According to Countryaah website, Norway has a total of around 5.3 million people.
Ethnic composition
Around 96% are Norwegians, including the minorities of around 40,000 Saami (Lapps) and around 10,000 Finns (Kvener). The proportion of foreigners is around 4%.
Religious affiliation
Norway has an official Protestant state church based on the Evangelical Lutheran religion to which around 84.8% of Norwegians belong.
In addition, the Norwegian population is made up of 3.66% other Protestants, 2% Catholics, 1.6% Muslims, 0.2% Buddhists and 6.9% without religious affiliation.
National languages
The national language is Norwegian and in some districts also Sami.
Capital and other cities
The capital of Norway is Oslo with about 660,000 residents. According to Abbreviation Finder, NOR stands for Norway in English. Click to see other meanings of this 3-letter acronym. Other cities are:
– Bergen with approx. 230,000 residents
– Trondheim with approx. 144,600 residents
– Stavanger with approx. 108,800 residents
– Kristiansand with approx. 71,500 residents and
– Tromsø with approx. 59,000 residents.
Norway: geography, map
National borders
Norway covers a total area of 323,802 km². Check topmbadirectory for politics, flags, famous people, animals and plants of Norway. Thereof:
ForestAround 26% of the country is forested.
GlaciersAbout 2,609 km² of the Norwegian area is covered by glaciers.The Jostedalsbreen is the largest European mainland glacier with an area of 487 km².
Other large glaciers are:
Vestre Svartisen with an area of 221 km², Folgefonna with an area of 214 km² and Østre Svartisen with an area of 148 km².
MountainsThe Scandinavia crosses the Scandinavian peninsula from the south to the North Cape with a length of about 1,700 km. Scandinavia was named after the Scandi.Jotunheimen is the highest mountain in Norway. It is the highest area of the Skanden and lies between the Sognefjord in the west of the country.
The longest fjords in Norway are the Sognefjorden with a length of 204 km and the Hardangerfjorden with a length of 179 km.
AgricultureOnly about 3% of the country is used for agriculture as arable land or fields. Yet agriculture is one of the country’s main sources of income, alongside tourism and the oil industry. Because of the cold winters, the conditions for pests to live are very poor, so that pesticides are hardly required for this alone. The most important agricultural products come from animal husbandry – especially sheep breeding – as well as fruit and grain cultivation. In addition, fishing and fish farming, for example salmon in the fjords, play an important role.
Norway has national borders with a total length of 2,544 km. There are limits to:
Finland with 729 km
Sweden with 1,619 km
Russia with 196 km
Northern point of mainland Europe
The northernmost point of mainland Europe is at Kinnarodden on the Nordkinn peninsula.
Coastline
The Norwegian coastline, including the fjords and islands, is around 21,000 km long.
North Sea
The southern part of Norway borders on the North Sea from about 61 degrees latitude.
NorthernEuropeanSea
The northern part of Norway borders on the Northern European Sea from about 61 degrees. This sea is one of the marginal seas of the Atlantic Ocean and is the most important connection between the North Atlantic in the southwest and the Arctic Ocean in the north. It covers an area of around 1.1 million km². The sea lies between Norway, Iceland and Svalbard.
Arctic Ocean, Arctic Ocean
The northernmost part of Norway – the island of Spitzbergen (Svalbard) – borders the Arctic Ocean, which is also known as the Arctic Ocean or Arctic Ocean. It is located in the Arctic and covers an area of 14.09 million km², making it the smallest ocean on earth.
However, some geographers do not see it as a separate ocean but as a side sea to the Atlantic Ocean. The Arctic Ocean is connected to the Pacific by the approx. 80 km wide Bering Strait, in the middle of which are the Diomede Islands, and to the Atlantic by the approx. 1,500 m wide European Arctic Ocean.
