Analysis on holiday house area

This report; with a title that translates into ‘Analyses of holiday house areas - Status and development in use of areas for holiday houses in selected subjects’ presents the status and development of the areas used for densely built-up holiday house areas for 2015 and 2016 according to the following themes: height above sea level, above and below the climatic timberline, in the transition zone (100 metres) to the climatic timberline, within national wild reindeer areas and regional plans for mountain areas with wild reindeer. The analysis will serve as an up-to-date knowledge base for the administration.

The analysis is based on Statistics Norway's statistics on holiday houses inside and outside densely built-up holiday house areas, by type of building and size of area, for the most recently published years, i.e. 2015 and 2016. All map data on the themes in this analysis have been given an overlay of densely built-up holiday house areas for both years.

In 2016, there were a total of 454 000 holiday houses in Norway. The largest share of these is located outside densely built-up holiday house areas, i.e. scattered or in groups of up to four holiday houses. More than 236 000 holiday houses are located outside densely built-up holiday house areas, representing 52 per cent of the total number of holiday houses.

Holiday houses located within densely built-up holiday house areas are categorised according to the size of the area. For the country as a whole in 2016, most holiday houses were in small areas consisting of 5-24 holiday houses. These areas account for 23 per cent of the total number of holiday houses. The inland counties of Oppland and Buskerud have the most holiday houses.

The development in the number of holiday houses in the period 2015-2016 shows an increase of approximately 4 000 buildings. The largest growth has been in densely built-up holiday house areas, and when measured according to area size, this growth has been in the largest areas.

The statistics on holiday houses categorised by height above sea level show that the largest proportion of holiday houses is found 0-50 metres above sea level, corresponding to 36 per cent of all holiday houses in 2016. Among the counties, Nordland and Hordaland have the highest number of holiday houses at this height.

For heights above 50 metres, the number of holiday houses is greatly reduced. From 1 000 metres, the number declines significantly, with a sharp fall observed every 100 metres. At a height of more than 1 300 metres above sea level, there are only 48 holiday houses. The two highest located holiday house above sea level, are to find at 1 500-1 600 metres above sea level. One in Ål municipality in Hallingdal Buskerud, and the other in Jølster municipality in Sogn- og Fjordane.

The development in the number of holiday houses distributed by height above sea level from 2015 to 2016 is greatest at 0-50 metres, followed by 600-1 000 metres.

The distribution of holiday houses by height above sea level was virtually the same in 2006, 2015 and 2016.

The number of holiday houses distributed above and below the climatic timberline shows that more than 97 per cent were below, and only 2 per cent were above the timberline in 2016.

Among holiday houses above the timberline, more than 62 per cent are located outside the densely built-up holiday house areas. The analysis also shows that among holiday houses within densely built-up holiday house areas, by size of area, most holiday houses above the timberline are in small areas, with 16 per cent of the total holiday houses. Buskerud, Finnmark and Oppland are the counties that have the most holiday houses above the climatic timberline.

There has been a total increase of 75 holiday houses above the climatic timberline in the period 2015-2016, and the increase has been greatest in densely built-up holiday house areas. 

In the transition zone (100 metres) to the climatic timberline in 2016, the share of holiday houses inside and outside densely built-up holiday house areas was the same, with 50 per cent each. However, the proportion of holiday houses in densely built-up holiday house areas by size of area in the transition zone is greatest in the large areas, and corresponds to 24 per cent of all holiday houses.

Among the counties, Finnmark has the most holiday houses in the transition zone, followed by Buskerud, Oppland and Hedmark.

The number of holiday houses in the transition zone has increased from 2015 to 2016 by 74 in total, with the greatest increase in Buskerud, followed by Finnmark and Oppland.

In national wild reindeer areas, there were as many as 18 606 holiday houses in 2016 and the number inside and outside holiday house areas was the same. With regard to holiday houses in densely built-up areas, by size of area, the largest share is in the small areas, and this represents 25 per cent of the total holiday houses.

An analysis of each of the national wild reindeer areas shows that Rondane has a considerable number of holiday houses, with over 6 800. Both Ryfylke and Austhei in Setesdal also have a higher number of holiday houses than the other national wild reindeer areas.

Development in the period 2015 to 2016 represents a total growth of 166 holiday houses. With the exception of Nordfjella, all national wild reindeer areas have had an increase in the number of holiday houses. Setesdal-Ryfylke and Rondane have had the greatest growth during the period.

There were a total of 6 296 holiday houses within the regional plans for mountain areas with wild reindeer in 2016. Among holiday houses distributed inside and outside densely built-up holiday houses areas in the regional plans, as many as 82 per cent were located outside such areas.

In regional plans for mountains areas with wild reindeer, by size of holiday house area, most holiday houses are in small areas. These constitute 13 per cent of all holiday houses.

With regard to the distribution of holiday houses within each of the 7 regional plans for mountain areas with wild reindeer, Dovrefjell (Snøhetta-Knutshø), Rondane-Sølnkletten and Heiplanen had the most holiday houses in 2016. There has been an overall increase of 25 holiday houses within the regional plans for mountain areas with wild reindeer in 2015-2016, and Hardangervidda, Dovrefjell (Snøhetta-Knutshø) and Forollhogna have seen the greatest growth.