Why Norway?

So why did we choose to move to Norway of all places? Well, why not? When Dom and I were working together and making googley eyes at each other all day, we discovered that we both wanted to move to Europe (many reasons some of which are healthcare, education, society with similar values). Fast track to actually planning it, and picking a country... we started out picking France based on (don't laugh) the movie Sicko. We bought a book about moving to France and I read the entire thing and started researching, and there were a few minor things that didn't quite mesh well. This brought up the point that "hey! we can just pick anywhere!". I love my uncle Dan's idea that we picked Norway by getting a map of Europe and throwing a dart, but we are a little more planned than that sometimes. We then started researching and noting what was important to us in a place. Scandinavia came out on top, and Norway 1st. We have never been there, so I am sure there will be adjustments, and we are really planning on traveling throughout Europe once there. SO we can always move somewhere else if we find all our assumptions and dreaming are wrong. Here are a few nice things we discovered in our hunting about Norway:

1. Norway has a Scandinavian welfare model and the largest capital reserve per capita of any nation.

2. Norway was ranked highest of all countries in human development from 2001 to 2006 and was ranked 2nd as of 2008 (behind Iceland)

3. The 2008 Environmental Performance Index put Norway in 2nd place, based on the environmental performance of the country's policies.

4. Throughout Norway, one will find stunning and dramatic scenery and landscape. People there love the outdoors!

5. The hourly productivity levels as well as the average hourly wages in Norway are among the highest in the world. The wage difference between the lowest paid worker and the CEO of most companies is much smaller than comparable western economies.