Norway

Norway may not be the most important, biggest, or powerful country in the world. A Norwegian prime minister once stated that “Norway is a country in the world”. What he meant to say was “a small country”. Yet, it is one of the most important small countries of the world. Among us Norwegians, this is a well-established matter of fact.

The featured image above, is from Sognefjorden, the longest fjord in the country.

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Hard facts

• Official name: Kingdom of Norway
• Capital and largest city: Oslo
• Official languages: Norwegian; Sami
• Official minority languages: Kven, Romani, Romanes
• Writing system: Latin
• Ethnic groups: Norwegian
• Religion: Lutheran

Geography

Norway has a total area of 385,207 square kilometres and had a population of 5,385,300 in November 2020. The country shares a long eastern border with Sweden at a length of 1,619 km. It is bordered by Finland and Russia to the northeast and the Skagerrak strait to the south, on the other side of which are Denmark and the United Kingdom. Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea.

Political system

Norway is a constitutional monarchy, and divides state power between the Parliament, the cabinet and the Supreme Court. The kingdom was established in 872 as a merger of many petty kingdoms and has existed continuously for 1,150 years. King Harald V is the current King of Norway.

Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels: counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have a certain amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament and the Finnmark Act. Norway maintains close ties with both the European Union and the United States. Norway is also 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. In addition, the Norwegian languages share mutual intelligibility with Danish and Swedish.

Life in Norway

Norway maintains the Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system, and its values are rooted in egalitarian ideals. The Norwegian state has large ownership positions in key industrial sectors, having extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, and fresh water. The petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The country has the fourth-highest per-capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIA’s GDP (PPP) per capita list which includes autonomous territories and regions, Norway ranks as number eleven. It has the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, with a value of US$1 trillion. Norway has had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world since 2009, a position also held previously between 2001 and 2006; it also 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 also has one of the lowest crime rates in the world.

Source

Wikipedia on a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Date: 2022-02-22

I got the travel bug when I was quite young. My parents took me and my sisters out of school and we travelled all over Europe. It was an eye-opening experience and, although I love Norway, I also enjoy visiting new countries. I don’t get homesick. (Magnus Carlsen, chess player)