105 Facts About Norway

Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula.

Bouvet Island, located in the Subantarctic, is a dependency of Norway; it lays claims to the Antarctic territories of Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land.

Norway has a total area of 385, 207 square kilometres and had a population of 5, 425, 270 in January 2022.

Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea.

From 1537 to 1814, Norway was a part of the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway, and, from 1814 to 1905, it was in a personal union with the Kingdom of Sweden.

Related searches

Norway was neutral during the First World War and remained so until April 1940 when the country was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany until the end of World War II.

Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels: counties and municipalities.

Norway maintains close ties with both the European Union and the United States.

Norway is a founding member of the United Nations, NATO, the European Free Trade Association, the Council of Europe, the Antarctic Treaty, and the Nordic Council; a member of the European Economic Area, the WTO, and the OECD; and a part of the Schengen Area.

Norway maintains the Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system, and its values are rooted in egalitarian ideals.

Norway has had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world since 2009, a position held previously between 2001 and 2006; it has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking per 2018.

Norway ranked first on the World Happiness Report for 2017 and currently ranks first on the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity, the Freedom Index, and the Democracy Index.

Norway has two official names: Norge in Bokmal and Noreg in Nynorsk.

The English name Norway comes from the Old English word Norþweg mentioned in 880, meaning "northern way" or "way leading to the north", which is how the Anglo-Saxons referred to the coastline of Atlantic Norway similar to leading theory about the origin of the Norwegian language name.

Until around 1800, inhabitants of Western Norway were referred to as nordmenn while inhabitants of Eastern Norway were referred to as austmenn (eastmen).

Norway said that beyond the wide wilderness in Norway's southern part was the land of the Swedes, "Svealand".

The earliest traces of human occupation in Norway are found along the coast, where the huge ice shelf of the last ice age first melted between 11, 000 and 8, 000 BC.

From about 1500 BC, bronze was gradually introduced, but the use of stone implements continued; Norway had few riches to barter for bronze goods, and the few finds consist mostly of elaborate weapons and brooches that only chieftains could afford.

The Vikings from Norway were most active in the northern and western British Isles and eastern North America isles.

The League's monopolistic control over the economy of Norway put pressure on all classes, especially the peasantry, to the degree that no real burgher class existed in Norway.

In 1349, the Black Death spread to Norway and had within a year killed a third of the population.

Norway's waged war against the Germans, resulting in a trade blockade and higher taxation on Norwegian goods, which resulted in a rebellion.

Norway slipped ever more to the background under the Oldenburg dynasty.

Norway took no part in the events which led to Swedish independence from Denmark in the 1520s.

Norway's was on the verge of achieving this goal when Olaf IV suddenly died.

Related searches

Norway's settled on Eric of Pomerania, grandson of her sister.

Norway lost the steady stream of pilgrims to the relics of St Olav at the Nidaros shrine, and with them, much of the contact with cultural and economic life in the rest of Europe.

Norway took this opportunity to declare independence, adopted a constitution based on American and French models, and elected the Crown Prince of Denmark and Norway, Christian Frederick, as king on 17 May 1814.

Under this arrangement, Norway kept its liberal constitution and its own independent institutions, though it shared a common monarch and common foreign policy with Sweden.

Norway protected the constitution and liberties of Norway and Sweden during the age of Metternich.

Life in Norway was "dominated by the aristocracy of professional men who filled most of the important posts in the central government".

Norway made his appeal to the labouring classes urging a change of social structure "from below upwards.

Norway proclaimed its neutrality during the Second World War, but despite this, it was invaded by German forces on 9 April 1940.

At the time of the invasion, Norway had the fourth-largest merchant marine fleet in the world.

Norway received Marshall Plan aid from the United States starting in 1947, joined the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development one year later, and became a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949.

Norway was a founding member of the European Free Trade Association.

Norway was twice invited to join the European Union, but ultimately declined to join after referendums that failed by narrow margins in 1972 and 1994.

