It's a source of some surprise that despite our proximity to the richest, the most socially advanced and the happiest societies on earth (Norway, Sweden and Denmark respectively), the UK population hasn't chosen to emigrate en masse. Instead, our gaze remains resolutely focused southwards, as constant as this year's rain, whether for sun or snow, diet or quality of life, while our northerly neighbours merit barely a glance. Between them they boast the Nobel prize and Ikea, H&M and enough crude oil to rival Saudi Arabia, the best education system, the best health service and unrivalled gender equality, but they seldom make headlines.

On his odyssey among the "Almost Nearly Perfect People", British journalist Michael Booth has managed to uncover a few facts of truly tabloid vintage: neutral Sweden is one of the biggest arms manufacturers in the world, 5% of Danish men have had sex with animals, and 54% of Icelanders believe in elves. None of the latter is likely to increase tourism to the far north, but as the author points out, Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark do little to promote themselves.

One theory about my fellow Scandinavians' reticence to holler about their virtues is that there'd be a stampede if they advertised. It's the only plausible explanation not covered in Michael Booth's comprehensive and occasionally downright hilarious explanation of the Nordic miracle, as imagined by everyone living outside of this social democratic hotspot. Spurred by yet another survey describing his wife's fellow Danes as the happiest people on earth, Booth, a Copenhagen resident, elected to investigate what really makes the Scandinavians tick.

Dedicating a section to each of the five countries he maintains make up the Nordic bloc, he takes us as deep into the Scandinavian psyche as we're ever likely to want to go; from the Danish addiction to the sterile comforts of hyggelig, or "cosy times", to Norwegian isolationism, the Finns' much vaunted sisu, or machismo, the Swedes' obsessive conformity and the Icelandic devil-may-care approach to banking.

Of my birthplace Booth comments, "When a man is bored of Oslo… he's probably been there three days", going on to reveal that the Norwegians' biggest hit TV show of recent years isn't from the Nordic noir stable but a seven-hour documentary of a train's real-life progress from Bergen to Oslo with a camera strapped to the front of it!

Booth's wry eye zooms in on many such characteristics and peccadillos of our closest cousins. By the time he gets to Sweden, commonly regarded as the most perfect nation on earth, and chooses to provoke the uber-conformist population (his conclusion not mine) by committing acts of social terrorism like eating crisps and slurping coke in the Swedish National museum or abandoning all common sense and crossing streets while the lights are still red, I was laughing out loud.

His companionable, lightly mocking tone remains in place when he veers to the darker extremities, exploring, among much else, the Finnish addiction to anti-psychotic drugs, the Norwegian antisocial tendencies and weird penchant for 19th-century national costume, the Icelandic revenge against the Danes via a suicidal corporate spending spree, and Sweden's questionable freedom of speech credentials when it comes to the far right.

This amble through Scandiland may be light on any profound conclusion, but it's a lively and endearing portrait of our friends in the north, venerated globally for their perfectly balanced societies but, it turns out, as flawed as the rest of us – or at least only almost perfect.