Key figures for the population

Last updated: 27 July 2016

Information about population size, composition and development is an important basis for policy, planning and decision-making in various areas of society. The age distribution, for example, has an impact on the demand for education and study places, the share of the working population and the need for health and social services. The regional distribution of the population also provides an important framework for counties and municipalities.

Population size and composition change in two ways: when people are born and die, and when they move to and out of the country. When the number of births is higher than the number of deaths, there is an excess of births, and when more people move to the country than leave, we have what is known as net immigration (Net immigration = immigration minus emigration). These factors combined determine the population growth.

Population
	Number	Previous year	5 years before	10 years before	Period
¹End of quarter
²1. January
Population	5 223 256	5 176 998	4 937 265	4 649 302	1st quarter 2016¹
Children under 18 living at home	1 110 922	1 111 248	1 097 774	.	2015
Private households	2 316 647	2 286 445	2 170 893	.	2015
Immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents	848 207	804 963	600 922	386 699	2016²
Immigrants	698 550	669 380	500 500	318 514	2016²
Norwegian-born to immigrant parents	149 657	135 583	100 422	68 185	2016²

Population changes
	Number	Change in % previous year	Period
Births	14 533	3.3	1st quarter 2016
Deaths	11 022	-4.4	1st quarter 2016
Immigration	14 496	-14.4	1st quarter 2016
Emigration	8 736	5.5	1st quarter 2016
Marriages	22 738	-0.7	2015
Divorces	9 306	-2.6	2015
Norwegian naturalisation	12 432	-18.9	2015
Adoptions	354	-3.8	2015

Demographic measures and estimates
	Unit	Value	Previous year	Five years ago	Ten years ago	Period
Total fertility rate, women	Number of children	1.73	1.76	1.95	1.84	2015
Total fertility rate, men	Number of children	1.56	1.58	1.75	1.68	2015
Life expectancy, both sexes	Year	82.3	82.1	81.0	80.2	2015
Life expectancy, men	Year	80.4	80.0	78.9	77.7	2015
Life expectancy, women	Year	84.2	84.1	83.2	82.5	2015
Infant mortality rate, deaths under age 1	Per 1 000 living births	2.4	2.4	2.8	3.1	2015
Share aged 67 and over, as percentage of population	Per cent	14.3	14.0	12.9	13.1	2016
Share aged 18 and under, as percentage of population	Per cent	21.6	21.8	22.8	23.5	2016
Population growth, as percentage of population at start of year	Per cent	0.9	1.1	1.2	0.7	2015

Population changes. Population growth, excess of births and net immigration. 1951-2014
	Population growth	Excess of births	Net immigration
1951	30525	32835	-2316
1952	31933	34126	-2193
1953	33116	34573	-1457
1954	32291	33581	-1290
1955	37512	34453	-1640
1956	32113	34190	-2077
1957	32413	32503	-90
1958	30332	31340	-1105
1959	30023	31244	-1221
1960	24217	29337	-5145
1961	30058	29242	816
1962	28180	27936	244
1963	27059	26440	619
1964	28541	30399	-1858
1965	29087	30960	-1873
1966	31863	31051	-945
1967	32920	30563	2357
1968	33007	29682	1706
1969	30982	28752	2115
1970	21837	25828	-969
1971	29468	26569	6615
1972	30462	24885	4423
1973	24755	21250	3444
1974	24535	20139	4922
1975	19576	16284	4769
1976	18101	13258	4889
1977	16006	11053	5034
1978	14926	11067	3974
1979	12766	9948	2746
1980	13440	9699	4071
1981	14723	8815	5176
1982	15448	9791	5740
1983	11842	7713	4285
1984	11492	7693	3761
1985	13342	6762	6228
1986	16334	8954	7451
1987	22768	9068	13769
1988	22397	12172	10143
1989	12430	14130	-1453
1990	16714	14918	1710
1991	23804	15885	8045
1992	25533	15378	9942
1993	25648	13081	12808
1994	23595	16021	7436
1995	21547	15102	6366
1996	22757	17067	5817
1997	24885	15206	10700
1998	27730	14240	13823
1999	33168	14128	18999
2000	24939	15232	9688
2001	20630	12715	7955
2002	28186	10969	17174
2003	25205	13980	11285
2004	28906	15751	13211
2005	33856	15524	18439
2006	40915	17292	23723
2007	56037	16505	39652
2008	62081	18785	43346
2009	58947	20358	38637
2010	62106	19943	42346
2011	65565	18827	47032
2012	65405	18263	47343
2013	57781	17713	40073
2014	56746	18690	38155
2015	48183	18331	29802