In 2011, Norway suffered two terrorist attacks on the same day conducted by Anders Behring Breivik which struck the government quarter in Oslo and a summer camp of the Labour party's youth movement at Utøya island, resulting in 77 deaths and 319 wounded.

Norway lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land.

Norway comprised Bohuslan until 1658, Jamtland and Harjedalen until 1645, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, and the Hebrides and Isle of Man until the Treaty of Perth in 1266.

Southern and western parts of Norway, fully exposed to Atlantic storm fronts, experience more precipitation and have milder winters than the eastern and far northern parts.

Coastal climate of Norway is exceptionally mild compared with areas on similar latitudes elsewhere in the world, with the Gulf Stream passing directly offshore the northern areas of the Atlantic coast, continuously warming the region in the winter.

Parts of southeastern Norway including parts of Mjøsa have a humid continental climates, while the southern and western coasts and the coast north to Bodø have a oceanic climate (Cfb), while the outer coast further north almost to North Cape have a subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc).

Norway contains five terrestrial ecoregions: Sarmatic mixed forests, Scandinavian coastal conifer forests, Scandinavian and Russian taiga, Kola Peninsula tundra, and Scandinavian montane birch forest and grasslands.

The elk in Norway is known for its size and strength and is often called skogens konge, "king of the forest".

Related searches

Norway had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 6.

Norway is considered to be one of the most developed democracies and states of justice in the world.

Since 2010, Norway has been classified as the world's most democratic country by the Democracy Index.

Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway, is the legal and rightful heir to the throne and the Kingdom.

Parliament of Norway, called the Stortinget, ratifies national treaties developed by the executive branch.

Norway has a state church, the Lutheran Church of Norway, which has in recent years gradually been granted more internal autonomy in day-to-day affairs, but which still has a special constitutional status.

The issue of separation of church and state in Norway has been increasingly controversial, as many people believe it is time to change this, to reflect the growing diversity in the population.

Norway uses a civil law system where laws are created and amended in Parliament and the system regulated through the Courts of justice of Norway.

Norway abolished the death penalty for regular criminal acts in 1902.

In general, the legal and institutional framework in Norway is characterised by a high degree of transparency, accountability and integrity, and the perception and the occurrence of corruption are very low.

Norway has ratified all relevant international anti-corruption conventions, and its standards of implementation and enforcement of anti-corruption legislation are considered very high by many international anti-corruption working groups such as the OECD Anti-Bribery Working Group.

Norway has been considered a progressive country, which has adopted legislation and policies to support women's rights, minority rights, and LGBT rights.

Norway has been greatly criticised by the international community for the politics of Norwegianization of and discrimination against the indigenous population of the country.

Nevertheless, Norway was, in 1990, the first country to recognise ILO-convention 169 on indigenous people recommended by the UN.

In regard to LGBT rights, Norway was the first country in the world to enact an anti-discrimination law protecting the rights of gays and lesbians.

In 1993, Norway became the second country to legalise civil union partnerships for same-sex couples, and on 1 January 2009 Norway became the sixth country to legalise same-sex marriage.

Norway is a founding member of the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Council of Europe and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

Norway issued applications for accession to the European Union and its predecessors in 1962, 1967 and 1992, respectively.

Non-voting participation by Norway has been granted in, for instance, the Union's Common Security and Defence Policy, the Schengen Agreement, and the European Defence Agency, as well as 19 separate programmes.

Norway participated in the 1990s brokering of the Oslo Accords, an unsuccessful attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Related searches

Norway has conscription; in 2013, the country became the first in Europe and NATO to draft women as well as men.

The Commander-in-Chief is King Harald V The military of Norway is divided into the following branches: the Norwegian Army, the Royal Norwegian Navy, the Royal Norwegian Air Force, the Norwegian Cyber Defence Force and the Home Guard.

At present, Norway contributes in the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

Additionally, Norway has contributed in several missions in contexts of the United Nations, NATO, and the Common Security and Defence Policy of the European Union.

