Short answers, pulled from the story.
The United Nations geoscheme classifies ten sovereign countries as northern European: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Dependent areas including Åland, the Channel Islands, the Faroe Islands, the Isle of Man, and Svalbard and Jan Mayen are also included.
The CIA World Factbook limits northern Europe to Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, along with the dependent areas of the Faroe Islands, Jan Mayen, and Svalbard. Under this classification, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are placed in Eastern Europe, while Ireland and the United Kingdom are placed in Western Europe.
Northern Europe has a wide range of languages. North Germanic languages are the primary tongues in the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. English and Scots are spoken in the British Isles and Ireland. Finnish and Estonian belong to the Finnic family, while Lithuanian and Latvian are Baltic languages. Celtic languages including Welsh, Scots Gaelic, Irish, Cornish, and Manx are also present, and Sámi languages are spoken across the transnational region of Sápmi.
Cornish and Manx were both classed as extinct before revival efforts brought them back. Cornish is now spoken to a limited extent in Cornwall, and Manx is spoken on the Isle of Man.
Estonia and Finland top the education quality rankings among OECD countries in Europe. Both countries consistently place at the front of international education surveys.
The Gulf Stream affects the climate of the entire northern European region at least mildly. It moderates temperatures across the area, contributing to a range of climates from maritime in the west to subarctic and Arctic in the north and center, and temperate continental in the east.