Northernmost countries and autonomous regions of Europe

[Ymyyakhtakh]

I was wondering which of the republics of European Russia might be seen as part of Northern Europe, if for example Northern Europe is considered to consist of anything as north as the Nordic countries and the Baltic states. I also wanted to know if for example Finland or Norway is further north, or if Komi Republic or the Republic of Karelia is further north.

At first I made the list below of the latitude of the geographical center point of different European countries and regions based on Wikipedia and other sources. However different sources utilize different methods to calculate the geographical center point, and I did not find information about the center point of some countries.

64.18: Finland (https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leskelä_(Siikalatva), unsure if islands are included)
63.99: Norway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_of_Norway, islands included, overseas areas of Svalbard and Jan Mayen not included)
62.39: Sweden (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geogra...nter_of_Sweden, utilized imprecise method of measurement)
58.71: Estonia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adavere, coordinates based on the location of a village)
57.82: Scotland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_of_Scotland, islands included)
55.30: Lithuania (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruoščiai, coordinates based on the location of a village)
54.61: Northern Ireland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre...rthern_Ireland)
53.50: Republic of Ireland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geogra...tre_of_Ireland)
52.56: England (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre...ingdom#England)
52.33: Wales (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cwmystwyth, coordinates based on the location of a village)

However I then realized that if you simply search for the name of a country on Google Maps, the coordinates returned correspond roughly to the geographical center point of the country. I then searched for the name of different countries and regions on Google Maps, and I made the following list of the latitude returned:

67.90: Nenets Autonomous Okrug
64.62: Finland (error .44)
64.59: Iceland
63.60: Republic of Karelia
63.53: Komi Republic
63.48: Norway (error .51)
61.89: Faroe Islands
61.74: Sweden (error .63)
60.26: Åland Islands
58.54: Estonia (error .17)
57.67: Scotland (error .15)
57.18: Udmurtia
56.88: Latvia
56.56: Mari El
56.15: Denmark
55.47: Chuvashia
55.24: Tatarstan
55.09: Lithuania (error .11)
54.66: Northern Ireland (error .05)
54.40: Mordovia
54.23: United Kingdom
53.97: Bashkortostan
53.63: Belarus
53.36: Republic of Ireland (error .14)
52.75: England (error .16)
52.38: Wales (error .05)
52.19: Netherlands

On the list above, you can see that the error compared to the first list in this post is .2 or less in the case of all countries and regions except Finland, Norway, and Sweden (which might be because of the elongated shape of all three countries).

Based on the list above, if the countries and regions whose center point is equal or higher than Lithuania's are considered to be part of Northern Europe, then Scotland, Udmurtia, Mari El, Chuvashia, and Tatarstan would be part of Northern Europe, but Northern Ireland, Mordovia, and Bashkortostan would not.

Based on the list above, 4 out of 5 of the northernmost countries and autonomous regions of Europe are part of the Uralic domain.

Out of the first 20 countries and autonomous regions on the list above, the language of the primary ethnicity historically associated with the country or region (which is no longer the majority ethnicity in the case of many regions) belongs to the following language families:

Uralic: 8 (Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Finland, Republic of Karelia, Komi Republic, Estonia, Udmurtia, Mari El, Mordovia)
Germanic: 6 (Iceland, Norway, Faroe Islands, Sweden, Åland Islands, Denmark)
Baltic: 2 (Latvia, Lithuania)
Celtic: 2 (Scotland, Northern Ireland)
Turkic: 2 (Chuvashia, Tatarstan)

[Salty Ears]

Not shure that Nenets okrug will exist in the future. In soviet times that okrugs were created for ethnical minorities, now when Russia slowly but inexorably transforming from federation to unitarian state, okrugs just an administrative atavism. It will be railway to Naryan-Mar and soon Nenets okrug just an average russian region not the country, like it was with Komi-permyak okrug (now part of Perm krai) or some mongol okrugs in the east of Russia. Same with Udmurtia and Tatarstan. Here we have open discussions about unification of Udmurtia and Perm Krai and unification of Volga regions around Kazan.

[Laag]

In Russia there is such a thing as the Russian North.

Google translate from Russian Wikipedia.

The concept of the Russian North has no established definition. Belonging of a region to the Russian North is not generally accepted. "Russian North" is a historical and cultural concept rather than a geographical or administrative one.

Currently, the territory of the Russian North is usually determined by the boundaries of the Republic of Karelia, Arkhangelsk region, Komi Republic, Nenets Autonomous district, the region, the coast of the White sea and the Barents sea, on the West by the Belozersk district, the river basin of the Sheksna (including North-West, Yaroslavl region — the so-called poshekhon'e), lower reaches of the Mologa, in the East river basin of the Northern Dvina, Pinega, Mezen, Pechora, Vychegda and the southern border of the Vologda region[2]. In the past, the Russian North included Vyatka land (Kirov region), as well as the Perm region, now belonging to the Urals[3]. According to the same geographical journalist I. Buyanovsky, a full-fledged Russian North can be considered and the Northern part of the Nizhny Novgorod region.St. Petersburg and Leningrad region are not considered to be the Russian North. This is due to cultural reasons: St. Petersburg is the embodiment of the Western principle in Russian culture and history. However, a number of opinions[3] there is reason to attribute to the Russian North, the districts of the Leningrad region East of the Volkhov and North of the railway line Volkhovstroy — Vologda, including the city of Tikhvin as a territory, preserving a certain cultural field (Russian wooden architecture, etc.) applicable to the concept of "Russian North".

