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10500
High activity in centre zones
statistikk
2003-09-08T10:00:00.000Z
Nature and the environment
en
arealsentrum, Activity in centre zones, central zones, city centre, urban settlement centres, companies with centre functions, residents, employeesArea , Nature and the environment
false

Activity in centre zones, 2003

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High activity in centre zones

More than 420 thousand people - 9.5 per cent of the Norwegian population - are residents in centre zones. The portion of residents living in our most urban areas has increased steadily during the recent years. Residents in city centra live twice as concentrated as the population in urban settlements as a whole. Enterprises are also concentrated: In the many city centra of Oslo municipality well above 44 thousand enterprises are registered.

Important terms

Statistics Norway definition:

1. A center zone consists of one or more centre kernels and a 100 metre zone around them.

2. A center kernel is an area with more than 3 different main types of economic activity with centre functions. In addition to detail trade, governmental administration or health and social services or social and personal service must be present. The distance between enterprises must not be more than 50 metres.

As a result of the development of detailed land use statistics for urban settlements, centre zone areas are defined and delimited to 230 out of the total of 932 urban settlements that existed 1 January 2003. The delimitation is based on the use of information about buildings and enterprises extracted from administrative registers. The main purpose is to perform comparative statistical analyses of the land use in different parts of settlements.

Few urban settlements have centre zones

The total area of the delimited centre zones is 120.9 km2 or a 20t h part of the total area in the 230 urban settlements concerned. For the remaining 702 urban settlements, all which are relatively small measured in relation to the resident population, it is not possible to delimit any centre zone with the criteria used.

70 more centras

In the period 2000 - 2003, the number of centre zones increased by 11 per cent. The increase was highest in Hordaland and Oslo and Akershus counties. Four counties experienced however a decrease in the number of centre zones. Nordland county had the largest decline, with 3 fewer centre zones.

Change in centre zones. Number, area, enterprises, employees and residents. 2000-2003
  Centre zones Enterprises 2003 Residents Area
  2003, number Change 2000-2003, number In centre, number Share of total, per cent Number employees 2003, number Change 2000-2003, per cent 2003, km2 Change 2000-2003, per cent
County                  
The whole country  692 70  117 028 27.5  699 180  430 721 8.8  120.96 8.7
01 østfold 38 3 5 026 22.7 30 880 14 131 15.5 6.68 11.1
02 Akershus 97 11 7 881 19.5 53 305 20 693 8.8 10.57 8.9
03 Oslo  112 7 44 263 75.8  242 841  223 353 5.3 29.02 5.8
04 Hedmark 20 0 2 693 13.8 18 123 5 078 14.0 3.98 7.3
05 Oppland 26 2 2 523 12.2 15 610 5 161 11.0 3.89 6.7
06 Buskerud 37 -1 4 195 17.7 25 072 10 264 8.3 5.40 5.4
07 Vestfold 36 9 4 628 23.4 24 993 13 121 14.6 5.42 14.9
08 Telemark 28 4 2 928 19.6 16 293 6 760 14.3 4.22 5.9
09 Aust-Agder 10 1 1 520 16.5 6 988 3 846 6.0 1.92 3.6
10 Vest-Agder 20 -1 3 525 25.5 19 365 10 783 14.7 3.81 11.3
11 Rogaland 55 9 7 233 22.5 47 656 22 234 14.2 8.67 6.1
12 Hordaland 60 15 9 957 28.3 66 724 43 598 20.6 10.76 23.0
14 Sogn og Fjordane 14 -1 1 617 12.5 10 870 2 737 6.1 2.65 6.0
15 Møre og Romsdal 24 2 3 767 16.4 21 699 8 627 -2.2 4.50 7.6
16 Sør-Trøndelag 37 5 5 000 21.2 39 087 18 981 11.1 5.56 12.9
17 Nord-Trøndelag 9 1 1 758 12.8 9 726 3 960 21.8 2.18 6.4
18 Nordland 28 -3 4 017 18.5 22 759 9 421 3.2 5.67 3.5
19 Troms 22 4 2 930 21.3 18 556 4 878 -2.5 3.31 -6.0
20 Finnmark Finnmárku 19 3 1 567 21.3 8 633 3 095 -3.2 2.74 15.3

People reside twice as densely

A total of 9.5 per cent of the Norwegian population reside in centre zones. The population density is thus higher than in the remaining urban settlement areas. The average population density for centre zones in the 230 settlements is 3,561 residents per km2, while the figure for the remaining settlement areas is 1,826 residents per km2.

Variation by the size of the urban settlements in number of residents is high. The population concentration in the centra of the largest urban settlements is higher compared with the minor urban settlements' centra. In centra within urban settlements with less than 500 residents, the number of persons per square kilometres is 374, while in urban settlements with more than 100 000 residents the number is 5, 719 persons per square kilometres.

The concentration of the population has not changed significantly in this period. Both the area and number of centre residents have increased by nearly 9 per cent.

Highest population density in the main centre of Oslo

The largest urban settlements have several centre zones, normally with a large main centre zone and additional smaller satellite centra. Out of the 4 largest Norwegian urban settlements, Oslo and Bergen have the highest population density in the main centre with 6,561 and 4,753 residents per km2 respectively.

Similar figures for Stavanger/Sandnes (including the main centre in the two municipalities) and Trondheim, are 3,107 and 4,821 residents per km2 respectively. The centre zone in Oslo includes large population concentrations at Grünerløkka, Grønland/Kampen and Majorstua, while the population density in the nucleus of the centre zone, Kvadraturen, is relatively low.

3 of 4 enterprises in centre zones

In the 112 large and small centre zones that are delimited within the municipality of Oslo, a total of 44,300 enterprises with all together 243,000 employees are found documented in available administrative registers. This comprises about 3 quarter of all enterprises in Oslo municipality.