On our Norway Facts page, you will find information about what the average visitor is asking. This is not a page about history, but rather the facts about Norway today.
When learning about a foreign country, certain questions typically arise in a visitor’s mind. This web page will give you the facts about Norway that answer many of them.
If you have a question that’s not answered here, you can send us an e-mail to find out more. Our goal is to give you the information you want. Any suggestions about what Norway facts to include will be welcome.
Let's start Norway Facts with some facts about the official Norway.
To the left you can see the Norwegian Royal Standard. From the old days, it has been a symbol of Royal power.
Read more about The Norwegian Parliament
The Norwegian monarchy goes back more than one thousand years, from
around the year 885 when Harald Hårfagre (Fairhair) united the many
kingships of Norway into one country.
Today, Norway has a modern monarchy that is well respected among it's people, much because the Norwegian King Harald V and his family are taking part in common people's life in a unique, and positive way.
Norway has just passed a number of 5.165.800 inhabitants. This is the official numbers in January 2015.
There is the indigenous Sami population. And, there are five national minorities that has for long times been associated with Norway. Most of the population lives in the larger cities.
Norway Facts: The country covers an area of 385,199 square kilometers. Of this, 304,280 square kilometers comprise the mainland.
Norway Facts: The Kingdom of Norway also includes Svalbard and Jan Mayen in the North, and the Bouvet Island, Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land in the Antarctic.
The Norwegian Mainland is 432 km at its widest point, and only 2 km at it's narrowest.
There are three official languages in Norway:
The Norwegian language
which, has two forms
The official religion in Norway is Protestant Christianity.
Christianity in Norway goes back to the Vikings, and the famous Norwegian King Olav the Holy who helped Christianize the country.
Read more about Religion in Norway here
The Norwegian Oil Industry has made Norway one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
The Norwegian Parliament
has established a Government Pension Fund that on March 2015 reached impressive 6975 billion Norwegian Kroner, which is
about US $ 883 billions.
Anyway, during the last years of financial crisis, these funds has helped us through the crises by making the Norwegian economy stabile.
of shares and other equities was expected to have a market value of NOK
4190 billion at the beginning of 2015, and NOK 5866 billions when we enter
2020. It seems like it has exceeded these numbers.
Here’s something that may surprise you. Did you know
that each year in October the Tax Record for every adult Norwegian is
published for anyone to read and see?
That’s right. We can check out what our neighbors and friends earned last year; how much they paid in taxes and how wealthy they are. Neighbors, colleagues, friends, politicians and ministers, all of them are in the public tax records, EXCEPT the King and the Royal family. Their wealth and income are not public.
The Currency in Norway is Norwegian Kroner (NOK)
The Norwegian coins in use today is 1 krone (1 NOK), 5 kroner (5 NOK), 10 kroner (10 NOK) and 20 kroner (20 NOK).
The notes are 50 kroner, 100 kroner, 200 kroner, 500 kroner and 1000 kroner.
Read more about Norwegian Currency
The average house or apartment is 121.4 square meters.
Sixty-two percent of the houses or apartments are privately or jointly owned. Eighteen percent have one to two rooms and 82% have three rooms or more.
Only 10% of the houses were built before 1920. As much as 29% of the homes in Norway were built after 1981.
Upcoming link to a new page:
Read more about houses and buildings
The climate in Norway is often believed to be very cold, because of it's northern location.
Compared to other countries as far north as we are, Norway has a rather pleasant climate.
Our location in the westerlies, on the east side of a vast ocean, with a warm and steady ocean near our shores, we actually have a much friendlier climate than the latitude indicates.
The western coastal Norway is extremely grateful to the effects of the Gulf Stream, this powerful and warm Atlantic ocean current, that brings us winters we can survive.
From Lindesnes at Norway's southernmost point, to North Cape at the northermost point, the span is 13 degrees of latitude.
The most popular baby names in Norway in 2007 were Sara for girls and
Mathias for boys. In 2008 it was Linnea for girls and Lukas / Lucas for
boys. Take a look at our presentation of the most popular girl's names and boy's names last year.
Trends of popular names has been changing a lot over
time. Now the old names of our grandparents and
great-grandparents are back in fashion.
In addition to the typical Norwegian names, we also bring you the old, Norse names, the Biblical names, and the Names of Braves.