Norway: Facts & Stats

Demographics

Population:

As of 2009, Norway's population numbers roughly 4.8 million. Most Norwegians are ethnic Norwegians, a North Germanic people. The Sami people traditionally inhabit central and northern parts of Norway and Sweden, as well as in northern Finland and in Russia on the Kola Peninsula. Another national minority are the Kven people who are the descendants of Finnish speaking people that moved to northern Norway in the 18th up to the 20th century.

The five largest cities are:

1. Oslo - 876,391
2. Bergen - 227,752
3. Stavanger - 189,828
4. Trondheim - 160,072
5. Fredrikstad - 101,698

Welfare:

Norway’s main strategy in achieving gender equality has been to strengthen women’s economic independence through increasing their labour market participation. The welfare system in Norway is to take care of all of the country’s inhabitants “from the cradle to the grave”. The system is gender neutral and guarantees most basic needs. Still, the division of resources is greatly gendered. Women's income is approximately 60 % of men’s income. The Norwegian welfare system ensures child care and parental leave. These measures have been crucial for the dual career family policy. Today, women’s labour market participation in Norway is among the highest in Europe.

Major challenges still remain in the following fields: reconciliation of work and family, single parenthood and work, unequal pay, involuntary underemployment among women, discrimination on the ground of pregnancy, gender segregated labour market, low proportion of female entrepreneurs, and challenges presented by a more multicultural society. Many men with ethnic minority backgrounds work in low-paid, traditionally female occupations, such as cleaning. Women with non-western ethnic minority backgrounds are the worst off in the labour market. This indicates that social background, or class, together with gender also “divide” the labour market, and this complexity needs to be addressed.

Education:

Higher education in Norway is offered by a range of seven universities, five specialised colleges, 25 university colleges as well as a range of private colleges. Education follows the Bologna process involving Bachelor (3 years), Master (2 years) and PhD (4 years) degrees. Acceptance is offered after finishing upper secondary school with general study competence.

Public education is virtually free, with an academic year with two semesters, from August to December and from January to June. The ultimate responsibility for the education lies with the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research.

Religion:

Nominal religion in Norway is mostly Protestant (Evangelical-Lutheran) with 78.9% belonging to the state Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway. Early Norwegians, like all of the people of Scandinavia, were believing in Norse mythology; the Sámi having a shamanistic religion. Due to the efforts of Christian missionaries, Norway was gradually Christianized in a process starting at approximately 1000 AD and which was substantially finished by 1150AD. Prior to the Reformation, Norwegians were part of the Catholic Church with the conversion to Protestantism occurring in 1536. Islam is now the second largest religion due to recent migration trends although the census shows that there are more people with no religious beliefs.

According to the most recent Eurobarometer Poll 2005,

• 32% of Norwegian citizens responded that "they believe there is a God".
• 47% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force".
• 17% answered that "they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God, or life force".
• 4% answered that they "do not know".

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