III.

People and Society

The population of Norway is 4,627,926 (2007 estimate). The Norwegians are a remarkably homogenous people of Germanic origin. Apart from several thousand Saami and people of Finnish origin in the northern part of Norway, the country has no large minority groups. Norway is home to small numbers of Americans, Britons, Chileans, Danes, Iranians, Pakistanis, Swedes, and Vietnamese, among other groups.

Norway has the lowest population density in continental Europe, with 15 persons per sq km (39 per sq mi). Moreover, the distribution of the population is extremely uneven. About half of the country’s population lives in the southeast, and more than three-quarters of all Norwegians live within about 16 km (about 10 mi) of the sea. Some 80 percent of Norway’s population lives in urban areas. Almost all important settlements are situated on, or within easy reach of, the coastline, which offers good transportation links and a moderate climate. The high-lying interior regions are largely uninhabited, apart from seasonal occupation by hunters and herders. In recent decades the construction of new and improved road, rail, and air transport facilities has opened some mountain areas to permanent habitation.

Norway’s population is growing very slowly, with an annual rate of increase of only 0.36 percent in 2007. The birth rate has remained low and fairly steady since 1945, and death rates have declined due to improved health measures and rising living standards. Today, life expectancy in Norway is among the highest in the world: 83 years for women and 77 years for men.

A.

Principal Cities

Oslo is the nation’s capital and the principal port and industrial center. It is also the largest city, with an estimated population of 536,209 in 2005 estimate. About one-fourth of the total population of Norway lives in the vicinity of Oslo. Modern architecture dominates the sprawling city, which covers hundreds of square kilometers and is one of the world’s largest cities in area. Oslo is home to the Storting, the national parliament; many cultural institutions, including the University of Oslo; the Munch Museum, with paintings by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch; and the Kon-Tiki Museum, with exhibits showcasing the voyages of the Norwegian anthropologist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl.

Bergen, the cultural center of western Norway and the second-largest city, has a population of 241,440. Bergen was once an important port for the Hanseatic League, and it remains an important shipping and transportation hub. Also called the “Gateway to the Fjords,” Bergen is the center of Norway’s west coast tourism industry.

Trondheim (157,813), founded in AD 997 by Olaf I, was for many years the capital of the Viking kings. Norwegian monarchs are still anointed at the majestic 11th-century Nidaros Cathedral—one of Norway’s most popular tourism destinations—and the city is considered a national shrine. A sheltered port serves the city, which lies amid a productive agricultural area.

Other important cities are Stavanger (114,936), former center of the Norwegian canning industry and now a base for offshore oil and natural gas operations; and Tromsø (63,392), Norway’s gateway to the Arctic.

B.

Language

Despite Norway’s ethnic homogeneity, two distinct forms of the Norwegian language are spoken in the country. Both forms of the language are officially recognized as equal, and both must be offered in schools. The majority language, Bokmål (“book language”), is spoken by more than 80 percent of the population and taught to about 83 percent of all children in schools. Bokmål is a Norwegian form of the Danish language, which was used by the administrative and educated elite while Norway was under Danish rule (1397-1814). Nynorsk (New Norse) is taught to about 17 percent of children in schools, mainly in rural western areas. It was developed in the 19th century, as part of a Norwegian nationalist revival, from a synthesis of rural dialects and medieval Old Norse. Efforts to merge Bokmål and Nynorsk into a common tongue called Samnorsk (Common Norwegian) have made little progress to date. Finno-Ugric Saami languages are spoken by the Saami people, many of whom still inhabit their traditional lands in the far north.

C.

Religion

The Evangelical Lutheran Church (see Lutheranism) is the national church of Norway. About 94 percent of the population belongs to the church, although many are nonpracticing members. The church is supported by the state, and the clergy is nominated by the king. Salaries and pensions of the clergy are set by law and paid by the government. Complete religious freedom is guaranteed by law, however. Other churches, mostly Pentecostal and other Protestant congregations and Roman Catholic, represent most of the non-Lutheran population. Norway is also home to a small Muslim population (see Islam).

