Scandinavia is a historical and cultural region in Northern Europe characterized by a common ethnocultural North Germanic heritage[dubious – discuss] and mutually intelligible North Germanic languages. The term Scandinavia always includes the mainlands of the four kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden.

Norwegian dependencies, including Svalbard and Jan Mayen, are usually not seen as a part of Scandinavia, nor is Danish Greenland. However, the Danish Faroe Islands are sometimes included, as sometimes are Iceland and Finland, because of their historical association with the Scandinavian countries and the Scandinavian peoples and languages. This looser definition almost equates to that of the Nordic countries. In Nordic languages, only mainland Denmark, Norway and Sweden are commonly included in the definition of Scandinavia.