Population in Norway

The population of Norway is living in a democratic, constitutional monarchy, and the king is Head of State. The country is divided into 19 regional units (fylker) and into 435 local municipalities (kommuner).

Statistically the Norwegian people have plenty of space, as there are only 16 inhabitants per Square kilometres of land.


By the end of 2007 there was approximately 4.737.000 inhabitants in Norway, with some 75% of the population residing in urban areas and 25% in rural areas.

The population growth in 2007 was 56.000, or an increase of 1,2%. The total of Live births in 2007 was 58.459, and the total number of deaths was 41.954.

Life expectancy at birth in 2007 was 83 years for females and 78 years for men.

With a medium growth rate in the years to come, it is expected that the population will increase from 4.737.000 in 2008 to 5.367.000 in 2030, and will reach 6.061.000 in 2060.

One big challenge is that the number of people in the group of younger people will be near constant (0-5 years, 6-15 years and 16-66 years), while the group of citizens at 67 years of age or older will double.

Counties in the northern Norway have experienced a zero to negative growth rate over the past decade, while the southern counties and especially areas surrounding Oslo have had up to 15 % population growth. Major centres of population include the capital Oslo (510,000), Bergen (230,000), Trondheim (151,000), Stavanger (109,000), Kristiansand (74,000), Fredrikstad (69,000) and Tromsø (60,000).

Particularly the larger metropolitan centres, has become increasingly multicultural. The Norwegian Statistisk Sentralbyrå (http://www.ssb.no) monitors these changes and divides the Norwegian population into Non-Immigrant, Immigrant Western (the Nordic countries, Western Europe, North America and Oceania) and Immigrant Non-Western (Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, South and Central American and Turkey).

Under these terms 8.9 percent of the population in 2007 was defined as Immigrant.

These groups are populations both from other European countries (190.000) , Asia (148.990), Africa (51.598), North- and Central America (11.018), South America (12.360) and Oceania (1.253).


Approximately 46 per cent of the immigrant population have Norwegian citizenship, but this varies between groups.

In Oslo, one in five people belong to the immigrant population and are mainly from Pakistani, Somali, Swedish and Sri Lankan origin.