Geography is part of it too. Some countries are densely populated, and some aren't.

And echoing the comment about behaviour, the difference between the culture of say, Norway and Britain, is vast in some respects.

Or even the likes of Germany and Italy, which are neighbours.

> Germany and Italy, which are neighbours.

I think Austria and Switzerland would like to have a word with you.

Yes. You're right.

But if you travel to North Italy in the summer, you see so many cars with German license plates, you wonder about the geography!

I stand, corrected.

There's even big differences on Covid death rates within Switzerland's German-speaking, Italian-speaking, and French-speaking regions. Much higher death rates in the Italian and French parts than the German part [0].

One explanation could be different cultures, or just geographical proxomit to Italy and France that were harder hit than Germany and Austria. This would also explain that Germany has higher rates in states that are close to the French border.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Switzerla...

It's not strongly related to any of those things. The situation would be very bad in Norway/Denmark too if we didn't react like we did.

Compared to both Sweden and Britain, Norway reacted quicker and harder, with way more testing than most other countries. As it got out of hand, even more restrictions like shutting down a lot of business types, public transportation, schools and travel was added. Working from home was also recommended and used by basically everyone who could. Long after this happened in Norway, things where mostly as usual in both Sweden and Britain, despite the number of infections climbing fast.

> Germany and Italy, which are neighbours.

This is new to me :)

Your point stands of course..

Yeah. I shouldn't be using experiential or anecdotal evidence to inform my understanding of geographic borders!

System 1 thinking in action.