Facts about Norway

• Official name: Kingdom of Norway

• Capital: Oslo

• Language: Norwegian

• Area: 385.199km² (Mainland 324.220km², Svalbard & Jan Mayen 61.39km²)

• International borders: Sweden, Finland, and Russia.

• Coastline: 2650km (excluding fjords and bays)

• Highest mountain: Galdhøpiggen 2469m

• Big cities: Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Stavanger

• Climate: Four seasons, namely winter, spring, summer and autumn. Temperate along coast because of Gulf Stream

• Temperature: High - 30 degrees C. Low - minus 30 degrees C.

• Population: 5.357.212 (2019)

• Life expectancy (years): 82.33 (2019). Male: 80.9 (2017); Female: 84.3 (2017)

• Administrative and Political system: Constitutional Monarchy, Multi –Party System

• Constitution Day: 17 May 1814

• Main religions: Church of Norway (evangelical Lutheran), Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Muslim.

• Main agricultural products: barley, wheat, potatoes, pork, beef, veal, milk, fish.

• Main industries: petroleum and gas, food processing, shipbuilding, pulp and paper products, metals, chemicals, timber, mining, textiles and fishing.

• Main export commodities: petroleum and petroleum products, machinery and equipment, metals, foodstuffs.

• Currency: Norwegian Krona (NOK)

• Norway has 239,057 islands larger than 10m2.
• 300,000 pairs of skis are sold in Norway every year.
• The length of Norway's coastline is 100,915km. It would reach around the equator 2.5 times.
• Norway's sea areas are almost seven times larger than its land areas

**************************

• The Nobel Peace Prize: The Nobel Peace Center is located in Oslo, and the Norwegian Nobel committee selects the recipient. The chosen recipient receives the award on December 10 in Oslo City Hall. When visiting Oslo you can visit the Peace Center to learn more about its history and chosen winners

• The U.N: The first U.N Secretary General was Norwegian. Trygve Lie, who served as Norway’s foreign minister during the Second World War, took the position as the first U.N. Secretary General. He was Secretary General from 1946-1952 and is the only Norwegian to hold that tittle.

• Green energy: Nearly all of Norway’s domestic energy usage is from sustainable energy, despite the oil found in Norwegian oceans. Around 98% to 99% of all electricity comes from hydroelectric plants and the Norwegian government aims to be carbon neutral by 2030.

• Norwegian language: Norway is unique in a sense that it has two written variations of its language, Bokmål and Nynorsk. In addition to this, there is not a given “right” way to speak, which has led to many different dialect variation in the oral language.

• Inventions: A little known fact is that Norway was the country to invent the paper clip. Norway can also boast to have invented other useful items such as the Ostehøvel (cheese slicer) and the aerosol spray can.

• Winter Olympics: despite only having 5 million inhabitants, Norway is the country that has won the most Olympic medals in the world. Since the first Winter Olympic Games in 1924, Norway has won 332 medals.

• Famous Author: Roald Dahl the English author with Norwegian parents spoke Norwegian fluently and his famous story “Charlie and the chocolate factory” is based on a real chocolate factory in Oslo.

• Norwegian fjords: Norway has the highest concentration of fjord in the world, with over a 1000 beautiful fjords spread across the country. The most famous fjords are Geiranger fjorden, Hardangerfjord and Sognefjord.