Introduction

The membership rates of voluntary associations in general are especially high in Scandinavian countries, at four out of every five adults. In the Nordic region this tends, more than anywhere else, to include sports clubs. Nevertheless, because they share very many of the key features of lifestyle sports, adventure sports will, for present purposes, be treated as a sub-category of lifestyle sports and referred to explicitly as and when the need arises. Governments of all political persuasions promote sport as a vehicle for public health gains but nowhere more so than in the Nordic region. Sports participation data is relatively plentiful for Scandinavia and, to a greater or lesser extent, the Nordic countries as a whole. Iceland on account of its populations being largely descended from Scandinavians and Greenland based on its historical association with Denmark. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.