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Travel to Norway — Unbiased reviews and great
deals from TripAdvisorNorway
| Kingdom of Norway National
name: Kongeriket Norge Sovereign: King Harald V (1991) Prime Minister: Jens Stoltenberg
(2005)
Current government officials
Land area: 118,865 sq mi (307,860 sq km);
total area: 125,181 sq mi (324,220 sq km) Population (2007 est.): 4,627,926 (growth
rate: 0.4%); birth rate: 11.3/1000; infant mortality rate: 3.6/1000;
life expectancy: 79.7; density per sq mi: 39
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Oslo, 791,500 Other large cities: Bergen, 211,200;
Stavanger, 168,600; Trondheim, 144,000 Monetary unit: Norwegian krone
Languages:
Bokmål Norwegian, Nynorsk Norwegian (both
official); small Sami- and Finnish-speaking minorities (Sami is
official in six municipalities)
Ethnicity/race:
Norwegian, Sami 20,000
Religions:
Evangelical Lutheran 86% (state church),
Pentecostal 1%, Roman Catholic 1%, other Christian 2% (2004) Literacy rate: 100% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$247.4 billion; per capita $53,000. Real growth rate: 3.5%.
Inflation: 0.8%. Unemployment: 2.5%. Arable land:
3%. Agriculture: barley, wheat, potatoes; pork, beef, veal,
milk; fish. Labor force: 2.5 million; services 74%, industry
22%, agriculture, forestry, and fishing 4% (1995). Industries:
petroleum and gas, food processing, shipbuilding, pulp and paper
products, metals, chemicals, timber, mining, textiles, fishing.
Natural resources: petroleum, copper, natural gas, pyrites,
nickel, iron ore, zinc, lead, fish, timber, hydropower.
Exports: $136.1 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): petroleum and
petroleum products, machinery and equipment, metals, chemicals, ships,
fish. Imports: $75.98 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): machinery and
equipment, chemicals, metals, foodstuffs. Major trading
partners: UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, U.S., Sweden, Denmark,
China (2006). Communications:
Telephones: main lines in use: 2.055 million (2006); mobile
cellular: 5.041 million (2006). Radio broadcast stations: AM 5,
FM at least 650, shortwave 1 (1998). Radios: 4.03 million
(1997). Television broadcast stations: 360 (plus 2,729
repeaters) (1995). Televisions: 2.03 million (1997).
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 2.084 million (2007).
Internet users: 4.074 million (2006). Transportation: Railways: total: 4,043 km
(2006). Highways: total: 92,513 km; paved: 71,832 km (includes
664 km of expressways); unpaved: 20,681 km (2005). Waterways:
1,577 km (2007). Ports and harbors: Bergen, Drammen, Floro,
Hammerfest, Harstad, Haugesund, Kristiansand, Larvik, Narvik, Oslo,
Porsgrunn, Stavanger, Tromso, Trondheim. Airports: 98
(2007). International disputes: Norway
asserts a territorial claim in Antarctica (Queen Maud Land and its
continental shelf); despite recent discussions, Russia and Norway
continue to dispute their maritime limits in the Barents Sea and
Russia's fishing rights beyond Svalbard's territorial limits within
the Svalbard Treaty zone.
Major sources and definitions
Dependencies of Norway
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Geography
Norway is situated in the western part of the Scandinavian peninsula.
It extends about 1,100 mi (1,770 km) from the North Sea along the
Norwegian Sea to more than 300 mi (483 km) above the Arctic Circle, the
farthest north of any European country. It is slightly larger than New
Mexico. Nearly 70% of Norway is uninhabitable and covered by mountains,
glaciers, moors, and rivers. The hundreds of deep fjords that cut into the
coastline give Norway an overall oceanfront of more than 12,000 mi (19,312
km). Galdhø Peak, at 8,100 ft (2,469 m), is Norway's highest point and the
Glåma (Glomma) is the principal river, at 372 mi (598 km) long.
Government
Constitutional monarchy.
History
Norwegians, like the Danes and Swedes, are of Teutonic origin. The
Norsemen, also known as Vikings, ravaged the coasts of northwest Europe
from the 8th to the 11th century and were ruled by local chieftains. Olaf
II Haraldsson became the first effective king of all Norway in 1015 and
began converting the Norwegians to Christianity. After 1442, Norway was
ruled by Danish kings until 1814, when it was united with Sweden—although
retaining a degree of independence and receiving a new constitution—in an
uneasy partnership. In 1905, the Norwegian parliament arranged a peaceful
separation and invited a Danish prince to the Norwegian throne—King Haakon
VII. A treaty with Sweden provided that all disputes be settled by
arbitration and that no fortifications be erected on the common
frontier.
When World War I broke out, Norway joined with Sweden and Denmark in a
decision to remain neutral and to cooperate in the joint interest of the
three countries. In World War II, Norway was invaded by the Germans on
April 9, 1940. It resisted for two months before the Nazis took complete
control. King Haakon and his government fled to London, where they
established a government-in-exile. Maj. Vidkun Quisling, who served as
Norway's prime minister during the war, was the most notorious of the Nazi
collaborators. The word for traitor, quisling, bears his name. He
was executed by the Norwegians on Oct. 24, 1945. Despite severe losses in
the war, Norway recovered quickly as its economy expanded. It joined NATO
in 1949.
In the late 20th century, the Labor Party and the Conservative Party
seesawed for control, each sometimes having to lead minority governments.
An important debate was over Norway's membership in the European Union. In
an advisory referendum held in Nov. 1994, voters rejected seeking
membership for their nation in the EU. The country became the
second-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia in 1995. Norway continued
to experience rapid economic growth into the new millennium.
In March 2000, Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik resigned after
parliament voted to build the country's first gas-fired power stations.
Bondevik had objected to the project, asserting that the plants would emit
too much carbon dioxide. Labor Party leader Jens Stoltenberg succeeded
Bondevik. Stoltenberg and the Labor Party were defeated in Sept. 2001
elections, and no party emerged with a clear majority. After a month of
talks, the Conservatives, the Christian People's Party, and the Liberals
formed a coalition with Bondevik as prime minister. The governing
coalition was backed by the far-right Progress Party. But in Sept. 2005
elections, the center-left Red-Green coalition gained a majority of seats,
and Jens Stoltenberg of the Labor Party once again became prime
minister.
In April 2008, government officials agreed to amend the 1814
Constitution to lessen the ties between church and state. The monarch must
still be Lutheran, but citizens are no longer required to raise their
children as Lutherans. In the future, the church will appoint bishops
instead of the monarch, and equal financial backing for other faiths and
atheist communities must be provided by the state.
In June 2008, Parliament voted 84-41 to pass a new marriage act,
granting homosexual couples the same marriage and adoption rights as
heterosexual couples.
See also Norwegian dependencies.
See
also Encyclopedia: Norway.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Norway
Statistics Norway www.ssb.no/www-open/english/ .
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education,
Inc. All rights reserved.
More on Norway from Infoplease:
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