D.

Education

Compulsory education was established in Norway in the late 19th century. Educational reforms implemented in the 1960s and 1970s have reduced regional disparities and improved the quality of rural schools by providing more hours of instruction and a broader selection of courses. Norway has virtually no illiteracy.

Education is compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 16 and is provided by the state free of cost. For their elementary education, children attend a six-year lower school, which prescribes the same curriculum for all students. Students then attend a three-year secondary school, which offers many elective courses. At age 16, pupils who are qualified may attend a videregående skole (high school), where a three-year course of study prepares them for a difficult matriculation examination for the universities or for a vocational or technical occupation. Norway also has a system of folk high schools, or rural boarding schools, which provide courses in a wide variety of subjects for young adults who have completed their compulsory studies.

Norway has four public universities and ten colleges of university standing. The principal university is the University of Oslo (founded 1811), which also hosts the Nobel peace prize ceremony in the presence of the king of Norway (Nobel Prizes); the other universities are the University of Bergen (1948), the University of Tromsø (1968), and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim (1968). All colleges and universities are state supported.

E.

Social Structure

A striking feature of Norwegian society is a strong egalitarian outlook and the absence of conspicuous social divisions. Great wealth is not obvious. There is little poverty and few slums or luxury homes. Apart from forested areas, there are few large private landholdings in Norway. Farming, forestry, and fishing are typically small-scale, seasonal, family activities. Norway’s living standards are among the highest in Europe.

Norwegians’ sense of equality stems from the fact that feudalism was never thoroughly established in the country. For centuries Norway was administered by a small class of civil servants whose rule was neither tyrannical nor arbitrary. In the 20th century, Norwegians began to use the economic power of the state as a leveling force, and a steeply graduated tax on income helps fund the nation’s generous social services. Another leveling influence is the strict control of housing, most of which is financed by a state housing bank and constructed by cooperative housing associations.

Egalitarianism has a counterpart in respect for, and compliance with, the law. Norwegian legal institutions date to the early Middle Ages, when regional assemblies of freemen pronounced judgments even against their kings. Norway’s modern criminal code is humane, and there are comparatively few police. The equality of women in Norway is protected by law and by custom. Women are well represented in professions such as law, teaching, medicine, and the ministry. Most women with families work outside the home, in part because of the prevalence of state-run child-care centers.

F.

Way of Life

The unity of the family has been a core Norwegian trait since Viking times. In rural areas the family remains the most important social unit. Ownership of an ancestral farm is protected by the odelsrett, a practice that gives a family the right to repurchase farmland even if it has recently been sold. Family members will make long journeys to attend weddings, christenings, confirmations, and burials. This closeness is frequently carried over into urban life.

Outdoor recreation plays a large role in national life. Norwegians prize solitude and self-reliance, and many people choose to walk or ski or camp alone. Swimming, sailing, fishing, and hunting are other activities that have special appeal for Norwegians. Association football (soccer) is widely played and attracts large audiences, as do the international ski-jumping competitions at Holmenkollen near Oslo. In the Winter Olympic Games, which Norway has hosted twice (Oslo, 1952; Lillehammer, 1994), Norwegians have earned more medals than any other country.

Norwegian workers are entitled by law to four weeks of paid annual holiday, and they are allowed to take three of those weeks during the summer months. In addition, eight church holidays are observed and widely used for recreation, along with the two national holidays—Labor Day (May 1) and Constitution Day (May 17). When summer comes, a favorite—and economical—form of holiday is found in retreating to the hytte, a simple summer home in the mountains or by the sea.

G.

