Both neighbours of the Netherlands that are grouped together as Benelux; 3 of the 6 founding nations of the European Union, and both have high standard of living as the Dutch and Nordics, although the difference is that Catholic Culture and Social Teaching have more of an influence.
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Very different. The BeNeLux countries are among the tightest populated countries in the World, while Scandinavia is the great, vast, sparsely populated North.
Culture-wise pretty different, there’s even a, for us, huge difference between NL and BE.
The biggest difference in day to day life would be hierarchy and formality. The Netherlands is very much like the Nordics regarding hierarchy in the workplace: Yes, of course it’s there, but you won’t really notice it too much.
While Belgium can still have a pretty strong hierarchy, where telling your manager during a meeting “Well, I think it’s better we do it this way” is just not okay.
Also heard from students that in Dutch companies everyone mingles, in Belgium companies it tends to be more segregated.
This is a video I often send to people very new to NL: [https://youtu.be/T8xwGJEvQ00?si=nnJ-D8Xa4kK94Ux8](https://youtu.be/T8xwGJEvQ00?si=nnJ-D8Xa4kK94Ux8) it also draws some comparisons to Belgians.
We’re also seen as more direct, but eh, wait till Flemish people feel safe enough to voice their opinions, they’re harsher and ruder than our Rotterdammers.
OMG this should be a matrix containing every combination of every country and most importantly: a separate sub.
I partly grew up in Sweden but am Belgian and live there too. I lived in Dalarna though, so you could say ”The REAL Sweden!” or instead ”bunch of bumfuck forest dwelling people stuck in time disconnected from Swedish city life”. I’ll give it a try.
One thing is for sure, Belgians put a *lot* more value on their food being good and being able to really enjoy it. That’s not to say that Swedish food is bad or that Swedes don’t enjoy eating, but there is a stronger emphasis on it. The ”terrace” culture is therefore also not really something you’ll find in Sweden compared to having even the smallest village town squares in Belgium just covered in tables and people sitting down having a drink. I think when it comes to food we look more to the south than to the north, and we don’t call ourselves Burgundians for nothing.
Another difference is work ethic, Belgians will take vacations often while Swedes are more likely to simply refuse to do anything outside of work hours. Different ways of getting that free time to enjoy yourself.
I also think that in Belgium kids are pushed really hard in school and expected to perform, while in Sweden the focus is on growing up and learning different things you’d never get in Belgium, like woodworking, Cooking, Sewing etc all part of the normal education alongside maths and history.
In the gym for example, in Sweden, no stranger/regular would greet me. You’d get an awkward nod at most. In Belgium, you will regularly get stuck in conversation about a little bit of whatever and people are rarely afraid to share their opinions.. even when they maybe shouldnt always be so proud of them..
There are a *ton* of other differences, I don’t think Belgian and Swedish culture is very alike at all. Belgium is also quite different from the Netherlands already. Sweden is very Scandinavian and Belgium is a lot more ”south-western European” if that makes sense. If you have any specific things you are wondering about feel free to ask, these were just some that stood out to me throughout the years.
Can’t put the nordics as whole.. like in my country.. people from the northern part might be like from a “different nation” compared to those coming from the inner part in southern norway.. Think it’s farther from the capital here to the norhernmost part of norway than to brussels. So in the end it depends on what part of norway (or the nordics) you would compare to belgium. Mountains, valleys, rivers etc. have made different characters of the parts of norway. Even nationwise we’re different in the nordics.
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland has free medical care and free Education.
All mentioned countries is planning to use 3,5% of their military culture.
All the Scandinavian countries and Iceland are introverted, Finland is a bit less introverted but still introverted.
In Denmark there’s no minimum wage, instead we use something called: “The Danish Model” which is a heavy amount of work term agreements, made between the workers unions and Work granter unions. Idk, about Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland’s workmodels.
All mentioned countries speak a Germanic language, but Finland also has Slavic influence in their language structure, and Sweden has some French influence in their language structure.
All the Nordic countries are Protestant Christian states, with a rising number in Atheism, most notably Sweden has a 35% civilian rate of Atheist.
All the Scandinavian countries have a King as head of state, but Finland and Iceland elects a president.
All Nordic countries, except Iceland, has between 5 and 10 million civilians, with Iceland only having almost 400.000 civilians.
All Scandinavian countries mostly have the same holidays like Christmas and Easter, but how we celebrate them vary a lot. A great example is Sankta Lucia Dag, where Sweden eats a bread called: “Lucia Bread”, but in Denmark we traditionally don’t eat Lucia Bread. Finland and Iceland are unknown data to me.
The general culture in the Nordic countries is considered the same to foreigners. This remains mostly true, with our speaking cultures, workmodels, social statuses, values, etc. being almost identical.
Hope these data helps determine your answer. And then I shall in my Dane manners wish you a great day.
Most of the things that make Netherlands similar to the Nordics are exactly the things that are different between Netherlands and Belgium & Luxembourg.
Finland is very different culturaly to the Benelux countries. Children are grown up more freely here as is the education. Less pressure on kids in general. Finns hate working overtime. At 15:00 on Friday the roads are filled with people leaving the cities going to their summer cottages. Shen it comes to drinking though Finns are hardcore about it. But Finns are also a very DIY nation. I tell my friends often Finland is literally the redneck state of Europe because of the diy and car cultures here.
Ok, so short version for a complex topic.
So, you have to understand that Benelux was mostly an economic construct, not a cultural one.
The complex part is that The Netherlands and Belgium used to be one country, Luxemburg was a Duchy that does not really overlap with current borders.
Anyway – they do still have distinct culture and character.
Belgium and Luxemburg are overwhelmingly catholic, while he Netherlands are overwhelmingly protestant, though the non-migrant population is very secular.
So, honestly, I don’t think you can compare Benelux as a monolith to Scandinavia as a monolith.
And what are you comparing?
I’d say healthcare, education, social security are overall good, but getting worse, NL and BE are having more right-leaning governments lately and NL healthcare is getting more expensive. Still big differences between countries.
Also you have to understand the Benelux is insanely densely populated. You may think of countries like India thinking of population density, but the Randstad is pretty nuts when you look it up.
The Nordics are much less populated, have more wild nature.
I visited Denmark and would describe it as similar to the Netherlands, but more rugged, more expensive, and vastly less populated, certainly outside the cities.
I’m a belgian living in finland. The similarities are striking and so are the differences. Belgium and finland have in common that we appreciate the little things in life. We don’t have much but we’re living a good life is the main approach to life. Flashing your wealth is not done, nor is bragging about yourself or what you have. Small talk is somewhat more done in Belgium than in Finland, but still rather limited, compared to say the netherlands. Nobody expects you to start chatting to strangers. We complain about our counties, the government and the weather. A lot. And we eat a lot of potatoes.
Where things get very different is hierarchy. Finland has a much flatter hierarchy at work where everybody is supposed to contribute and bosses are there to coordinate rather than give direct orders. Belgium has a more strict hierarchy. The best weekend ever also looks very different. The belgian will want to spent it eating and drinking with friends and family, the finn will go to his cottage in the middle of the forest far away from people.