Categories of immigration background in the Norwegian population

Statistics Norway's (SSB) official statistics on Immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents provide an overview on the demographic features of the two population groups: persons born abroad with two foreign-born parents and four foreign-born grandparents, defined as immigrants by SSB, and persons born in Norway with two foreign-born parents and four foreign-born grandparents, defined as Norwegian-born to immigrant parents .

However, these groups are just two of thirty categories that SSB can group the entire Norwegian population into, based on information about own, parents- and grandparents country of birth. These thirty categories are called basic codes .

The report provides differentiated picture of the Norwegian population on the basis of information about country of birth for three generations. The description of basic codes goes beyond the content of the official statistics. In this report we provide a description of the size and composition of all thirty codes/categories, and present figures showing how these categories have grown and developed over the years.

Immigration has been the main component of the population growth in Norway for many years. It is important to understand demographic dynamics, especially concerning population projections. We characterize immigrants in Norway as a heterogeneous group, but we want to emphasize that in the whole Norwegian population there are many different degrees of foreign origin.

At the beginning of 2013, 77 per cent of the Norwegian population was born in Norway with two Norwegian-born parents and four Norwegian-born grandparents. Approximately 3 per cent of the population has an immigration background through at least one of their grandparents. 7 per cent of the population has an element of foreign origin through at least one of their parents. 13 per cent of the Norwegian population is foreign-born.