Includes the mainland,Svalbard and Jan Mayen.[12] Without the integral territories, it is the 67th largest country at 323,802[18] square kilometres.
This percentage is for the mainland, Svalbard, and Jan Mayen. This percentage counts glaciers as "land". It's calculated as 19,940.14/(365,246.17+19,940.14).[source?]
Two more TLDs have been assigned, but are not used:.sj for Svalbard and Jan Mayen;.bv forBouvet Island.
The Monarchy of Norway has beenindependent since 1814. Itshead of state is a king -Harald the 5th (as of 2022). The national day is May 17, which celebrates Norway'sconstitution of 1814. The parliament is calledStortinget and its members areelected by the people every 4 years.[19][20]
About 5 million people live in Norway. Thecapital is the city ofOslo.
Norwegian is the national language. There are two official written versions of Norwegian calledBokmål andNynorsk.[21]
TheNorthern Sami language is spoken by around 90% of those who speak one of Norway's 3 Sami languages.[22] Northern Sami is also an official language in a number ofmunicipalities.[source?]
The battle of Hafrsfjord (872 A.D.) resulted in small kingdoms becoming one larger kingdom, ruled byHarald Fairhair. After the king's death, again there were smaller kingdoms, inside Norway.[23]
Stockfish (or fish that has beenfreeze-dried, outside in cold weather) has been traded andexported; this happened as early as either the9th century,[24] 10th century, or 11th century until 1066.[25] Other sources say that the exporting was happening as early as the 12th century; stockfish is one of the country's oldest [type of]things to be sold for export.[25]
In 1397, Denmark, Norway and Sweden began theKalmar Union.
The first [known]map, where Norway is drawn, was made in 1482.[26][27]
Sweden left theKalmar Union in 1523. From 1536/1537, Denmark and Norway formed apersonal union that by 1660 became the state calledDenmark–Norway; Norway was the weaker part of the union withDenmark. That union lasted until 1814,[28][29] when theTreaty of Kiel said that Norway beceded (or given) to Sweden; Denmark did not cede theFaroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland.
The Norwegianconstitution was written in 1814 and signed on 17th May that year. However, Denmark, on the losing side of theNapoleon wars, lost Norway toSweden, on the winning side.
The results of the election in 1882, led toparlamentarism becoming part of Norway'spolitical system; the votes of the "swamp men" decided the outcome of the election; they included teachers, artists andcraftsmen who were not poor but also did not own land; ownership of land or a contract to use land was necessary to getvoting rights; the "swamp men" had bough cheap land which was nearly useless, except for getting aright to vote.[31]
King Haakon VII was already married, before he came to Norway (in 1905). His wife, Princess Maud, becameQueen Maud. Their son, Prince Alexander of Denmark, became Crown Prince Olav and followed after his father asKing Olav V in 1957. Olav and his wife,Crown Princess Märtha, had three children; Princess Ragnhild, Princess Astrid and Prince Harald (later Crown Prince Harald and in 1991 he followed his father asKing Harald V).
King Harald is the first king born in Norway in over 600 years. He has two children; Princess Märtha Louise andCrown Prince Haakon Magnus.
The government collects much money from various sources, and has policies intended to spread this wealth among Norwegians. This spread of wealth, is done both directly and indirectly.
Including year 2020, the fishing industry is catching between 2.5 milliontons and 3 million tons fish from the ocean per year; fromfish farms around 1.5 million tons areslaughtered per year.[35]
Norway's annual GDP is 482.4 billion in 2022.
Technology and science: The country has [satellites or]national satellites; The first of those was sent intoSpace in 2010.[36] Those satellites have been launched from other countries.
A native population of Norway, theSámi, has its home in the northern parts of the country. Their language is not at all related to Norwegian. In somemunicipalities in the far north, they make up the majority of people. Many Sami now live outside the Sami homeland, mostly in Oslo and other big cities. Earlier, Sami people were forced to speak Norwegian in school. Now Sami is taught as the first language in school for Sami children, and Norwegian is the first foreign language.
