Active hunters
Updated: 30 October 2024
Next update: 29 August 2025
| 2023-2024 | 2022-2023 - 2023-2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of hunters | Per cent | |
| Hunted, in total | 130 300 | -2.8 |
| Small game hunting | 70 200 | -8.1 |
| Grouse hunting | 32 500 | -26.0 |
| Hunting on cervids | 92 700 | 2.4 |
| Moose hunting | 58 200 | 1.6 |
| Red deer hunting | 52 900 | 3.9 |
| Wild reindeer hunting | 7 400 | 2.8 |
| Roe deer hunting | 44 600 | 2.1 |
More figures from this statistics
- 05634: Hunters, by type of hunting, sex and age
- 07709: Hunters, by sex, type of hunting and municipality of residence (M)
- 05668: Male hunters as per cent of male population, by municipality of residence (M)
- 03951: Hunters, by type of hunting and county of residence (C)
- 09497: Licence hunting, by species and region
About the statistics
The purpose of the statistics is to provide information about active hunters and which species they hunt.
The information under «About the statistics» was last updated 29 October 2024.
Hunter
A person that has paid hunting tax for the hunting season.
Small game
The species included in the statistics on small game hunting. I
Cervid hunters
Persons hunting the following cervid species: moose, red deer, wild reindeer and roe deer.
Small game hunters
Persons hunting the following small game species: capercaillie, black grouse, willow ptarmigan, common ptarmigan, hazel grouse, wood pigeon, European golden-plover, raven, crow, magpie, jay, thrush, woodcock, snipe, mallard, common teal, wigeon, golden eye, merganser, tufted duck, common eider, long-tailed duck, common scoter, greylag goose, Canadian goose, pink-footed goose, shag, cormorant, gulls, beaver, mountain hare, red squirrel, red fox, badger, American mink, pine marten and stoat.
The hunting year
One hunting year runs from 1 April to 31 March the following year.
Hunting licence fee
Persons intending to hunt in Norway must pay a hunting licence fee to the Wildlife Fund. The fee is for the full hunting year. Payment of the fee is a prerequisite for hunting, but does not confer the right to hunt in any specific area.
The register of hunters
The Register of Hunters contains hunters licensed to hunt game in Norway. The register also provides an overview of the payment of the hunting licence fee; an annual fee for those who wish to engage in hunting. For more information, see the homepage.
License hunting
License hunting involves the use of lethal control to kill a specific number of individual of a given wildlife species motivated by the desire to reduce conflict or depredation. It is authorised under The Norwegian Nature Diversity Act. It is a requirement that hunters are registered as license hunters in the Hunter's register. Registration is made for each large carnivore species, for each separate hunting year.
Name: Active hunters
Topic: Agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing
Division for Housing, Property, Spatial and Agricultural Statistics
Municipality.
Annually, the statistics are published five months after the hunting year has ended.
Collected and revised data are stored securely by Statistics Norway in compliance with applicable legislation on data processing.
Statistics Norway can grant access to the source data (de-identified or anonymised microdata) on which the statistics are based, for researchers and public authorities for the purposes of preparing statistical results and analyses. Access can be granted upon application and subject to conditions. Refer to the details about this at Access to data from Statistics Norway.
The purpose of the statistics is to obtain an overview of the hunting practice in Norway. The statistics date back to the hunting year 1971/1972. From 1971/1972 to1985/1986 the hunters were asked what type of hunting they intended to carry out. For 1994/1995 and as from 1997/1998 the hunters are asked what type of hunting they have actually carried out. As from 2001/2002, the response rate has been high enough to produce statistics on the hunter's participation in different kinds of hunting.
From the hunting season 2008/2009 figures are published at the municipal level.
The statistics are commissioned by The Norwegian Environment Agency, and are an important tool in the national management of small game. Major users are central and local wildlife management, research and educational institutions, the media, interest groups and interested hunters.
No external users have access to statistics before they are released at 8 a.m. on ssb.no after at least three months’ advance notice in the release calendar. This is one of the most important principles in Statistics Norway for ensuring the equal treatment of users.
The statistics are developed, produced and disseminated pursuant to Act no. 32 of 21 June 2019 relating to official statistics and Statistics Norway (the Statistics Act).
The statistics are developed, produced and disseminated pursuant to Act no. 32 of 21 June 2019 relating to official statistics and Statistics Norway (the Statistics Act).
The population is defined by the Register of Hunters, and includes all hunters who have paid the hunting tax. The analysis unit is felled small game and the collection unit are the hunters.
Everyone who has paid the hunting tax for the relevant hunting year must report for the same year.
Every single hunter must submit a report to Statistics Norway by 1 May on the report form provided or by the Internet.
Regular control and revision steps are carried out on the incoming material. The forms are checked for absolute and possible errors, and errors are correct during the revision of the report. Examples of potential errors include abnormally high felling numbers and data on species found outside their normal range.
Number of felled small game and roe deer are summarized and distributed by county and municipality.
Interviewers and everyone who works at Statistics Norway have a duty of confidentiality. Statistics Norway has its own data protection officer.
Statistics Norway does not publish figures where there is a risk of identifying individual data about persons or households [enter the correct unit here, where applicable].
The ‘uppression and rounding up/down method is used in these statistics to ensure this.
More information can be found on Statistics Norway’s website under Methods in official statistics, in the ‘Confidentiality’ section.
From 1971/1972 to1985/1986, the hunters were asked what type of hunting they intended to carry out. For 1994/1995 and from 1997/1998, the hunters were asked what type of hunting they actually carried out.
Hunters are required to report on the main type of hunting they have carried out. In some cases the hunters either incorrectly report that they have hunted moose, red deer and wild reindeer, or they forget to report. For small game and roe deer hunting, this information can be checked against animals felled. If no animals are felled, however, this information cannot be verified. Other sources of error include missing or incorrectly filled out information from the respondent, and errors during the optical reading of the report form.
Since the hunting year 2001/2002, the response rate has been higher than 90 per cent, and corrections due to non-response have not been carried out. There is reason to believe that the number of hunters without yield, or with very limited yield, is considerably higher among the hunters not reporting than those reporting. Consequently, the effect of non-response for the number of animals felled should be less than for non-reporting hunters.
Until the hunting year 2000/2001, the yield was estimated using different methods. The county level can have variations that are partly due to the calculation routines employed.
In addition, the figures may be affected by errors caused by incorrect and missing data.
