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Travel to Norway — Unbiased reviews and
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Norway
Kingdom of Norway National
name: Kongeriket Norge Sovereign: King Harald V (1991) Prime Minister: Jens Stoltenberg
(2005)
Current government officials
Land area: 118,865 sq mi (307,860 sq km);
total area: 125,181 sq mi (324,220 sq km) Population (2008 est.): 4,644,457 (growth
rate: 0.3%); birth rate: 11.1/1000; infant mortality rate: 3.6/1000;
life expectancy: 79.8; density per sq km: 15
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Oslo, 791,500 Other large cities: Bergen, 211,200;
Stavanger, 168,600; Trondheim, 144,000 Monetary unit: Norwegian krone
Languages:
Bokmål Norwegian, Nynorsk Norwegian (both
official); small Sami- and Finnish-speaking minorities (Sami is
official in six municipalities)
Ethnicity/race:
Norwegian, Sami 20,000
Religions:
Evangelical Lutheran 86% (state church),
Pentecostal 1%, Roman Catholic 1%, other Christian 2% (2004)
National Holiday:
Constitution Day, May 17 Literacy rate: 100% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$247.4 billion; per capita $53,000. Real growth rate: 3.5%.
Inflation: 0.8%. Unemployment: 2.5%. Arable land:
3%. Agriculture: barley, wheat, potatoes; pork, beef, veal,
milk; fish. Labor force: 2.5 million; services 74%, industry
22%, agriculture, forestry, and fishing 4% (1995). Industries:
petroleum and gas, food processing, shipbuilding, pulp and paper
products, metals, chemicals, timber, mining, textiles, fishing.
Natural resources: petroleum, copper, natural gas, pyrites,
nickel, iron ore, zinc, lead, fish, timber, hydropower.
Exports: $136.1 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): petroleum and
petroleum products, machinery and equipment, metals, chemicals, ships,
fish. Imports: $75.98 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): machinery and
equipment, chemicals, metals, foodstuffs. Major trading
partners: UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, U.S., Sweden, Denmark,
China (2006). Communications:
Telephones: main lines in use: 2.055 million (2006); mobile
cellular: 5.041 million (2006). Radio broadcast stations: AM 5,
FM at least 650, shortwave 1 (1998). Radios: 4.03 million
(1997). Television broadcast stations: 360 (plus 2,729
repeaters) (1995). Televisions: 2.03 million (1997).
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 2.084 million (2007).
Internet users: 4.074 million (2006). Transportation: Railways: total: 4,043 km
(2006). Highways: total: 92,513 km; paved: 71,832 km (includes
664 km of expressways); unpaved: 20,681 km (2005). Waterways:
1,577 km (2007). Ports and harbors: Bergen, Drammen, Floro,
Hammerfest, Harstad, Haugesund, Kristiansand, Larvik, Narvik, Oslo,
Porsgrunn, Stavanger, Tromso, Trondheim. Airports: 98
(2007). International disputes: Norway
asserts a territorial claim in Antarctica (Queen Maud Land and its
continental shelf); despite recent discussions, Russia and Norway
continue to dispute their maritime limits in the Barents Sea and
Russia's fishing rights beyond Svalbard's territorial limits within
the Svalbard Treaty zone.
Major sources and definitions
Dependencies of Norway
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Geography
Norway is situated in the western part of the
Scandinavian peninsula. It extends about 1,100 mi (1,770 km) from the
North Sea along the Norwegian Sea to more than 300 mi (483 km) above the
Arctic Circle, the farthest north of any European country. It is slightly
larger than New Mexico. Nearly 70% of Norway is uninhabitable and covered
by mountains, glaciers, moors, and rivers. The hundreds of deep fjords
that cut into the coastline give Norway an overall oceanfront of more than
12,000 mi (19,312 km). Galdhø Peak, at 8,100 ft (2,469 m), is
Norway's highest point and the Glåma (Glomma) is the principal
river, at 372 mi (598 km) long.
Government
Constitutional monarchy.
History
Norwegians, like the Danes and Swedes, are of
Teutonic origin. The Norsemen, also known as Vikings, ravaged the coasts
of northwest Europe from the 8th to the 11th century and were ruled by
local chieftains. Olaf II Haraldsson became the first effective king of
all Norway in 1015 and began converting the Norwegians to Christianity.
After 1442, Norway was ruled by Danish kings until 1814, when it was
united with Sweden—although retaining a degree of independence and
receiving a new constitution—in an uneasy partnership. In 1905, the
Norwegian parliament arranged a peaceful separation and invited a Danish
prince to the Norwegian throne—King Haakon VII. A treaty with Sweden
provided that all disputes be settled by arbitration and that no
fortifications be erected on the common frontier.
When World War I broke out, Norway joined with
Sweden and Denmark in a decision to remain neutral and to cooperate in the
joint interest of the three countries. In World War II, Norway was invaded
by the Germans on April 9, 1940. It resisted for two months before the
Nazis took complete control. King Haakon and his government fled to
London, where they established a government-in-exile. Maj. Vidkun
Quisling, who served as Norway's prime minister during the war, was the
most notorious of the Nazi collaborators. The word for traitor,
quisling, bears his name. He was executed by the Norwegians on Oct.
24, 1945. Despite severe losses in the war, Norway recovered quickly as
its economy expanded. It joined NATO in 1949.
In the late 20th century, the Labor Party and
the Conservative Party seesawed for control, each sometimes having to lead
minority governments. An important debate was over Norway's membership in
the European Union. In an advisory referendum held in Nov. 1994, voters
rejected seeking membership for their nation in the EU. The country became
the second-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia in 1995. Norway
continued to experience rapid economic growth into the new millennium.
In March 2000, Prime Minister Kjell Magne
Bondevik resigned after parliament voted to build the country's first
gas-fired power stations. Bondevik had objected to the project, asserting
that the plants would emit too much carbon dioxide. Labor Party leader
Jens Stoltenberg succeeded Bondevik. Stoltenberg and the Labor Party were
defeated in Sept. 2001 elections, and no party emerged with a clear
majority. After a month of talks, the Conservatives, the Christian
People's Party, and the Liberals formed a coalition with Bondevik as prime
minister. The governing coalition was backed by the far-right Progress
Party. But in Sept. 2005 elections, the center-left Red-Green coalition
gained a majority of seats, and Jens Stoltenberg of the Labor Party once
again became prime minister.
In April 2008, government officials agreed to
amend the 1814 Constitution to lessen the ties between church and state.
The monarch must still be Lutheran, but citizens are no longer required to
raise their children as Lutherans. In the future, the church will appoint
bishops instead of the monarch, and equal financial backing for other
faiths and atheist communities must be provided by the state.
In June 2008, Parliament voted 84-41 to pass a
new marriage act, granting homosexual couples the same marriage and
adoption rights as heterosexual couples.
See also Norwegian dependencies. See
also Encyclopedia: Norway. U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Norway Statistics Norway www.ssb.no/www-open/english/ .
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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