Nobody's really mentioned religion yet(?)
I recently stumbled over this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/us...eligion&st=cse
And later I also read his book. The main point is that Scandinavians are not very religious seen with the eyes of an American. If anything, we're culturally religious - Phil Zuckerman suggests - in much the same manner as Jews. Focus is on tradition and form, not personal faith, and people don't worry about such things as the afterlife or the meaning of life in any religious sense. My educated guess would be that this would actually count for a relatively large degree of Europe. The strong expressions of religiousness and belief in a personal God and saviour seems a very "American" thing.