Norway - Demographics

Demographics

Norway's population was 5 017 500 people on the July 1st 2012. Norwegians are North Germanic people.

There is no official count of ethnicities in Norway. As of January 2012 almost 87% of the population had at least one parent who was born in Norway. 13.1% or 655 000 were either immigrant or children of two immigrants. Of those with an immigrant background about 323 000 have background from Europe, about 220 000 have background from Asia, about 80 000 from Africa, about 20 600 from South- and Central America and about 11 000 have background from North America.

In 2012, of the total 660 000 with immigrant background, 407,262 had Norwegian citizenship (62.2 percent). Immigrants were represented in all Norwegian municipalities. The cities or municipalities with the highest share of immigrants in 2012 was Oslo (26 percent) and Drammen (18 percent). According to Reuters, Oslo is the "fastest growing city in Europe because of increased immigration". In recent years, immigration has accounted for most of Norway's population growth. In 2010, the immigrant community grew by 57,000, which accounted for 90% of Norway's population growth; some 27% of newborn children were of immigrant background.

The Sami people traditionally inhabit central and northern parts of Norway and Sweden, as well as in northern Finland and in Russia on the Kola Peninsula. Another national minority are the Kven people who are the descendants of Finnish speaking people that moved to northern Norway in the 18th up to the 20th century. Both the Sami and the Kven were subjected to a strong assimilation policy by the Norwegian government from the 19th century up to the 1970s. Because of this "Norwegianization process", many families of Sami or Kven ancestry now self-identify as ethnic Norwegian.

Other groups recognized as national minorities of Norway are Jews, Forest Finns, and Norwegian Romani Travellers (a branch of the Romani people, not to be confused with non-recognized Indigenous Norwegian Travellers).