The national minorities of Norway are Kvens/Norwegian Finns,Jews, Forest Finns,Roma and Taters.[37]
Many immigrants have come to Norway in the last[clarification needed] 30–40 years. They mostly live in and around Oslo, and in the other big cities. Many immigrants come from nearby countries, like Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland and Russia. There are also many from countries far away, such asPakistan,Somalia,Iraq andVietnam.
At the end of 2020, immigrants and people who were born in Norway, but who had two parents who were immigrants, they were 18.5 percent of the population; from those (two categories), 11.8% came from Poland.[38]
Norwegians speak a language that is related to German and English. Swedish and Danish are so close to Norwegian that most Norwegians understand them. Across Norway, many different dialects are spoken. Norwegians disagree on how to make one correct written language. Therefore, there are two standard languages, Bokmål and Nynorsk. Nynorsk is used in writing in most of the western areas and in the central mountains. Bokmål is written by most people in the rest of the country.
Traditionally, all Norwegians wereLutherans, a variety of theProtestant faith. Still, more than 80% of Norwegians are Lutherans. Other important faiths includeIslam, other Protestant groups andCatholicism.
Among tourists to Norway, more come fromGermany than from any other country. There are also many Swedes, Danes, British, Dutch and Italians visiting Norway. The Swedes and Danes often come in winter to go skiing. The others mainly come in summer. Many people visit Norway to see the Northern Lights, also known as the 'Aurora Borealis'.
Norwegian culture can be compared to English culture in the way that it is considered a bad thing to show off, as opposed to the US, where this is more acceptable. This is a big aspect of Norwegian culture, and it is related to the philosophy ofegalitarianism. Because of this, people will understate things, for example if a Norwegian says something is good or nice, it can mean that it's really great.
Items from the Viking Age (in Norway), are shown in museums: One item is theGokstad ship.
The farmers' culture (bondekulturen) was brutal.[40][41]Unwanted babies were "placed in theforest" (sette barn på skogen) to die, until thenineteenth century; in the end, the [rural] police authority - consisting of individuals calledlensmann(en) - were able to control [and stop] thesecrimes.[41]
Modern,cambered skis were invented in the Norwegian province of Telemark in the early 19th century.[42]
In Norway power is shared among three branches: The justice sector, the government and theparliament (Stortinget). Norway also has a king,Harald V, but he does not have any real power and acts as a symbol andambassador. This form of government is called aconstitutional monarchy. Elections are held every four years, and the winner of the election is the party orcoalition of parties that gets the most votes and seats in the parliament. After the elections are done, the winners work together to find out who theprime minister should be, as well as who the otherministers should be.
Here is a short summary of the biggest political parties in Norway, from left to right on thepolitical axis:
Socialist Left Party (Sosialistisk venstreparti): The party is not very radical and is concerned with environmental issues as well as education. The party is traditionally regarded as the "teacher's party" because of their focus on learning and school. One might call SV more of asocial democratic party than a socialist party, since their socialist views have faded over the years. They were more radical in the 1970s and 80s.
Norwegian Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet): The Labour Party is the biggest party in Norway. They work for a strong economy with many regulations on private businesses, and are traditionally the party for workers, securing labour rights and thewelfare state.
Centre Party (Senterpartiet): The Centre Party used to be known as the farmer's party; they no longer use this name, but still they are mostly popular in the countryside and other rural regions, since they work for the environment and protection of Norwegian farmers. For example, raisingtariffs, or puttingtaxes onimports, to make foreign food cost more so that people will buy from Norwegian farmers. This is calledprotectionism.
Green Party (Miljøpartiet de Grønne): The Green party works for the environment only, and has recently been gaining a lot of popularity for its radical politics. They are mostly a left-side party, but will switch sides if it helps the environment.
