It is a general belief that the health status of the populations of the Nordic Countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden is very good. Infant mortality is the lowest in these countries. However, other indicators of the health status such as overall life expectancy and incidence of mortality from chronic non-communicable diseases demonstrate a large variation between the Nordic countries. Compared with other countries frequency of several non-communicable diseases is among the highest worldwide. Moreover, the incidence and mortality trends in non-communicable diseases suggest a heterogeneous development among the Nordic countries.