Culture

Norway retains a rich folk culture that has roots in the Viking age (see Viking Art). During the 19th century a renaissance of Norwegian culture occurred that was strongly influenced by nationalism and romanticism. This renaissance drew on many stylistic and thematic elements in western European culture as well as aspects unique to the Norwegian experience, including the struggle for an independent identity and a deep fascination with nature. Today, the Norwegian government plays an active role in cultural preservation through its large collections of folk art and music, and through state subsidies that provide grants to artists, fund exhibitions and other cultural projects, and permit outright purchases of works of art. State-supported schools teach traditional folk arts such as woodcarving, ornamental painting, and tapestry.

Norway has produced some of the world’s most famous explorers. The fearless Vikings preceded pioneers such as Fridtjof Nansen, who in 1888 was the first person to cross Greenland, and Roald Amundsen, who was the first to navigate the Northwest Passage and, in 1911, to reach the South Pole. In 1947 Thor Heyerdahl set out to prove his theory that people from South America had settled the islands of the South Pacific Ocean. He drifted 6,920 km (4,300 mi) from Peru to Polynesia on a balsa raft called the Kon-Tiki.

G.1.

Literature

Norwegian literature goes back more than 1,000 years. Poems and sagas (medieval Icelandic prose narratives) produced from the 9th through the 13th centuries recorded the lives and experiences of the Norwegian Vikings. The oldest Norwegian literature took the form of poetry and includes eddic poetry (Poetic Edda), based on legends and mythological figures, and skaldic poetry, produced mainly by Norwegian court poets known as skalds. These poems, which offer valuable information about Norse mythology and history, were transmitted orally and first written down in the 13th century (See also Icelandic Literature). Norwegian literary and cultural traditions waned following the union with Denmark at the close of the 14th century and the growth of Danish influence.

A revival in Norwegian literature occurred after Danish rule ended in the early 19th century, as part of a nationalist movement to reassert an independent cultural identity. Nineteenth-century Norwegian writers to achieve international prominence include playwright Henrik Ibsen; novelists Jonas Lie and Alexander Kielland; and Nobel Prize winning authors Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Knut Hamsun, and Sigrid Undset. Important writers of the 20th century include poets Tarjei Vesaas and Stein Mehren and novelists Sigurd Hoel, Johan Falkberget, and Dag Solstad.

G.2.

Performing and Visual Arts

The 19th-century renaissance of Norwegian culture brought with it a great flowering across the arts. Early expressions of a truly Norwegian style were produced in music by the composer Edvard Grieg and on canvas by the painter Johan Christian Dahl. Grieg achieved international renown for composing a memorable suite to Peer Gynt, Henrik Ibsen’s famous verse drama.

Other important Norwegian artists of the 19th and 20th centuries include composers Christian Sinding and Arne Nordheim; painters Adolph Tidemand and Edvard Munch, who introduced expressionism to Norway; and sculptor Gustav Vigeland, whose sculpture park in Oslo has gained international attention.

Norway has a small government-subsidized film industry that produces several feature films and dozens of documentaries or short films annually. A film festival is held annually in Haugesund.

G.3.

Cultural Institutions

Oslo is the undisputed cultural center of Norway. Bergen, Trondheim, and Stavanger are important regional centers. The country’s largest art museum is the National Gallery in Oslo. Natural history museums are located in Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen, Trondheim, and Tromsø. Many other museums display artifacts of regional and national culture. The most notable of these is the Norwegian Folk Museum in Oslo. The Viking Museum in Oslo houses an amazingly well preserved 9^th century ship in which a Viking queen was buried.

The municipal library system in Norway, begun in the early 20th century, is patterned after the United States model. In addition, the state maintains specialized libraries, including the University of Oslo Library, which was established in 1811 and long served as the national library. A new National Library, separate from the university library, opened in Oslo in 1999. Also important is the National Archives in Oslo.

Performing-arts organizations include the National Theater and the national ballet and opera, all in Oslo, and the National Stage in Bergen. The Oslo Philharmonic is the principal orchestra; other permanent orchestras are in Bergen and Trondheim. Since 1953 Bergen has held an annual international music festival.