40 Amazing Facts About Norway

Officially the Kingdom of Norway, Norway is a Nordic country found in Northwestern Europe. Norway was originally called 'Nordweg' meaning the 'Northern Way'. As of April 2018, Norway has a population of 5,302,778 people. Norway does not have any official religion. The official languages in Norway are Norwegian and Sami. Kven, Romani and Romanes are Norway's official minority languages. Norway's current king is King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glucksburg. Erna Stoltenberg became prime minister in 2013 and was reelected in September 2017. The currency used in Norway is the Norwegian krone (NOK).

A deep Norwegian proverb says that "a hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute longer." With that heroic spirit, we bring to you an amazing piece about one of the world's most beautiful countries, famous for its spectacular Northern lights, its stunning fjords, its endless array of ski resorts and much more. You can't afford to miss knowing these distinguishing facts about Norway!

1. There's a village in the Lånke area of the municipality of Stjørdal in Trøndelag County, Norway, named Hell. It has a population of 1,558 people (2017).

2. Norway voted Europe's most beautiful country is the second happiest country in the world as per the World Happiness Report. In the said report, Tanzania, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Burundi respectively, are the world's least happy countries.

Scenery in Norway 

3. Norway has the third highest GDP per capita in the world, with a GDP per capita of 74,941 US dollars, as per an IMF report (2017).

4. Norway ranks 1st on the Human Development Index ranking of countries, with an index of 0.953 (very high human development).

5. Norway is home to Europe's highest waterfall, Vinnufossen (860 m / 2,822 ft). Vinnufossen found in Sunndal municipality, Møre og Romsdal, Norway is also the six-tallest waterfall in the world. 

Vinnufossen Waterfall

6. The world's longest road tunnel, the Lærdal Tunnel is found in Norway. Lærdal Tunnel is just over 15 miles in length/24.51 kilometers (15.23 miles).

7. When income equality is ranked based on the Gini Coefficient, Norway's 0.226 coefficient (2016) makes it the third most equal nation in the world.

8. The mascot and Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian King's Guard is none other than Brigadier Sir Nils Olav, a king penguin who resides in Edinburgh Zoo, Scotland.

9. Norway is the world's leading producer of Atlantic salmon, and the second-largest exporter of seafood.

10. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by a Norwegian committee in Oslo, Norway. It has been awarded in Oslo annually since 1901.

11. Norwegian men are allotted a 10-week paternity leave quota in a bid to encourage them to take care of their children. In that light, 90% of fathers in Norway take at least 12 weeks of paternity leave, known as pappapermisjon.

 

12. Norway has a revolutionary humane prison, the Bastøy Prison, a minimum-security prison located in the island of Bastøy. In Bastøy Prison, inmates are free to wander woodland, fields and beaches. Bastøy Prison inmates are housed in wooden cottages and work the prison farm. They are given access to fishing, tennis, cross-country skiing and horseback riding during their free time.

13. In 2008, Norway pledged $1 billion to Brazil's Amazon protection fund, to assist its fight against deforestation. The only condition to be fulfilled by Brazil to receive continuous disbursement from the $1 billion reserve was the provision of definitive proof that deforestation was being reduced. In the seven years following the pledge, Brazil succeeded in reducing deforestation by a stunning 75% - 33,000 square miles of forest saved and the atmosphere saved from 3.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide. Norway found the results laudable and paid up the final $100 million in September 2015.

  

14. It is illegal/forbidden to die in the remote Arctic town of kiing norway getty imain Norway's Svalbard Islands. It was discovered in 1950 that bodies weren't decomposing in their cemetery because of Longyearbyen's frigid weather. The terminally ill are obliged to leave the island and fly to the Norwegian mainland to spend their last days due to the death ban.

15. Skiing was born in Norway. The cambered ski was developed by woodcarvers in the province of Telemark, Norway. The word 'ski' is Norwegian for 'piece of wood'. It is rare to find a Norwegian who can't ski. It is said they're 'born with skis on their feet'.

16. Bouvet Island, an uninhabited and frozen isle halfway between South Africa and Antarctica, dubbed the "loneliest place on Earth" belongs to Norway.

17. Norway is the best place in the world to be a writer. The Norwegian government keeps book publishers alive by buying 1,000 copies of every published book to distribute to libraries across the country. The government buys 1,550 copies if it's a children's book.

18. University education in Norway is free, even for foreigners.

University of Oslo

19. If you are caught driving and drinking in Norway, you lose your driving license for 2 years and face penalties like jail sentences and permanent loss of your driving license.

20. It is illegal to advertise to children younger than 12 in Norway.

21. Norway is one of two countries that still commercially hunt whales; the second is Iceland. Norway has a quota of 1,286 Minke Whales per year. Though Norwegian hunters haven't hit this quota in the past decade, they are unapologetic about their role in the decimation of global whale populations.

22. Norway has been the most successful nation at the Winter Olympics, winning a grand total of 303 medals. Norway also holds the record of the highest number of Summer and Winter Olympic medals per capita.

23. Oslo burns its own waste and imports some more waste from several cities in the United Kingdom and disposes of the waste in vast incinerators. 50% of Oslo's buildings are heated with electricity generated by the cremation of this rubbish.

24. Immigrants from Europe and beyond make up one-third of Norway's population.

25. Since 2001, all Norwegians' income, assets and taxes paid is published online. Transparency is very important to Norwegians.

26. Norway has the world's biggest sovereign fund, where it saves most of the money it gets from the sale of oil. It attained $1 trillion in 2017.

27. A pint (0.57 liters) of beer in Norway is the second-most expensive in the world, at $10.40.

28. Norway has the second-highest rate of deaths by drug overdose in Europe - 70 per million, which is way higher than the European average of 16 per million. Estonia has the highest rate of deaths by drug overdose in Europe.

29. Norway has one of the highest personal income tax rates in the world, at 38.52%, though lower than those of the UK, the US and France.

30. Norway currently ranks first on the OECD Better Life Index, the Democracy Index and the Index of Public Integrity.

31. Petrol prices in Norway are among the few top highest in the world. Norway's petrol price is the third highest in the world, after Iceland and Hong Kong.

32. Norway is one of the six safest countries in the world, with a murder rate of just 0.51 per 100,000 inhabitants.

33. Norway has the highest concentration of fjords in the world, with two of them - Geiranger Fjord and the Nærøy fjord - featuring on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

34. Norway introduced salmon sushi to Japan in the 80s.

35. Norway is the 6th least corrupt country in the world (2016) on the Corruption Perceptions Index.

36. The world's deepest fjord - Sognefjorden (1,308 m) - is found in Norway.

37. Life imprisonment was abolished in Norway in 1971. The longest jail term in Norway is 21 years.

 

38. Norway is the third largest gas exporter and fifth largest oil exporter in the world.

39. Norway has one of the highest life expectancy rates in the world. It is ranked 15th in the World Health Organization's 2015 life expectancy list.

40. Norwegians have an 'egalitarian' culture which is based on mutual respect and interdependence.

Many Norwegians still follow the Jante Law attitude. The Jante Law was created by author Aksel Sandemose, and it states:

·        You shall not think you are special.

·        You shall not believe you are smarter than others.

·        You shall not believe you are wiser than others.

·        You shall not behave as if you are better than others.

·        You shall not believe that you know more than others.

·        You shall not believe that you can fix things better than others.

·        You shall not laugh at others.

·        You shall not believe that others care about you.

·        You shall not believe that you can teach others anything.