From a cultural-historical point of view, to the Russian North is also the historic settlement of Lal'sk (city until 1927) the area (Gora, Oparinskaya and Gora areas, transferred to the Kirov region only in 1941), since its inception, closely associated with the Great Ustyug and until the mid XX century continuously part of all territorial entities, which were Vologda (Vologda region, Vologda province), Arkhangelsk (Arkhangelsk province, Northern region, Northern region, Arkhangelsk oblast), or Veliky Ustyug (North Dvina province).

There is also such a thing as the middle band of Russia. The middle band of Russia is a conditional term that defines the Central European part of Russia. The Northern regions of this band include Tver, Yaroslavl and Kostroma regions.

These concepts can be used to define different administrative or economic boundaries in Russia.
For example the Komi Republic, Karelia and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug include in Northwestern Federal District.

Or in Northern Economic Region


While Yaroslavl, Tver and Kostroma regions are included in the Central Federal District and Central economic region.

[Salty Ears]

Northern Russia is a territory where northern branch of ethnic Russians living. Also it is historical territory of Northern Rus'. Solikamsk, Cherdyn in Perm krai originally Northern Rus' towns, also ethnic russians here descendants of resettlers of 18-19 century from Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Vyatka, Nizhniy Novgorod region mostly (northern and middle russians). Basicly we have and ural, and northern identity here.

[Laag]

United Nations geoscheme subregions of Europe:
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
Iceland
Ireland
Latvia
Lithuania
Norway
Sweden
United Kingdom


In accordance with this division, such regions as Pskov, Novgorod, Smolensk, Tver, Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod oblast, Perm Krai, Kirov oblast, Tatarstan, Udmurtia and Mari El also could fall into Northern Europe.

[Ymyyakhtakh]

Here is also the latitude of the center of population of different European countries listed by Wikipedia (based on various sources):

61.2 Finland (in Southwestern Finland, only about 100 km north of Helsinki)
59.4 Estonia (in a suburb of Tallinn, extremely far north)
58.9 Sweden
56.6 Russia (near Izhevsk)
53.3 Republic of Ireland
51.1 Germany (close to the geographical center point of Germany)
52.7 United Kingdom (a bit north of Birmingham, close to the geographical center point of England)

Estonia's center of population is near Tallinn, so it is further north than the center of population of Sweden. The center of population of Russia is surprisingly far north -- probably further north than Denmark's.

The Wikipedia article linked above also features the following map, which is based on data published by Eurostat:



Here is the latitude of the population center of each country copied from the R code used to generate the map above:

61.139 Finland
59.946 Norway
59.349 Estonia
59.105 Sweden
56.923 Latvia
55.728 Denmark
55.013 Lithuania
53.208 Ireland
52.442 United Kingdom
52.081 Netherlands
51.652 Poland
51.036 Germany
50.86 Belgium
49.96 Czech Republic
48.768 Slovakia
47.97 Austria
47.836 France
47.455 Hungary
47.16 Liechtenstein
47.15 Switzerland
46.143 Slovenia
45.567 Croatia
45.510 Romania
43.679 Italia
42.58 Bulgaria
41.28 Albania
40.389 Spain
39.964 Portugal
38.082 Greece
35.886 Malta

On the list above, Estonia is further north than Sweden, like on the previous list. Denmark is further north than Lithuania. Poland is fairly far south, but still further north than Germany. France is almost as far north as Austria, and further north than Hungary.

The list above is missing Iceland, which would of course rank first. It is also missing Russia, which would using the latitude of 56.6 rank 7th (after Latvia but before Denmark). It is missing Belarus, which would probably rank 10th (after Lithuania but before Ireland). So if Finland is counted as Northeast European, the 10 highest ranking countries would include 6 Northeast European countries and 4 Northwest European countries.

[Salty Ears]

Of cos' Russia is northern european country by many indicators, not only geography, but culture and mentality too. Dmitry Likhachov considered Russia as skando-byzantine country, i think it is rather good definition.

