The Nordic Region is the most common name for Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, including their associated territories Greenland: the Faroe Islands and the Aaland Islands, the only totally Swedish speaking part of Finland. This Nordic Region is also often talked about as the North and, in local language, as "Norden".
The inhabitants in these Nordic countries are mainly Scandinavian or Finnish ( Finland is not included in Scandinavia, which comprises only Denmark, Norway and Sweden ) with Sami people in Norway, Sweden and Finland and Greenlandic Inuits as minority populations. The native languages spoken of Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese are Germanic languages with non-Germanic languages being Finnish, Greenlandic and several variations of the Sami language. The Finnish language is part of the Finnic-Uralic group and shares common elements with Hungarian and a close affinity with Estonian. The main religion is Lutheran Christianity.
The Nordic Region and their inhabitants are very homogenous in the way they live, their way of using their languages, their historic background and even their social structure. These Nordic countries each have their own governments but co-operate in the Nordic Council.
For many people, the Nordics are synonymous with Scandinavia but, technically speaking, Scandinavia is only Denmark, Norway and Sweden, though the Scandinavian Peninsula covers mainland Norway, Sweden and the northernmost part of Finland.