9    Sickness absence man-days1 for employees with sickness absence certified by a doctor,
by county of residence. Figures and per cent of scheduled man-days (sickness absence rate).
Quarterly figures.

  Quarter 4 2004 Quarter 1 2005 Per cent
  Sickness absence-
man-days
Change last year Sickness absence-
man-days
Change last year Quarter 4 20031 Quarter 1 2004 Quarter 4 2004 Quarter 1 2005
TOTAL 5 839 754 -1 883 920 5 743 655 -1 670 588 7,4 7,3 5,5 5,8
   Østfold 361 706 -131 847 342 884 -132 482 8,7 8,6 6,3 6,5
   Akershus 678 521 -193 662 670 325 -171 379 7,1 6,9 5,4 5,8
   Oslo 704 814 -162 477 697 107 -146 340 6,7 6,5 5,2 5,6
   Hedmark 247 097 -89 590 243 022 -81 841 8,4 8,2 6,0 6,4
   Oppland 247 235 -78 456 239 724 -71 455 8,2 8,0 6,1 6,4
   Buskerud 333 264 -126 950 334 719 -116 080 8,0 8,0 5,7 6,2
   Vestfold 257 931 -92 644 251 395 -84 215 7,3 7,1 5,3 5,6
   Telemark 206 589 -76 322 197 936 -73 597 8,1 8,0 5,8 6,0
   Aust-Agder 120 457 -34 045 117 175 -33 190 7,4 7,3 5,6 5,9
   Vest-Agder 178 326 -68 712 173 696 -65 219 7,6 7,5 5,2 5,4
   Rogaland 392 658 -122 782 386 314 -102 672 5,8 5,6 4,2 4,5
   Hordaland 567 709 -194 097 567 945 -159 671 7,4 7,2 5,4 5,8
   Sogn og Fjordane 114 967 -39 298 114 151 -31 342 6,6 6,5 4,9 5,3
   Møre og Romsdal 285 600 -82 467 278 787 -78 965 7,0 7,0 5,3 5,6
   Sør-Trøndelag 366 264 -112 118 359 782 -87 022 7,6 7,3 5,6 6,0
   Nord-Trøndelag 145 558 -62 701 146 511 -47 516 8,0 7,6 5,5 6,0
   Nordland 293 424 -121 175 296 368 -96 747 8,4 8,1 5,9 6,4
   Troms 231 458 -56 693 224 774 -55 263 8,2 8,2 6,6 6,9
   Finnmark 105 629 -37 778 100 423 -35 661 9,3 9,0 6,8 7,0

1  Easter was in the first quarter in 2005, and in the second quarter in 2004. This is influential when we compare first quarter figures from these two years. Both man-days lost due to sickness absence and scheduled man-days decrease significantly during Easter compared to a normal week at this time of the year. Easter has stronger influence on scheduled man-days than on man-days lost due to sickness. If we did not take the easter week into account the sickness absence rate would have dropped nearly 0.1 percentage points for most of the groups.