[Ymyyakhtakh]

If Northern Europe is defined as the regions of Europe that are further north than the southernmost point of Denmark (latitude 54.56), then the 20 cities of Northern Europe with the largest population (based on population figures listed by Wikipedia) are the following:

(population listed by Wikipedia (millions);latitude returned by Google Maps;city;country or Russian federal subject)
11.92;55.6;Moscow;Moscow
5.28;59.9;Saint Petersburg;Saint Petersburg
1.26;56.3;Nizhny Novgorod;Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
1.23;55.8;Kazan;Tatarstan
1.12;54.8;Ufa;Bashkortostan
1.05;58.0;Perm;Perm Krai
0.97;59.3;Stockholm;Sweden
0.67;59.9;Oslo;Norway
0.65;60.1;Helsinki;Finland
0.63;56.8;Izhevsk;Udmurtia
0.63;57.0;Riga;Latvia
0.61;57.7;Yaroslavl;Yaroslavl Oblast
0.60;55.7;Copenhagen;Denmark
0.60;55.9;Glasgow;Scotland
0.58;57.7;Gothenburg;Sweden
0.54;54.7;Ryazan;Ryazan Oblast
0.54;54.7;Vilnius;Lithuania
0.53;55.7;Naberezhnye Chelny;Tatarstan
0.50;58.6;Kirov;Kirov Oblast
0.49;56.2;Cheboksary;Chuvashia

Izhevsk, Kazan, and Cheboksary (the capitals of Udmurtia, Tatarstan, and Chuvashia) are all more northern than Copenhagen.

Out of the European cities whose latitude returned by Google Maps is 60 or higher, these are the 20 cities with the largest population:

(population listed by Wikipedia (millions);latitude returned by Google Maps;city;country or Russian federal subject)
0.65;60.1;Helsinki;Finland
0.35;64.6;Arhkangelsk;Arkhangelsk Oblast
0.30;69.0;Murmansk;Murmansk Oblast
0.28;61.8;Petrozavodsk;Republic of Karelia
0.27;60.2;Espoo;Finland
0.27;60.4;Bergen;Norway
0.24;61.7;Syktyvkar;Komi Republic
0.23;61.6;Tampere;Finland
0.22;60.3;Vantaa;Finland
0.20;65.2;Oulu;Finland
0.19;64.6;Severodvinsk;Arkhangelsk Oblast
0.19;60.4;Turku;Finland
0.18;63.4;Trondeim;Norway
0.14;62.1;Jyväskylä;Finland
0.12;64.1;Reykjavik;Iceland
0.12;63.0;Kuopio;Finland
0.10;60.7;Gävle;Sweden
0.10;63.6;Ukhta;Komi Republic
0.08;62.6;Joensuu;Finland
0.07;69.7;Tromsø;Norway

The list above is dominated by Finland (9 out of 20 cities), followed by Russia (6 cities, 2 of which are in Komi Republic), Norway (3 cities), Iceland (1 city), and Sweden (1 city). You can see that the population of Finland and Komi Republic are concentrated further north than the population of Sweden or Norway.

Out of the European localities whose latitude returned by Google Maps is above the latitude of the Arctic circle (currently about 66.563 degrees), these 20 have the largest population:

(population listed by Wikipedia;latitude;locality;country or Russian federal subject)
295,374;69.0;Murmansk;Murmansk Oblast
71,580;69.7;Tromsø;Norway
62,945;66.7;Rovaniemi;Finland
56,088;67.5;Vorkuta;Komi Republic
55,713;67.6;Apatity;Murmansk Oblast
52,255;69.1;Severomorsk;Murmansk Oblast
49,731;67.3;Bodø;Norway
42,099;67.9;Monchegorsk;Murmansk Oblast
31,329;67.2;Kandalaksha;Murmansk Oblast
26,581;67.6;Kirovsk;Murmansk Oblast
24,820;68.9;Harstad;Norway
21,658;67.7;Naryan Mar;Nenets Autonomous Okrug
20,847;68.1;Olenegorsk;Murmansk Oblast
20,635;70.0;Alta;Norway
18,705;68.4;Narvik;Norway
18,148;67.8;Kiruna;Sweden
16,623;67.6;Kovdor;Murmansk Oblast
15,037;69.4;Zapolyarny;Murmansk Oblast
14,389;67.4;Poljarnyje Zori;Murmansk Oblast
14,152;68.8;Murmashi;Murmansk Oblast

The list above is dominated by Murmansk Oblast. It is home to several mining towns which are located on the Murmansk-Kandalaksha axis at the base of the Kola Peninsula.

(I know that this forum supports the BBCode syntax for tables, but I think that documents written in natural languages should be written in a plain text syntax like Markdown, so that there would be a standard plain text syntax for formatting constructs like tables, lists, block quotes, italic text, code blocks, code spans, and horizontal rules. Therefore I'm trying to popularize the CSV-style syntax for formatting tables which I have used in this thread.)

[Laag]

Udmurtia is located at the same latitude as southern Sweden and Latvia. Izhevsk the capital of Udmurtia is located at the same latitude as the capital of Latvia Riga. The distance from Helsinki to Izhevsk is closer than from Helsinki to Sofia 1670 and 1950 km respectively. If Udmurtia were an independent state it would be one of the northernmost European countries.

[Ülev]

Izhevsk, the heart of Kalashnikovs