The Northern European Sea lies between Greenland and Scandinavia. The Arctic Ocean is largely covered by ice, which – depending on the geographical location – reaches thicknesses between only 0.5 m to 6-8 m. The ocean has its greatest depth with 5,608 m in the so-called Mollytief, which is about 140 km west of Svalbard. Svalbard lies in the south of the Arctic Ocean and in the north of the Northern European Sea. In the southwest of the European North Sea you will find Iceland and around 440 km southeast of it the Faroe Islands.
Tidal range in Norway
In Oslo, in the Oslo Fjord of the same name, the mean tidal range is 2 to 4 m.
For detailed explanations of ebb and flow, see Tides, Ebb and Flow.
Compare
The world’s highest tidal range can be found in the Bay of Fundy in Canada, where it is up to 16 meters, and at spring tide even over 20 meters. The Bay of Fundy is located on the Atlantic between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which is called Nova Scotia in German and whose capital is Halifax. On the German North Sea coast it varies between one and three meters. In the western Baltic Sea, on the other hand, the tidal range is only 0.3 meters, while it is barely noticeable in the eastern Baltic Sea.
Longitude and latitude
Norway extends over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):
Δφ = from 57 ° 57 ‘to 71 ° 11’ north latitude Δλ = from 4 ° 30 ‘to 31 ° 10’ east longitude
You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and Latitude.
Legal time
For Norway, the following value applies to Central European Time (CET), i.e. the time without summer time. A minus sign means that it is earlier there, a plus sign that it is later than CET
Δt (CET) = 0 h
Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones, time.
The highest point of the sun in Oslo
Oslo, the capital of Norway, lies at a north latitude of around φ = 60 ° (exactly: 59 ° 55 ‘N). If the sun is at the tropic, i.e. at δ = 23.5 °, summer starts in Norway. That’s June 21st. Then, for the highest position of the sun at noon, according to Eq. 1 (see position of the sun).
60 ° = (90 ° – h) + 23.5 °
so:
H = 53.5 °
In Oslo the sun has the highest level of the entire year at 53.5 °. It has its lowest level on December 21, when the sun is at the Tropic of Capricorn. It is then just 6.5 ° above the horizon.
Mountains
Over 250 mountains are higher than 1,900 m. 20 of them higher than 2,300 m.
Galdhøppigen
The highest mountain in the country is Galdhøppigen with a height of 2,469 m.
Glittertind
The Glittertind with a height of 2,472 m
Store Skagastølstind
The Store Skagastølstind with a height of 2,405 m
Styggdalstind
The Styggdalstind with a height of 2,387 m.
Rivers
Glomma The
longest river in the country is the Glomma with a length of 598 km.
Tana, Anarjokka
The Tana and Anarjokka with a length of around 360 km
Numedalslågen
The Numedalslågen with a length of around 337 km D
Dramsvassdraget
The Dramsvassdraget with a length of around 309 km.
Lakes
The country includes numerous smaller and larger lakes.
Mjøsa
The largest lake is Mjøsa with an area of about 368 km².
Femund
The Femund with an area of around 201 km²
Røssvatn
The Røssvatn with an area of around 190 km².
Tyrifjord
The Tyrifjord – an inland lake – covers an area of 138.6 km² and is located about 30 km west-northwest of Oslo. The lake is divided into the following four main arms: the Nordfjord in the northwest, the Steinsfjord in the northeast, the Holsfjord in the southeast and the Bergsjø in the southwest. The greatest depth of the lake is 330 m. In the lake – at the beginning of the southeastern Holsfjord – is the island of Utøya (for details see under Islands), which was the scene of a terrorist attack on July 22, 2011 with 69 dead.
Islands
Utøya
This island, only around 0.15 km² in size, was the scene of one of the worst terrorist attacks in Norway’s history. On July 22, 2011, the Norwegian fundamentalist Christian and nationalist Anders Behring Breivik set off a bomb in Oslo that killed 8 people. Then he went to the island of Utøya to open fire on children and young people. Another 69 people died here. The assassin could be arrested.
