Denmark(capital: Copenhagen)Capital: Copenhagen. The Jutland peninsula plus 406 islands. The southernmost of the Scandinavian countries. European Union member since 1973.
Estonia(capital: Tallinn)Capital: Tallinn. The large islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa belong to it. So do more than 2,300 smaller ones. European Union member since 2004.
Finland(capital: Helsinki)Capital: Helsinki. A Nordic country with two official languages, Finnish and Swedish. European Union member since 1995.
Iceland(capital: Reykjavík)Capital: Reykjavík, home to about 35% of the people. The westernmost and most sparsely populated country in Europe, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Ireland(capital: Dublin)Capital: Dublin, on the east side of the island. The state has 26 of the island's 32 counties. European Union member since 1973.
Latvia(capital: Riga)Capital: Riga, the largest city. About 64,600 square kilometers, a little smaller than Lithuania. European Union member since 2004.
Lithuania(capital: Vilnius)Capital: Vilnius. About 65,300 square kilometers, a little larger than Latvia. European Union member since 2004.
Norway(capital: Oslo)Capital: Oslo. Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Arctic islands, belong to it. Outside the European Union.
Sweden(capital: Stockholm)Capital: Stockholm. The largest and most populous Nordic country. The fifth-largest country in Europe. European Union member since 1995.
United Kingdom(capital: London)Capital: London. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Outside the European Union.
How this list was compiled: The countries are the member states of the United Nations that the UN files under its four regions of Europe, plus Cyprus, a European Union member that the UN files under Western Asia: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/member-states and United Nations Statistics Division, Standard country or area codes for statistical use (M49), https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/, both checked 2026-09-19. The 27 members of the European Union and the year each joined: https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/eu-countries_en, checked 2026-09-19. Capitals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependent_territories_in_Europe, checked 2026-09-19. The Balkans group: there is no agreed list (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans, checked 2026-09-19); this one is the former Yugoslav states, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. Shapes of the drawing that are dependencies, that the points file flags, or that are not member states are not on this list and are never asked. Positions in the hints were read off the drawing; the "largest shape" hint was checked against the areas of the drawn shapes. The second and later sentences of each detail line were read on 2026-09-19 in the lead of that country's article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ followed by the country's name as the quiz labels it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(country) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland for those two); no detail line names a flagged shape or describes a border that is contested. Hints and detail lines written for this site. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes (scale 1:50,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_50m_admin_0_countries_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection centred on 53°N 15°E. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. 6 places are too small to draw at this scale and shown as a dot. Licence: public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)
How it works
Ten countries make up this North Europe map quiz: the Nordic five, the Baltic three, Ireland and the United Kingdom, the United Nations list. Tap each in Find it. In Name it, type the lit country, then its capital.
Read the full guide
The list: five, three and two
The Nordic five are Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The Baltic three, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, line the east shore of the Baltic Sea. Ireland and the United Kingdom sit out in the Atlantic. Learn one set at a time and the map fills in from three directions.
Ten shapes, no rings, then ten capitals
All ten are big enough to tap, so nothing is ringed. Five island territories are drawn and never asked, because they are not member states of the United Nations: the Faroe Islands, Åland, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. In Name it, a question scores only when country and capital are both right.
The Baltic states run north to south in alphabetical order: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. Estonia faces Finland across a narrow gulf.
Norway and Sweden share one peninsula: Norway is the Atlantic side that curls over the top, Sweden the Baltic side.
The United Kingdom is Great Britain plus the northeast corner of the island of Ireland. Typing UK works too.
Questions and answers
Is Scandinavia the same as Northern Europe?
No. This page covers Scandinavia and keeps going. The word most often means Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and English speakers also use it for all five Nordic countries. All five are asked here, along with Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Is the United Kingdom really part of Northern Europe?
On the United Nations list, yes, and Ireland with it. The European Union's EuroVoc thesaurus counts the Nordic five and the Baltic three as Northern Europe and files Ireland and the United Kingdom under Western Europe. If your class list is shorter, skip the extras.
Which of the 10 countries are in the European Union?
Seven, on the union's list as read on September 19, 2026. Denmark and Ireland joined in 1973, Finland and Sweden in 1995, and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 2004. Iceland and Norway never joined, and the United Kingdom left on January 31, 2020.
What are the capitals of the Nordic and Baltic countries?
Copenhagen, Helsinki, Reykjavík, Oslo and Stockholm for Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Dublin and London complete the ten. Name it asks each one after its country, and accents are optional when typing.