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Norway is a country in northern Europe. It is, in fact, the northernmost country in mainland Europe. As well as mainland Norway there are many islamds just off the coast.

Norway is bordered by the North Sea.

The land is mountainous with deep valleys. Along the coast of Norway, there are many deep fjords. A fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by erosion after the last ice age. At least 20,000 kms of Norway's coastline is made up of fjords.

The geographical coordinates for the centre of Norway, also known as lines of latitude and longitude, are:-
Latitude - 62 00N
Longitude - 10 00E

The capital of Norway is Oslo.

Norway is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy which means that the Head of State is a King (or Queen) but the laws are decided by an elected parliament with a prime minister as head of the government. The present King (2017) is Harold V who came to the throne in 1991. He is 79 years old. His son, Haakan, aged 43, is heir to the throne.

In elections everyone over the age of 18 can vote.

The currency in Norway is the Norwegian Krone. In 1972 the Norwegian people voted against joining the European Union. In 1994 they again voted against joining.

Norwegian is the official language.

Check the weather in Oslo now.

This is the time in Oslo now

The Norwegian flag is a blue cross on a larger white cross on a red background. The crosses are moved toward the left of the flag, closer to the flagpole side. The colours combine the red and white of the Danish flag and the blue of Sweden, two countries with which Norway has had a union.

Hear the National Anthem



These are the anthem words

The words ×

These are the words to the Norwegian National Anthem called Yes, We Love This Country. It was adopted in 1864. This is a translation of the words.

If anthem fails to play click here

Yes, we love this country
as it rises forth,
rugged, weathered, above the sea,
with the thousands of homes.
Love, love it and think
of our father and mother
and the saga night that sends
dreams to our earth.
and the saga night that sends
sends dreams to our earth.

There are another seven verses.

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The Land
The People
Life and Death
Health, Energy and the Environment
Education and Work
Travel, Communication and the Media

The total land area of Norway is 304,282 sq kms which is the 6th largest in Europe.

Norway has lakes, rivers and canals which total 19,529 sq kms.

Norway has boundaries with 3 countries

• Sweden 1,666 kms
• Finland 709 kms
• Russia 191 kms

Norway has a coastline of 83,281 kms which is the longest in Europe and includes 58,133 km of coastline for its islands.

The highest point in Norway is Galdhopiggen at 2,469 metres.

The pie chart below shows how the land is split between agricultural land (crops and pastures), forests and other, which can be towns, villages, desert or frozen waste called tundra.

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The total population of Norway is 5.27 million people, making it the 24th largest country in Europe by population.

Of this number 2.69 million are females and 2.58 million are males.

A person from Norway is called a Norwegian.

To be a citizen of Norway, one of your parents must be a citizen of Norway. It is not sufficient to be born in Norway. You have to live in Norway for 7 years before you can begin to apply for citizenship.

The largest five cities in Norway, by population are:-

• Oslo 580,000 people
• Bergen 213,585
• Trondheim 147,139
• Stavanger 121,610
• Drammen 90,722

For each country we will give you a diagram showing the population density. This is the average number of people for each square kilometre. Each little Owlbut is 1 person and the big yellow rectangle is 1 sq km. After a while you can compare countries and see which ones are the most crowded. Remember it is only an average as more people live closer together in towns and cities than in villages out in the country.



80.5% of the people live in cities or towns.

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The birth rate in Norway is 12.2 births per 1,000 of population

The death rate in Norway is 8.1 deaths per 1,000 people.

Check this against the birth rate. If the death rate is higher than the birth rate then the population will decrease unless immigrants arrive in the country.

There are 2.2 deaths of girls under 1 year per 1,000 of births and 2.8 deaths of boys.

The median age for females is 40.0 and for males is 38.4. The median age is that age which divides the population exactly in half so there are the same number of people above the median age as below it.

The average age of a woman when she has her first child is 28.5.

The elderly dependency ratio is 24.8. This is the number of elderly people (ages 65+) per 100 people of working age (ages 15-64).

The potential support ratio is 4.0. This is the number of working-age people (ages 15-64) per one elderly person (ages 65+). As a population ages, the potential support ratio tends to fall, meaning there are fewer potential workers to support the elderly.

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Norway spends 9.7% of its total income on health care.

There are 4.28 doctors per 1,000 people.

There are 3.3 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

23.1% of the population are estimated as obese.

100% of Norwegians have drinking water that is either piped into their home or they have access to a public tap, a protected borehole, well, spring or protected rainwater collection facility.

98.0% of the urban population and 98.3% of the rural population have access to a flushing toilet that is connected to a sewer, a pit latrine (that is a permanent hole in the ground that is looked after) or a composting toilet.

Norway releases 41.0 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels in the process of producing and consuming energy. This puts it as the 23rd highest in Europe.

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Norway spends 7.4% of its total income on education.

Children usually start school at age 6 in Norway. Primary education is for seven years until age 13 and secondary education must continue till 16 but can go on to 18/19. This may be followed by further education at a university or college.

Generally the school year consists of 3 terms and starts in the middle of August and finishes in the middle of June. There is usually a 2 week break at Christmas, one week at Easter, and a one week break in the middle of each of the first two terms.

We have no figures for the number of people who are able to read and write by the age of 15.

10.4% of all people aged between 16 and 24 are not in work. Among females 9.0% are unemployed while with males 11.7% can't find work.

The total number of people available for work in Norway is 2.79 million.

They work in the following sectors.

• Agriculture includes farming, fishing and forestry work
• Industry includes mining, manufacturing, construction and energy workers
• Services is everything else

4.8% of the workforce are unemployed.

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There are 67 paved airports in Norway, which is the 11th highest number in Europe.


There are 4,250 kilometres of railways in Norway, which is the 17th longest in Europe.


There are 75,754 kilometres of roads in Norway, which means Norway is in 17th place for the most kilometres of roads in Europe.

There are 5 major national newspapers in Norway.

There are 5.80 million mobile phone users.

20% of the people have a fixed landline.



5.00 million people have access to the internet at home via any device (computer or mobile).

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