Liberal Party (Venstre): Even though it is called Left in English, it is actually asocial liberal party that belongs to the centre-right side of Norwegian politics. They work for liberal rights likefreedom of speech,gender equality and they are also concerned with environment. Because of this they heavily supportpublic transport.
Kristelig Folkeparti: The Christian People's Party is at present more active in local than national politics.
Conservative Party (Høyre): It is a conservative party and is the second biggest party in Norway. It works for afree market, liberal rights and equality of opportunity. They are friendly towards private businesses and support economic growth by making taxes smaller, so that more people can start businesses.
In regard to the2025 Norwegian parliamentary election: 99% of the votes have been counted (as of the morning of September 9); Media is saying that thecurrent prime minister will stay in power; The Labour Party will get more seats in parliament, then any of the other parties; However, that party does not have a majority (by itself).[43]
The city with the most people living there (orinhabitants) isOslo. The city ofBergen has 272,000 people living there; the city ofTrondheim has 182,000 people in itspopulation.
Some claim that Bergen and Trondheim, each had their time as Norway's capital during theMiddle Ages.[45]
Organisations associated with the Government of Norway
↑"Offisiell status for samisk".Language Council of Norway.Archived from the original on 15 August 2023. Retrieved19 August 2021.Samisk har status som minoritetsspråk i Noreg, Sverige og Finland, og i alle tre landa har samisk status som offisielt språk i dei samiske forvaltningsområda.[Sámi is recognised as a minority language in Norway, Sweden and Finland, and is an official language within the Sámi administrative areas in all three countries.]
↑"Samer".Regjeringen.no. Fornyings- administrasjons- og kirkedepartementet. 16 June 2006.Archived from the original on 9 January 2018. Retrieved8 January 2018.
↑inkluderingsdepartementet, Arbeids- og (16 June 2006)."Nasjonale minoriteter".Regjeringen.no.Archived from the original on 5 December 2017. Retrieved8 January 2018.
↑Duolljá, Svenn-Egil Knutsen (26 November 2018)."nordsamisk".Archived from the original on 10 May 2019. Retrieved20 January 2019– via Store norske leksikon.
↑Solveig Aareskjold. "Sjølv då Astrid Eriksdotter blei bydd fram for sal på ein slavemarknad i Estland, gløymde ho aldri kva ho var verd. Kledd i filler, framleis dronning" [Even when Astrid Eriksdotter was offered for sale at a slave market in Estonia, she never forgot what she was worth. Dressed in rags, still a queen].Klassekampen. 2017-08-12. pages 36-7
↑https://www.nrk.no/nordland/torrfisk-sensasjon_-_-vikinghistorien-ma-skrives-om-1.13632492Archived 2017-08-09 at theWayback Machine "I den islandske ættesagaenEgilssoga fra 1200-tallet står det om Torulv Kveldulvsson, en høvding i Hålogaland. Kveldulvsson drev, ifølge sagaen, næringsvirksomhet i stor stil, blant annet eksporterte han fisk til England rundt 875. Dette har frem til i dag bare vært ubekreftede fortellinger. Nå har forskerne altså klart å finne bevis som støtter opp for mistankene om at handelen med tørrfisk kan ha startet så tidlig som sagaene forteller om."
↑"Denmark". World Statesmen.Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. RetrievedJanuary 18, 2015.
↑"Norway". World Statesmen.Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. RetrievedJanuary 18, 2015.
↑Sejersted, Francis (8 January 2018)."Mossekonvensjonen".Archived from the original on 14 May 2019. Retrieved20 January 2019– via Store norske leksikon.
1.Transcontinental country/territory that is part of both Europe and Asia. 2. Territory or with territory geographically part of North America. 3. Partially recognized. 4. Not all dependent territories are listed. 5. Territory has some form of self-rule. 6. Territory or with territory geographically part of Africa. 7. Governed by theHoly See.
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