Public health care in Norway is free, and parents have 46 weeks paid parental leave.

Norway is a major shipping nation and has the world's sixth largest merchant fleet, with 1, 412 Norwegian-owned merchant vessels.

Norway is a highly integrated member of most sectors of the EU internal market.

Norway has acceded to the Schengen Agreement and several other intergovernmental agreements among the EU member states.

Norway has obtained one of the highest standards of living in the world in part by having a large amount of natural resources compared to the size of the population.

Norway is the first country which banned cutting of trees, in order to prevent rain forests from vanishing.

Now Norway has to find a new way to provide these essential products without exerting negative influence on its environment.

Norway is the fifth-largest oil exporter and third-largest gas exporter in the world, but it is not a member of OPEC.

Norway is the world's largest producer of salmon, followed by Chile.

Norway contains significant mineral resources, and in 2013, its mineral production was valued at US$1.

Norway has the world's largest registered stock of plug-in electric vehicles per capita.

In March 2014, Norway became the first country where over 1 in every 100 passenger cars on the roads is a plug-in electric.

Norway was ranked 20th in the Global Innovation Index in 2020 and 2021, down from 19th in 2019.

In 2008, Norway ranked 17th in the World Economic Forum's Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report.

Main attractions of Norway are the varied landscapes that extend across the Arctic Circle.

Much of the nature of Norway remains unspoiled, and thus attracts numerous hikers and skiers.

Related searches

The fjords, mountains and waterfalls in Western and Northern Norway attract several hundred thousand foreign tourists each year.

Norway's population was 5, 384, 576 people in the third quarter of 2020.

Since the late 20th century, Norway has attracted immigrants from southern and central Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and beyond.

On 1 January 2017, Norway made the church independent of the state, but retained the Church's status as the "people's church".

Remnants of the native religion and beliefs of Norway survive today in the form of names, referential names of cities and locations, the days of the week, and other parts of everyday language.

Norway was awarded first place according to the UN's Human Development Index for 2013.

Disease pattern in Norway changed from communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases and chronic diseases as cardiovascular disease.

Higher education in Norway is offered by a range of seven universities, five specialised colleges, 25 university colleges as well as a range of private colleges.

Norwegian is spoken natively by over 5 million people mainly in Norway, but is generally understood throughout Scandinavia and to a lesser degree other Nordic countries.

Egil Monn-Iversen has been one of the most influential modern composers in Norway, having composed scores to over 100 Norwegian movies and TV series.

Norway has a strong folk music tradition which remains popular to this day.

Norwegian black metal, a form of rock music in Norway, has been an influence in world music since the late 20th century.

Some of the most memorable female solo artists from Norway are Susanne Sundfør, Sigrid, Astrid S, Adelen, Julie Bergan, Maria Mena, Tone Damli, Margaret Berger, Lene Marlin, Christel Alsos, Maria Arredondo, Marion Raven and Marit Larsen, Lene Nystrøm (vocalist of the Danish eurodance group Aqua) and Anni-Frid Lyngstad (vocalist of the Swedish pop group ABBA).

Norway enjoys many music festivals throughout the year, all over the country.

Norway is the host of one of the world's biggest extreme sport festivals with music, Ekstremsportveko—a festival held annually in Voss.

One of the most striking modern buildings in Norway is the Sami Parliament in Karasjohka, designed by Stein Halvorson and Christian Sundby.

Norway's newly found independence from Denmark encouraged painters to develop their Norwegian identity, especially with landscape painting by artists such as Kitty Kielland, a female painter who studied under Hans Gude, and Harriet Backer, another pioneer among female artists, influenced by impressionism.

The highest FIFA ranking Norway has achieved is second, a position it has held twice, in 1993 and in 1995.

Norway first participated at the Olympic Games in 1900, and has sent athletes to compete in every Games since then, except for the sparsely attended 1904 Games and the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow when they participated in the American-led boycott.

Norway leads the overall medal tables at the Winter Olympic Games by a considerable margin.

Related searches