Where to live well in the world, or 5 reasons to go Viking trail

If you had the opportunity to choose to live any country in the world, except Russia, where would you prefer to live? Someone likes Italy, someone looks at the countries of the Caribbean, someone recalls about New Zealand, but there are those who, answering this question, call the Scandinavian countries. Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark look very attractive to many people, and for many reasons. We have collected 5 main arguments in favor of our northern neighbors, and have not forgotten, of course, about the development of payment services.

1. Clean air

To find clean air in developed countries is sometimes very difficult, due to the large number of cars on the roads, which each year emit millions of kilograms of harmful substances into the atmosphere. In order to combat this pollution and minimize it, a number of measures have already been taken, including with the use of advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) , for example, monitors installed in cars and controlling driving style Drivers in the UK have already saved up to 16% of fuel and, accordingly, reduced emissions of harmful gases. However, improving air quality in industrialized countries will require a lot of time. If you do not want to wait and want to breathe fresh air now, then Scandinavia is again your choice. Finland, Denmark and Sweden are among the top ten countries in the world in terms of air quality, according to the World Health Organization.

2. Quality of life

The United Nations is the Human Development Index (Human Development Index), which is an integral indicator of the achievements of various countries, calculated on the basis of three basic indicators: the ability of the population of these countries to live a long and healthy life, get an education and have a decent standard of living.
')
Norway takes the first place in this index, Denmark is on the fourth. Sweden and Finland are not far behind them. Therefore, if you care about good health, longevity, good education and high standards of living, the Scandinavian countries look like a natural choice.

3. Efficient payment ecosystem

Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden are among the leaders in almost all indicators in the E33 list (33 countries from the European Payment Cards Yearbook 2015-16 annual report). Among the estimated indicators - the number of payments using cards per capita and the number of terminals at points of sale per million inhabitants.



The average number of payments per capita for Europe today is 88.4. And this is much lower than in countries such as Finland (243.6), Denmark (268.6), Sweden (270.2) or Norway (353.7).

Last but not least, the record number of transactions in Norway was made possible by the presence of one of the best national payment systems in the world (BankAxept) in the country, which allows all local banks to interact with each other through a single user account management center that unites more than 100,000 connected outlets in the country.

To implement this system, Gemalto provided its ready-made cloud solution Allynis Trusted Service Hub (TSH) [ description in English. ], which, together with the BankAxept payment platform, provides a seamless one-step connection between all banks participating in BankAxept. TSH allows you to store and transfer personal data of users to their mobile devices in real time for payment transactions when connected to their own tokenization server (data protection) from BankAxept, while the solution is fully compatible with mobile wallets using the BankAxept payment scheme.

4. Saunas

Saunas are very common in the Scandinavian countries, and have an excellent therapeutic and prophylactic effect: they are an ideal way of muscle relaxation, meditation, help to improve the quality of sleep and even contribute to improving the function of the cardiovascular system. The tradition of visiting the sauna during the week is an integral part of Scandinavian culture and is in fact a way of life for the majority of the population. For lovers of Russian bath this tradition will definitely be close. And now, thanks to the development of technology, even smart saunas have appeared! For example, Loxone launches a special module for pairing a sauna with a smart home system, which allows you to control all temperature and humidity parameters individually, monitor the level of smoke and the door opening - even from your smartphone.

5. Rest

In the Scandinavian countries, there is the most generous vacation period among all countries of the world. In many companies, the minimum vacation time here is 5 weeks, which is longer than in Russia, and significantly longer than, for example, in similar companies overseas.

Of course, life in Scandinavia has many other advantages, for example, an excellent health care system, and its drawbacks, but the opportunity to live and relax for a long time in the fresh air, take a steam bath in the sauna and not worry about cash, clearly speak in favor of the Viking land.

Want to share your experience and compare the benefits of different countries? Write in the comments.