Claim: Hockey is popular in Sweden.

Scandinavia -LSB- ˌskændɪˈneɪviə -RSB- is a historical and cultural region in Northern Europe characterized by a common ethnocultural North Germanic heritage and mutually intelligible North Germanic languages .   The term Scandinavia always includes the three kingdoms of Denmark , Norway , and Sweden . The remote Norwegian islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are usually not seen as a part of Scandinavia , nor is Greenland , an overseas territory of Denmark . However , the Faroe Islands , also a Danish overseas territory , are sometimes included , as sometimes are Iceland , Finland , and the Finnish autonomous region of the Åland Islands , because of their historical association with the Scandinavian countries and the Scandinavian peoples and languages . This looser definition almost equates to that of the Nordic countries . In Nordic languages , only Denmark , Norway and Sweden are commonly included in the definition of Scandinavia .   In English usage , Scandinavia sometimes refers to the geographical area , also known as the Scandinavian Peninsula . The name Scandinavia originally referred vaguely to the formerly Danish , now Swedish , region Scania . The terms Scandinavia and Scandinavian entered usage in the late 18th century as terms for Denmark , Norway and Sweden , their Germanic majority peoples and associated language and culture , the term being introduced by the early linguistic and cultural Scandinavist movement .   The majority of the population of Scandinavia are descended from several -LRB- North -RRB- Germanic tribes who originally inhabited the southern part of Scandinavia and spoke a Germanic language that evolved into Old Norse . Icelanders and the Faroese are to a significant extent descended from the Norse , and are therefore often seen as Scandinavian . Finland is mainly populated by Finns , with a minority of approximately 5 % of Swedish speakers . A small minority of Sami people live in the extreme north of Scandinavia .   The Danish , Norwegian and Swedish languages form a dialect continuum and are known as the Scandinavian languages -- all of which are considered mutually intelligible with one another . Faroese and Icelandic , sometimes referred to as insular Scandinavian languages , are intelligible in continental Scandinavian languages only to a limited extent . Finnish and Meänkieli are closely related to each other and more distantly to the Sami languages , but are entirely unrelated to the Scandinavian languages . Apart from these , German , Yiddish and Romani are recognized minority languages in Scandinavia .   The southern and by far most populous regions of Scandinavia have a temperate climate . Scandinavia extends north of the Arctic Circle , but has relatively mild weather for its latitude due to the Gulf Stream . Much of the Scandinavian mountains have an alpine tundra climate . There are many lakes and moraines , legacies of the last glacial period , which ended about ten millennia ago .