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Ethnicities

Religion

Age and sex distribution

Population growth

Births and deaths

Migration

Language

See also

Ethnicities

Ethnically, the residents of Norway are predominantly ethnic Norwegians who are of North Germanic / Nordic descent, although in the far north there are communities of the Scandanivian native people Sami who settled the area around 8,000 years ago, probably from continental Europe trough the Norwegian coast and trough Finland along the inland glaciers. The national minorities of Norway include Scandinavian Romani, Roma (“Gypsy”), Jews, and Kvener, as well as a small Finnish community. In recent years, Norway has become home to increasing numbers of immigrants, foreign workers, and asylum-seekers from various parts of the world (mostly from Europe and Asia). Norway had a steady influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe (i.e. Russians from Russia), Southern Europe (i.e. Greeks, Albanians or Kosovars, and former Yugoslavians), and Middle East countries (Arabs, especially Iraqis and Palestinians), as well as Turks. After ten Eastern European countries joined the EU in 2004, there has also been an influx of workers from Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Religion

''Main article: Religion in Norway''
The Lutheran Church of Norway is the state church and the vast majority remain at least nominal members. Other religions do, however, enjoy religious freedom and have prospered with immigration in recent years, particularly Islam and Roman Catholicism. Saint Olaf is the patron saint of Norway. He is regarded by some as the eternal king and has a reputation and place in history unchallenged by any other Norwegian King for the last 1000 years.
Official statistics (2003): Lutheran 86% (state church), other Christian 4.5% (mainly Protestant [3.5%] and Roman Catholic) [1%]), Islam 2%, other religions (Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Judaism) 1%, Human Ethical 1.5%, none and unknown 5%. The Eurometer poll on religious belief in Norway finds 9-10% of Norwegians in the poll survey are atheist or have no religion.

Age and sex distribution

'Age structure:' (2005 est.)

''0-14 years:'' 19.7% (male 466, 243; female 443,075)

''15-64 years:'' 65.6% (male 1,234,384; female 1,486,887)

''65 years and over:'' 14.7% (male 285,389; female 392,331)
'Sex ratio:' (2004 est.)

''at birth:'' 1.05 male(s)/female

''under 15 years:'' 1.05 male(s)/female

''15-64 years:'' 1.03 male(s)/female

''65 years and over:'' 0.72 male(s)/female

''total population:'' 0.98 male(s)/female

Population growth

'Population:' 4,681,100 (January 1st 2007)

'Population growth rate:' 0.88% (in 2006)

Births and deaths

	Births	Deaths	Birth rate	Death rate
1900	66,229	35,345	29.7	15.8
1950	62,410	29,699	19.1	9.1
1970	64,551	38,723	16.6	10.0
1990	60,939	46,021	14.4	10.9
2000	59,229	44,225	13.2	9.8
2006	58,500	41,200	12.6	8.8

'Total fertility rate:' 1.90 children born/woman (2006)

TFR for Norwegian residents by country of birth in 2004: Norway (1.8), Somalia (4.4), Iraq (4.3), Morocco (3.6), Pakistan (3.2), Turkey (2.3), Iran (1.6) Vietnam (2.0, Sri Lanka (2.7), India (1.8) and Bosnia (1.7) [1]
'Infant mortality rate:' (2005)

''total:'' 3.1 deaths/1,000 live births

''male:'' 3.3 deaths/1,000 live births

''female:'' 2.9 deaths/1,000 live births
'Life expectancy at birth:' (2005)

''total population:'' 79.25 years

''male:'' 77.7 years

''female:'' 82.5 years

Migration

'Net migration rate:' 1.74 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2004 est.)

Language

''Main article: Norwegian language''
'Official languages:' Norwegian (the written standards Bokmål and Nynorsk).
Three Finno-Ugric languages - Finnish, Sami and the Kven language, are additional official languages of some municipalities.
'Literacy:'

''definition:'' age 15 and over can read and write

''total population:'' 100%

''male:'' NA%

''female:'' NA%

See also

★ Norway

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★ Demographics of Svalbard