Norway
- Capital:
- Oslo
- Continent:
- Europe
- Region(s):
- Northern Europe
- Abbreviation:
- NOR
* As of 1/8/2026
1 birth
Every 9.9 minutes
1 death
Every 11.9 minutes
1 immigrant
Every 43.6 minutes
1 person
Every 25.3 minutes
29K
100K
250K
500K
750K
1M
The official languages of Norway include Bokmal Norwegian and Nynorsk Norwegian, and some residents use Sami and/or Finnish languages as well. The ethnicities in Norway are recorded as Norwegian 83.2% (includes about 60,000 Sami), other European 8.3%, other 8.5% by the Factbook as well.
Based on those 2010 estimates, the median age overall was 39.7 years. This was divided between 38.8 years for men and 40.5 for women. These median ages have been updated in 2018 to 39.2 years of age, with a division of 38.4 years for males and 40 years for females.
Norwegian (81.5%)
Other European (8.9%)
Other (9.6%)
The main religion in Norway is Church of Norway (Evangelical Lutheran - official).
Church of Norway (Evangelical Lutheran - official)
Unspecified
Other Christian
Muslim
Roman Catholic
Other
Religious people in Norway are mostly Christian, with 71.5% showing affiliations with Church of Norway (Evangelical Lutheran - official), 2.8% of people are Roman Catholic, and 3/9% practicing another denomination of Christianity. Muslims make up 2.9% of the Norwegian populous, 2% practice a different religion, and 16.8% of the population are unaffiliated with any faith. Like all people of Scandinavian origin, early Norwegians Norse Paganism. Missionaries brought Christianity to the area around the year 1000.
Statistics released by the CIA World Factbook give us an overall picture of age breakdowns and life expectancy within Norway itself.
Based on population estimates from 2011, the Factbook claims that 18.8% of the Norway population of the time were aged between 0 and 14 years. In addition, it was confirmed that 66.2% of the country were between 15 and 64 years of age while 15% of the people of Norway were aged 65 and over in 2011.
In 2018, these numbers were updated to 18% of the population is 0-14 years of age, 41% are 25-54 years of age, and 16.71% are over the age of 65.
Turning to life expectancy figures, the most recent estimate was given in 2010 when it was shown that the average figure was 81.04 years which could be divided between 78.85 years for males and 83.15 years for females.
Norway is an ancient country and it is claimed that as far back as 1665, there were already 440,000 people living here. Steady growth through the ages has continued to the point where the Norway population in 2014 now stands at approximately 5,091,246.
Historical landmarks were reached in 1825, when the population of Norway hit 1,051,318 and thereby exceeded one million for the first time in the country’s history and in 1900, the numbers had reached 2,240,032.
Throughout the 20th century, population growth was steady and on a census by census basis, it generally increased by between 0.5% and 1% annually.