The heavily forested island is located in the Tyrifjord (for details see Islands) in the province of Buskerud – about 30 km west-northwest of Oslo and about 600 m from the mainland.
The island is privately owned by the “Arbeidernes Ungdomsfylking” (AUF) – the youth organization of the Norwegian Social Democratic Workers’ Party.
Other islands
The following islands are in front of the country or belong elsewhere to Norway:
Spitzbergen (Svalbard)
Spitzbergen is an archipelago administered by Norway with 400 islands and skerries north of the Arctic Circle. The main island and the archipelago have the same name. The islands are located at a latitude between around 76 ° 20` and 80 ° 30` north. The archipelago covers an area of 61,022 km² – with around 2,500 residents. The main town on the island is Longyearbyen with around 1,800 residents. Ny-Ålesund, a town with around 50 residents, is known around the world and is home to the northernmost post office in the world and where numerous cruise ships call at. The vegetation is a typical tundra vegetation. Polar bears, arctic foxes and reindeer live here on larger mammals.
From October 26 to February 16, the sun does not come over the horizon, so it does not get light during the day. From April 20th to August 26th, the sun no longer disappears below the horizon, so it is also bright at night. In addition, you can see northern lights here. The southern tip of the archipelago is around 650 km from the northern tip of Norway. Svalbard is the only region in the world where anyone can enter without a visa.
Hinnøy
Hinnøy with an area of 2,198 km²
Senja
Senja with an area of 1,590 km²
Lofoten
The Lofoten archipelago with a total area of 1,350 km²
BearIslandBear
Island with an area of 178 km²
Jan Mayen
Jan Mayen covers an area of 373 km² and is located around 840 km northwest of Norway in the Northern European Sea.
Svalbard
The Svalbard archipelago with a total area of 62,049 km².
Bastøy
This island, only about 2.6 km² in size, is located in the Oslo Fjord about 2 nm from the mainland and a little over 60 km south of Oslo. The island is home to the most liberal penal system in the world. About 150 prisoners – murderers, deaelers, fraudsters, thugs or thieves – live here largely self-administered and hardly guarded. Even on the ferry to the mainland, the sailors are prisoners.
North Sea, European Arctic Ocean
North Sea
The southern part of Norway borders on the North Sea from about 61 degrees latitude. Information about the North Sea can be found at Goruma under the following link.
NorthernEuropeanSea
The northern part of Norway borders on the Northern European Sea from about 61 degrees. This sea is one of the marginal seas of the Atlantic Ocean and is the most important connection between the North Atlantic in the southwest and the Arctic Ocean in the north. It covers an area of around 1.1 million km². The sea lies between Norway, Iceland and Svalbard. In the northwest it merges into the Greenland Sea and in the south at a latitude of around 61 ° into the North Sea. In the northeast it borders on the Barents Sea. The ocean floor has rich deposits of natural gas and oil.
Arctic Ocean, Arctic Ocean
The northernmost part of Norway – the island of Spitzbergen (Svalbard) – borders the Arctic Ocean, also known as the Arctic Ocean or Arctic Ocean. It is located in the Arctic and covers an area of 14.09 million km², making it the smallest ocean on earth. However, some geographers do not see it as a separate ocean but as a side sea to the Atlantic Ocean. The Arctic Ocean is connected to the Pacific by the approx. 80 km wide Bering Strait, in the middle of which are the Diomede Islands, and to the Atlantic by the approx. 1,500 m wide European Arctic Ocean. The Northern European Sea lies between Greenland and Scandinavia. The Arctic Ocean is largely covered by ice, which – depending on the geographical location – reaches thicknesses between only 0.5 m to 6-8 m. The ocean has its greatest depth at 5. 608 m in the so-called Mollytief, which is about 140 km west of Spitsbergen. Svalbard lies in the south of the Arctic Ocean and in the north of the Northern European Sea. In the southwest of the European North Sea you will find Iceland and around 440 km southeast of it the Faroe Islands.
