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High share of residential purposes in urban areas
statistikk
2017-02-02T08:00:00.000Z
Nature and the environment
en
arealbruk, Land use in urban settlements, areas, residential areas, recreational facilities, industrial areas, infrastructure, recreational areas, agricultural areas, woodland, residents, employeesArea , Nature and the environment
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Land use in urban settlements, 1 January 2016

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High share of residential purposes in urban areas

Eighty per cent of the urban areas in Norway are built-up. Half of this, 40 per cent is used for residential purposes. Land used for roads covers 15 per cent, and areas used for business and administration services make up 9 per cent of the urban areas.

Land use and land resources, by category and urban settlement size. Per centPublished 2 February 2017
2016
200- 19 999 residents20 000- 99 999 residents100 000 or more residents
Residential areas44.542.241.5
Industrial, comercial and service areas8.313.514.1
Road12.714.114.8
Other built-up areas18.214.813.6
Forest9.79.86.2
Agriculture3.51.34.0
Other undeveloped areas3.24.35.7

Source: Statistics Norway

Urban settlements with more than 100 000 inhabitants have the highest share of built-up areas, at 85 per cent. For urban settlements with less than 20 000 inhabitants, the share is 81 per cent.

Built-up areas by size of urban settlement

Urban settlements with fewer than 2 000 inhabitants have a lower share of residential areas than the larger urban settlements. Overall, detached individual houses take up much of the ground used for residential purposes; about 85 per cent, while more densely developed residential areas comprise the last 15 per cent. The larger (more than 100 000 inhabitants) urban settlements however have a lower share of detached individual houses area (73 per cent), while the share of densely developed residential areas is higher (27 per cent).

The share of areas used for business and administration services is a little lower in the smallest urban settlements (less than 2 000 inhabitants). Areas used for parks and sports facilities comprise 4 to 5 per cent of the urban settlements, independent of size. The share of urban areas used for roads increases slightly with the size of the urban settlement, from 17 to 19 per cent of the built-up area.

Land use in the largest cities

Among the largest urban settlements (with more than 100 000 inhabitants), Drammen has the largest share of built-up area, at 90 per cent. The urban settlements of Bergen and Trondheim have the lowest share of built-up areas. Drammen has the highest share of residential areas, at 44 per cent. Fredrikstad/Sarpsborg has the highest share of business and administration services, at 14 per cent.

Population within residential areas

The density of inhabitants within residential areas increases with the size of the urban settlement. Urban settlements with fewer than 2 000 inhabitants have slightly fewer than 3 000 inhabitants per square kilometre of residential area, while the number for the largest urban settlements is more than 7 000. In the smallest urban settlements, each inhabitant has about 355 square metres of residential area at their disposal, and in urban settlements with more than 100 000 inhabitants the corresponding figure is about 135 square metres.