Persons with refugee background, 1 January 2000

Of the around 77 100 persons, 58 900 were registered as principal applicants while the rest (18 200) came to Norway as relatives of refugees.

64 per cent of the refugees had by 1 January lived less then 10 years in Norway. Only 3 per cent had stayed more than 20 years.

About 35 000 persons with refugee background, or 45 per cent, were registered with Norwegian citizenship. The largest number of people who have taken out Norwegian citizenship are found among Hungarians (99 per cent) and Vietnamese (84 per cent). The reason for this is that refugees from Hungary and Vietnam have lived long enough in Norway to qualify for Norwegian citizenship. As a main rule, people can become Norwegian citizens after seven consecutive years of residence in Norway. For this reason only 0.7 per cent of Bosnians are Norwegian citizens. Many of them did not reach 7 years duration of stay in Norway on 1 January 2000.

Around 1/3 refugees had background from Eastern Europe while the rest came from third world countries (Asia, Africa, South and Central America and Turkey).

Most live in Oslo

The refugee population increased in all Norwegian counties from 1999 to 2000. Around 20 800 persons lived in Oslo, which accounts for 27 per cent of the total number of refugees in Norway.

Refugees in Oslo made up 4.1 per cent of the city's total population. The fewest refugees are found in Finnmark and Nord-Trøndelag with850 and 910 persons respectively.

Uneven gender distribution

There were around 10 000 more men than women among refugees on 1 January 2000. A large surplus of men is found among refugees from Iraq and Iran.

The clearly largest age group was the20-40 year age group which constituted 64 per cent of the total refugee population. Only 5 per cent were 60 year and above.

Data sources

The data are based on a co-ordinated effort in 1995 to pool the data from Statistics Norway's population system, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration's Fremkon register and the Refugee Register. Some refugees who came to Norway in recent years (particularly since 1998) have been registered in the Population Register but not in the Refugee Register. Consequently, the number of refugees is somewhat lower than it otherwise would have been. This under- registration could be around 5 000 persons on 1 January 2000.

Tables:

• Table 1 Different definitions of refugees, by country background. 1 January 2000.
• Table 2 Different definitions of refugees, by country background. 1 January 2000.
• Table 3 Different definitions of refugees, by country background. 1 January 2000.
• Table 4 Different definitions of refugees, by country background. 1 January 2000.