Weekly Bulletin ed. 13, 1996

Spacious homes for more Norwegians

Norwegians are living more spaciously these days. And more people are living in single family houses than before. Norway has added a total of 250,000 new homes since 1988, according to the 1995 Survey on Housing Conditions conducted by Statistics Norway for the Ministry of Local Government and Labour.

The survey classified 48 percent of Norwegian homes as quite roomy, up seven percent from 1988. A home is regarded as spacious when it has just as many rooms as occupants, plus an additional three or four rooms. Dwellings with four rooms in addition to the kitchen are the norm, but homes with seven or more rooms in addition to the kitchen are increasing the most. Seven-room homes accounted for 12 percent of the total housing stock last year. Over half of all homes are single family homes. In 1988, there were 800,000 detached homes in Norway. By last year the figure had risen to 950,000.

New statistics

Survey on Housing Conditions, 1995. Earlier surveys in 1973, 1981 and 1988. Statistics are published in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics and Official Statistics of Norway (NOS). For more information contact Stein Opdahl (Statistics Norway), tel. +47 21 09 46 92 and Dagfinn Ås (Norwegian Building Research Institute), tel. +47 22 96 58 14.

Weekly Bulletin ed. 13, 1996