13 700 persons naturalised

As in 2015, former Eritrean citizens (1 900 persons) were the largest group to be naturalised, followed by those from Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq, with 1 200, 1 000 and 800 respectively. The largest groups have a background from war-torn areas. It seems clear that the security Norwegian citizenship provides through permanent protection and the guarantee against expulsion to other countries is of great importance to persons who came to Norway either as a refugee or as the family member of a refugee.

• More figures and tables in the statistics Naturalisations

 

Small gender disparity overall

The gender disparity was small among those who were granted Norwegian citizenship - 54 per cent were women.

Among some groups, however, the proportion of women was high, with at least three out of four for women from Thailand, Philippines, Ukraine and Brazil. This is due to the fact that there are far more women than men who immigrate to Norway from these countries, and many of them immigrate to marry men without an immigrant background.

Three out of ten are children

Thirty per cent of all new citizens were children. Among former Somali citizens, 45 per cent were under the age of 18. The proportion of children was also high in the largest group, the former Eritrean citizens, with 38 per cent.