Rising preschool population

Norway had 4,445,328 registered inhabitants on 1 January 1999. Over the course of 1998 the population increased by 27,700, an increase of 0.6 per cent from the year before. Norway's population has not grown this fast since 1973. Preschool children comprise 8.2 per cent of the population and the school age population starting school this year and the next five years will be large.

The age group 0 to 5 has increased throughout the nineties. In 1990 it made up 7.7 per cent of the population. In Oslo it has increased from 6.9 per cent in 1990 to 7.8 per cent at the start of the year. At just over seven per cent, Hedmark and Oppland counties have the lowest proportion of children under six years of age.

Half the population is unmarried
At the beginning of the year 48 per cent of the population were single, 38 per cent married and 14 per cent previously married (widows, widowers, separated and divorced). Registered partners, separated partners, divorced partners and surviving partners accounted for 0.3 per thousand. Twenty years ago 47 per cent of Norway's population was married and 43 per cent unmarried.
At the beginning of the year Norway had 1,370 registered partners, an increase of 174 compared with the year before. Of the partners, 885 are men and 488 women.

New Statistics
Population statistics. Population by age, sex and marital status, 1 January 1999.
The statistics are published annually in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. For more information contact: Kare.Reidar.Hoiby@ssb.no, tel. +47 62 88 52 97 or Kirsten.Enger.Dybendal@ssb.no, tel. +47 62 88 52 96. The Population Statistics answering service is open from 9.00 to 12.00, tel. +47 62 88 54 00.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 15, 1999