What are the secrets behind the prosperity of the Scandinavian nations?

To start off, Norway became rich because of it's all oil, Sweden became rich because it did not involve in world war 2, so it was easy for them to build an economy while whole other Europe was rebuilding itself. Finland, though, became rich because of world war 2, since Finland had to pay huge money to Russia in a peace treaty it had to build itself industry. Finland started to manufacture trains, and it gave over 500 trains to Russia, instead of money. It was said in our history book that this launched the economical boom in Finland. Also, socialist party was really strong in Finland, so Finland started to invest on it's people (primaly meaning education), Finland quickly rose from a 3rd-world country to a prosperous country. Finland is/was called Japan of the north. Also I have to say, that after the war against Russia Finnish people felt really united, and were willing to work to make a new better Finland, and this, in my opinion is only possible in small countries, you cannot motivate one big whole country, but you can motivate a small one. I must also mention that Finland wasn't too rich before the 70's, Finland was in fact quite poor then, many people moved to Sweden in hope for a good paying job. All this was of course, because of the world war 2, from what Finland took the most damage, while Sweden declined to help struggling Finland. Nowadays Norway is the richest country of the Nordic countries, but I think that this won't last forever, since the oil isn't forever there, and Norway doesn't really have much success stories when it comes to business-life, it doesn't have many well-doing companies to maintain the welfare status after the oil is gone. Sweden, Finland and Denmark are doing pretty much the same nowadays, although, it seems like the trend is that Finland keeps getting richer the fastest.

Scandinavian countries are naturists as human as human can be...they treat each other different and get along better than anyone else because of the open door policies throughout the society. A persons threshold is much higher than anywhere else in europe thay are much more relaxed and know their surroundings very well too and respect them as they are. Not everyting needs to dug out, broken down or de-faced in order just to fit in. If they are in the top country list then they deserve it..their life philosophy is unique a lot of others can learn from them.

I asked my Finnish friend. He says Norway has oil, Finland has Nokia, and Sweden never gets into wars.

Didn't most of them find oil reserves? I remember hearing that 50 years ago they were among the poorest nations in Europe. Also note that everything is extremely expensive in Scandinavia, especially in the big cities. Not sure why the low crime rate- perhaps because it's a rich country without a lot of poverty and need for crime or things. Oh, they also have highly successful business such as H&M and Ikea. I think Scandinavia is very interesting. I would like to visit there someday, but there are downsides.. High depression, high suicide rates, very cold weather (Not for all).

Because of it's people, just like with any other country. People determine nation's well-being. It may not be politically correct to say, but not all nations are the same, not every nation can become rich like Scandinavians. This is just the way things are in this world. Same with people - not everyone can become like Bill Gates or Elvis Presley. Scandinavian countries are lucky to have hard-working intellegent people.