What are the secrets behind the prosperity of the Scandinavian nations?

Question

Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. Those Scandinavian nations are ones of the top richest and most prosperous, and stable countries in the world.

What made those countries rich? They do not have much of natural resources (not like the U.S. and Canada), yet they are the richest countries in the world. They usually rank in 1~5 top.

How did they become rich?

And how did they make their societies one of the most safest and stable in the world?

Answer 1

First of all it's not true that scandinavia don't have much recourses. Maybe not on par with US/Canada, but on the other hand they don't have nearly as many people as the US either.

Norway has a large oil industry, about 1/3 of the GDP comes from oil. Sweden has a large lumber and iron production. After WWII when most of the rest of Europe lay shattered, Sweden was untouched, supplying the very thing needed most when rebuilding. This coupled with a healthy balance between socialism and capitalism allowed Sweden to heavily invest in infrastructure and social programs, free university and such which paid dividends in the next generation.

As for safety and stability, well fed, rich, educated people tend not to start revolutions :)