Did you know that around 10.2% of the area of Finland, 8.9% of Sweden, and 6% of Norway is covered with freshwater? Each of these countries has hundreds of thousands of lakes, which gives them the highest water-to-surface-area ratio of all European countries after the Netherlands (which is 18.4% freshwater, mostly artificial ponds and river deltas).
The map below is an accurate representation of water bodies in Scandinavia, Baltic countries, and Northwest Russia. You be the judge.
![Water map Scandinavia](https://jakubmarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/scandinavia-water-map.jpg)
To really help appreciate the size of the water bodies, here is a high-contrast inverted version:
![](https://jakubmarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/scandinavia-water-high-contrast.jpg)