When can kids walk to school alone?

 Hi, Steemians from all over the world. I'm in Finland and my wife and I have daughter who will turn nine next month. When my daughter started school two years ago, the parents of every single one of the kids in her class that I know of took for granted that after a week or two their kid would walk to school unaccompanied by an adult. We live in a suburb where most of the residential buildings are detached houses. There are some terraced houses and a small number of low-rise blocks of flats. This area has a relatively low population density but the street infrastructure is superb. Our daughter's (now former) school is about 1.2 kilometres from our home. She and her friends had to cross only one street and that was the very quiet street that our home is on. Along the way, there were three underpasses. While some parents transported their children to school by car at least some of the time, none thought they had to do it. In fact, all parents were informed by the headmistress that cars were not welcome on the school premises because of the resulting congestion might result in actual danger to the children. I know some kids here who've taken the bus to school since first grade alone. 

When I told a Canadian relative of mine about how it works here, he told me it would be impossible to allow kids to walk to school in Canada because there would be too many dangers. He lives in Fort McMurray and is from Vancouver, BC. Is this really the case in all parts of Canada (and the USA)? I have read horror stories about American families getting into serious trouble with law enforcement or Child Protective Services for letting their kids walk or take the bus unsupervised by an adult.

What is considered normal in your country or in your particular area? I'd like to read about how things work where you live in the comments.