Population changes. Births, deaths, immigration and emigration. 1951-2015
	Births	Deaths	Immigration	Emigration
1951	60571	27736	6046	10172
1952	62543	28417	5967	7803
1953	62985	28412	6454	7529
1954	62739	29158	6005	7295
1955	63552	29099	7089	8728
1956	64171	29981	8092	10156
1957	63063	30560	12263	12599
1958	62985	31645	10161	11266
1959	63005	31761	10586	11807
1960	61880	32543	13536	18681
1961	62555	33313	11426	10610
1962	62254	34318	12778	12534
1963	63290	36850	11983	11364
1964	65570	35171	12406	14264
1965	66277	35317	12148	14021
1966	67061	36010	12446	13391
1967	66779	36216	15379	13022
1968	67350	37668	15350	13644
1969	67746	38994	15641	13526
1970	64551	38723	17383	18352
1971	65550	38981	19297	12682
1972	64260	39375	18388	13965
1973	61208	39958	17383	13939
1974	59603	39464	19209	14287
1975	56345	40061	19551	14782
1976	53474	40216	18955	14066
1977	50877	39824	19403	14369
1978	51749	40682	18825	14851
1979	51580	41632	17831	15085
1980	51039	41340	18776	14705
1981	50708	41893	19698	14522
1982	51245	41454	20468	14728
1983	49937	42224	20063	15778
1984	50274	42581	19688	15927
1985	51134	44372	21858	15630
1986	52514	43560	24196	16745
1987	54027	44959	31149	17380
1988	57526	45354	29964	19821
1989	59303	45173	25847	27300
1990	60939	46021	25494	23784
1991	60808	44923	26283	18238
1992	60109	44731	26743	16801
1993	59678	46597	31711	18903
1994	60092	44071	26911	19475
1995	60292	45190	25678	19312
1996	60927	43860	26407	20590
1997	59801	44595	31957	21257
1998	58352	44112	36704	22881
1999	59298	45170	41841	22842
2000	59234	44002	36542	26854
2001	56696	43981	34264	26309
2002	55434	44465	40122	22948
2003	56458	42478	35957	24672
2004	56951	41200	36482	23271
2005	56756	41232	40148	21709
2006	58545	41253	45776	22053
2007	58459	41954	61774	22122
2008	60497	41712	66961	23615
2009	61807	41449	65186	26549
2010	61442	41499	73852	31506
2011	60220	41393	79498	32466
2012	60255	41992	78570	31227
2013	58995	41282	75789	35716
2014	59084	40394	70030	31875
2015	59058	40727	67276	37474

Low fertility rate...
The post-war baby boom lasted until the mid-1960s, and was followed by a decline that bottomed out at the start of the 1980s. Fertility subsequently increased again, stabilising at around 1.9 children per woman. This has now fallen to 1.7 children per woman. Excluding migration, the total fertility rate in any country needs to be around 2.1 in order to prevent the population from declining in the long term.
… and falling mortality rate
The mortality rate saw a general decline throughout the last century, with the exception of the period from 1950 to 1970. During this period, the mortality rate for men increased in most age groups, mainly due to a large number of deaths related to cardiovascular disease. The falling mortality rate is reflected in the increase in life expectancy: a boy born today can expect to live 80.4 years, and a girl 84.2 years. The gender gap in life expectancy continued to increase until the 1980s, when the difference was almost seven years, but more recently this fallen to four years.
More are living alone…
Following World War II, nuclear families were the dominant form of living. The marriage rate was high and the share of one-person households fell slightly. The marriage rate then started to fall at start of the 1970s, while the number of divorces increased. The share of one-person households has now doubled: 38 per cent of households consist of people living alone, and this makes up almost one in five persons. In the population as a whole, approximately equal shares of men and women live alone. However, while single women are in the majority in the elderly population, men are in the majority among the younger age groups. One-person households are most common in city centres and rural areas.
… and more have live-in partners
The decline in the number of marriages in recent years is not only due to the increase in divorces and the number of people living alone; couples are also choosing to live together without getting married. Unmarried cohabitants were introduced to the statistics at the end of the 1970s, but it is only in the last few decades that this form of living has become more popular. Cohabiting couples made up 28 per cent of all couples in 2015, up from 10 per cent in 1990. While cohabiting couples were previously unlikely to have children, the majority of them do have children nowadays. Young people under the age of 30 are now more likely to cohabit than get married.

High population growth…
The population of Norway passed the 5 million mark in 2012, which is an increase of over 1.7 million since 1950. Immediately following World War II, the annual population growth was almost 1 per cent, mainly as a result of the high number of births. This growth sank to a third of a per cent in the 1980s, but has since risen to over 1 per cent. Today, the net immigration has a greater bearing on the population growth than the excess of births.
...also in the coming years
The result of the population projections depends on which assumptions are used. The main alternative, which is a prognosis based on medium fertility, life expectancy and net migration, shows continued growth for the remainder of this century. The population will surpass 6 million in around 2031, and 7 million by just before 2060 according to the medium alternative. A significant part of future growth is likely to be due to net immigration. If immigration, fertility and life expectancy are all low, the population will not pass the 6 million mark, and from 2060 the population of Norway will steadily fall. In the scenario with high fertility, life expectancy and immigration, the population could approach 9 million around 2060.
More immigrants
Immigrants (defined as a person born outside Norway to foreign-born parents, and registered as resident in Norway in the National Population Register. Only the group of immigrants resident in Norway is included in our figures unless otherwise specified. The group of Norwegian-born with immigrant parents is not classified as immigrants.) and Norwegian-born with immigrant parents (persons born in Norway to two foreign-born parents and four foreign-born grandparents) made up 16,3 per cent of the population in Norway as of 1 January 2016, with a total of 848 200 persons. These two groups consist of persons with backgrounds from 223 different countries and autonomous regions. The number of immigrants and Norwegian-born with immigrant parents increased by 43 200 in 2015, which is the lowest percentage growth since 2006. At the start of 2016, there were 698 500 immigrants and 149 700 Norwegian-born with immigrant parents in Norway.
Aging population on the way
Today, just over one in nine people in Norway are aged 70 years or over. This percentage is set to increase. In the medium alternative, roughly every fifth person in Norway will be aged 70 or over by 2060. The share of elderly will see a particular increase when the post-war baby boomers are elderly. Although Norway is aging, the aging population in Norway will be far smaller than in many other countries. This is because Norway has had a less negative fertility development and relatively high immigration compared with other countries in Europe and the west in general.

befpyramide

Population pyramid:
The population pyramid shows the composition of the Norwegian population during the period 1846-2040.

See the Norwegian population pyramid visualisation .

Figure 1. Population per 1 January. Registered and extrapolated in three alternatives