere, there’s good and bad.
Generally family friendly, outdoors culture; but insular and not especially welcoming to outsiders.

Work ethic was very different to what I was used to in UK, US & Germany; the ‘foreign’ woman got left with all the after hours crunching to meet deadlines…

I am Scottish, so used to dark winters and rain, but this was something else. Oh, and a former colleague had our boss’s family kidnapped after he was fired for fraud.

I have worked in several countries, and Norway is one I would not go back to, other than to look at the scenery

Natsku · 04/07/2026 21:29

Ineffable23 · 04/07/2026 20:56

I have a friend who lives in Malmö, which is a city that seems to get "bad press" in terms of migrants etc. I have spent a fair amount of time there and a lot of time talking to my friend about it, and honestly it does seem basically idyllic.

We went round to the area of the city that's supposedly a no go area/dodgy etc and it was nicer than the moderately dodgy bits of the UK town I live in.

The public transport is amazing - you can lend your tickets to others, they do a special discounted ticket for the summer holidays to allow you to travel round your region. The trains are designed to line up with the buses and there are buses out to the national parks so you can go for walks easily.

When we went and visited the national parks, there was spring water that was marked up as being fit for human consumption and it was the nicest water I have ever tasted. They had set up an area where you could camp, free of charge, and when trees came down in the forests they were transported to that area with some municipal axes left so you could use them to make fires to have a barbecue. There was a composting toilet and an old fashioned water pump for water.

The food seems broadly similar to UK prices for eating out, alcohol is more expensive. Editing to add: oh yes, an annoying thing is that you can't buy wine or any alcohol over like 3.5% ABV in the supermarket, only special government stores that have limited opening hours.

My friend's work gives her a contribution each month towards sports clubs she wants to be a member of, because it's been determined that your workplaces should be facilitating you being active.

The apartment building she lives in has nicely kept communal gardens. The washing machines are also communal, which I was initially a bit horrified by, but you book the room and then because they're massive industrial ones they seem to work really quickly. They then have drying rooms with fans, as well as tumble dryers and also this concept of a drying cabinet, which is like an industrially sized airer in a box where warm air is pumped in and a dehumidifier runs. So you can use it for delicate stuff that isn't suitable for tumble drying. And your whole massive load of washing can be done and dusted and dried in an hour or so. I was remarkably impressed.

There seemed to be a lot on in terms of free stuff happening in the town/city, but where they had done some studies and concluded that the events improved the local economy by substantially more than the cost of the events.

In addition to all the public transport, there is a city wise cycle hire scheme that's something ridiculous like £30 a year for infinite use. Oh and on public transport, if you have a season ticket but aren't using it at that moment you can lend it to someone else by sending a link to their phone - totally legitimately.

Add on top of that the amazing sea front and sea front saunas and I can say it's somewhere I would be delighted to live. And if Brexit hadn't happened I probably would have moved there by now. But I would need to work in Copenhagen really, and it's very difficult to live and work in two different countries post Brexit, unfortunately.

Editing again: oh and as an immigrant my friend is eligible for (and has been taking) regular group Swedish lessons to get her up to fluency.

Edited

There's a spring near me in Finland that I drive past when I go to work, went there today and filled up a canister with its delicious water.

Went to immigrant school when I moved here, didn't cost me anything, in fact I was paid to go there, and it was full time language learning plus some maths, science and cultural lessons (I guess to make sure everyone is up to 9th grade standard. There was also English lessons but they let me skip those!). But they're cutting back on this stuff now, there's been a worrying shift in governmental attitude lately.

mynameiscalypso · 04/07/2026 21:40

cookbookjunkie · 04/07/2026 21:19

Which bit?

The first is pretty indisputable, I'd have thought.

The second you have a point, although if you live in Malmo these days it might feel like the whole country is one of the least safe in Europe.

Edited

The Global Peace Index - which is not perfect by any means but used widely - ranks Sweden as the 6th least safe country in Europe.

Minasama · 04/07/2026 21:44

They are racist though. Denmark was the inspiration for the Rwanda policy - they have that.
I was on a Financial Times comments thread and there were a bunch of Swedes discussing when you are actually a Swede - they concluded third-generation might count as Swedish. Very different from in the U.K. where I’d always count anyone who was born here as British.

DaysIllRememberAllMyLife · 04/07/2026 21:50

My friend is from Sweden and says its dark depressing and expensive.

WatermelonSalad1 · 04/07/2026 21:51

mynameiscalypso · 04/07/2026 21:40

The Global Peace Index - which is not perfect by any means but used widely - ranks Sweden as the 6th least safe country in Europe.

Unless I've misunderstood what you've said this is not true

VenusClapTrap · 04/07/2026 21:51

Some friends lived in Stockholm for a few years and raised their children there. They loved it, and thought it was a wonderful place for kids. They’ve lived in a number of countries, and it is the one they remember with the most fondness.

I have other friends who lived in Iceland for a while. They also loved it, and made many friends there who they stayed in touch with. They’re a gay couple and they found the gay scene very welcoming.

Dd wants to live in Norway. She’s been planning it for years.

Thawtfulpanda · 04/07/2026 21:52

when I went to copenhagan last month the biggest thing I noticed was how many men were pushing buggies.

mynameiscalypso · 04/07/2026 21:54

WatermelonSalad1 · 04/07/2026 21:51

Unless I've misunderstood what you've said this is not true

Sorry, I think that might be in Western Europe, you’re right (disclaimer, I have Covid at the moment I think so my brain is a little fuzzy)

CosmosDream · 04/07/2026 21:55

Denmark is incredibly corrupt. It's not only immigrants that are poorly treated, the disabled are widely mistreated. Mayors and municipal staff can break the law repeatedly and face no consequences. Parents of disabled children are threatened with forced removal as a way of silencing complaints. There is no protection for citizens as no authority or court will take action against the municipalities.

Sherararara · 04/07/2026 21:56

Having lived in Norway for several years he is, generally speaking, correct. Of course it isn’t all unicorns and roses but definitely an hell of a lot better than the UK in many many ways.

comoatoupeira · 04/07/2026 21:58

people are racist, intolerant and think they are better than others

Flampert · 04/07/2026 22:00

mynameiscalypso · 04/07/2026 21:54

Sorry, I think that might be in Western Europe, you’re right (disclaimer, I have Covid at the moment I think so my brain is a little fuzzy)

Had to check this out of interest. In 2026 it looks almost identical to the UK, interestingly. Whether that's a damning indictment or not, I'm not sure.

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