Every fourth person with lengthy higher education lives in Oslo

In the autumn of 1997, Norway had a total of 138,000 persons with a lengthy higher education of at least four and a half years. Twenty-five per cent were living in Oslo, accounting for nine per cent of Oslo's inhabitants aged 16 and up. Møre og Romsdal, Finnmark and Nordland counties had the lowest percentage of people with a lengthy higher education, with two per cent.

It is particularly in the younger age groups that persons with a lengthy higher education live in Oslo. In the 30-40 age group, 35 per cent of all persons with a lengthy higher education lived in Oslo, while the percentages in the 25-29 and 35-39 age groups were 29 and 32 per cent respectively. Thirty to forty-year-olds in Oslo with a lengthy higher education accounted for altogether 14 per cent of all 30 to 34-year-olds in Oslo.

There are wide gender differences between men and women with respect to lengthy higher education. While six per cent of the men had attended college or university for at least four and a half years, the corresponding share among women was only two per cent. The difference between the sexes is the smallest in the youngest age groups. In the 25-29 age group just over four per cent of the women and five per cent of the men have a lengthy higher education. The older the age group, the greater the disparity.

New Statistics
Education statistics. Level of education, 1 October 1997.
The statistics are published annually in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. For more information contact: Terje.Risberg@ssb.no, tel. +47 62 88 52 68, or Tor.Jorgensen@ssb.no, tel. +47 62 88 52 69.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 50, 1998