There's a very strong individualist current in Scandinavia, but interpreted differently. Many people actually view Americans and southern Europeans as more collectivist, in the clannish sense, because of their reliance on family, extended-family, and churches for safety nets. The ideal in Scandinavia is that each individual can go it alone roughly equally, rather than e.g. having to rely on your parents to pay part of your university, your kids to take care of you in your old age, family to take you in if you're disabled or broke, etc.