36 Amazing Facts About The Scandinavian Countries That’ll Warm Your Heart

Stockholm, capital of Sweden, is built on 14 islands, and that the city center is "virtually situated on the water".

27. The United States has more people of Norwegian descent than Norway.

28. In the 1982 Swedish Hot Line Riot, the teens in Sweden hacked the landline system to create a massive party line unbeknownst to adults or HTE phone company. Over 1,000 14-18 year olds then decided to meet at one location with no plans. A riot ensued.

29. Earlier in 2016, Sweden released a telephone number that would put you in touch with a random Swede. More than 32,000 Swedes agreed to take the calls by downloading an app, answering upwards of 180,000 calls from all over the world.

30. In 2001, a teenager in Sweden was arrested on suspicion of treason after throwing a strawberry tart at King Carl Gustaf.

Norway, Sweden, and Finland together are not Scandinavia, but are Fennoscandia. Scandinavia actually comprises Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, not Finland.

32. In 2008, Doritos beamed a 30-second advertisement into a planetary system 42 light years away, in collaboration with EISCAT Space Center in Norway.

33. Norway owns an uninhabited frozen island (Bouvet Island) located halfway between Africa and Antarctica.

34. In Iceland, the belief in Elves is so pervasive that it can determine government action. From roads avoiding large rocks (where the Elves "live") to construction permits sometimes requiring the aide of a mystic who can ask the elves to move.

35. In Iceland, criminals are put on a waiting list to serve their time in prison because there aren't enough available jail cells. Many people who are on this list pay fines or do community service as an alternative to prison.

In 1954, archaeologists excavating an 8th-century Viking settlement in Sweden (Helgö) found a Buddha statuette from India.