Income statistics, persons and families, 1998

Families residing in Oslo and Akershus have the highest incomes, while families living in Hedmark, Oppland and Nord-Trøndelag have the lowest incomes. The incomes of married couples without children also vary, depending on where they live in Norway. Pensioner couples living in Oslo, where the main income earner is between 67 and 79 years of age, had for instance an average after-tax income that was 27 per cent higher than the national average for this group and fully 46 per cent higher than the income level of a pensioner couple living in Nord-Trøndelag. On average, all married couples where the main income earner was between 67 and 79 years of age, had an after-tax income of NOK 230 200. Highest income among married couples without children is found where the main earner is in the age group 45-54 years, with an average of NOK 366 400.

Married couples have higher income than cohabiting couples

Among families with children the family income rises with the number of children in the family. For example, married couples with two children had an after-tax income of NOK 452 900 in 1998. This was NOK 32 000 higher than married couples with only one child, and barely NOK 14 000 less than what married couples with three or four children had. The income of cohabiting couples with joint children also rises with the number of children they have. Married couples with children, however, have a clearly higher income than cohabiting couples with children. For example, married couples with one child had an after-tax income that was on average NOK 77 600 higher than what cohabiting couples with one child had. The difference between cohabiting couples and married couples is due, among other things, to the fact that cohabiting couples have younger children than married couples, and are therefore less active in the job market. While cohabiting couples with two children had an average of NOK 431 600 in income from employment, the corresponding figure for married couples with two children was NOK 541 700.

The dominant source of income for both married couples and cohabiting couples with children is employment income. For married couples with two children, wages and salaries and income from self-employment accounted for 86 per cent of total family income, while the corresponding figure for cohabiting couples was 85 per cent. The second biggest source of income for families with children is transfers. Transfers made up a somewhat larger share of total family income for cohabiting couples with three or more children (17 per cent) than for other families with children.