Content
About the statistics
Definitions
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Name and topic
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Name: Municipal and county council election, electoral survey among immigrants
Topic: Elections
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Responsible division
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Division for Population Statistics
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Definitions of the main concepts and variables
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Norwegian citizens who are immigrants or Norwegian-born to immigrant parents: immigrants are persons who are born abroad to two foreign-born parents, and who have moved to Norway, while Norwegian-born to immigrant parents, are born in Norway with to immigrant parents.
Persons entitled to vote: the requirements for the right to vote are specified in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway and the Election Act. Norwegian citizens aged 18 years or older during the election year and who have been registered as residing in Norway during the past 10 years, are automatically included in the census. Additionally, Norwegian citizens that have been resident abroad for more than 10 consecutive years can ask to be included in the census.
In local elections, foreign nationals that have lived in Norway for three years on the election date and otherwise meet the general conditions also have the right to vote. An amendment to the Election Act, Recommendation to the Odelsting no. 61 (1998-99), Proposition to the Odelsting no. 37 (1998-99), gave all Nordic citizens the right to vote at local elections if they had immigrated before 1 March in the election year. This was brought into force at the election held in 1999. During the election in 2003, this was changed to 31 May in the election year. In 2007, it was further changed to 30 June.
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Standard classifications
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Standard for district divisions
Standard for county divisions
Standard for continent divisions
Standard for divisions of western countries/non-western countries until 2007, since 2011 replaced by EU/EEA, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - Africa, Asia, South-and Central America, Europe except EU/EEA and Oceania except Australia and New Zealand
Regions: since the election in 1997, counties have been classified in regions as follows:
1. Oslo and Akershus
2. Hedmark and Oppland
3. South Eastern Norway: Østfold, Buskerud, Vestfold, Telemark
4. Agder/Rogaland: Aust-Agder, Vest-Agder and Rogaland
5. Western Norway: Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane and Møre og Romsdal
6. Trøndelag: Sør-Trøndelag and Nord-Trøndelag
7. Northern Norway: Nordland, Troms and Finnmark
Municipality classification, centrality
Municipalities in Norway are grouped into 8 different classifications in some tables on the basis of reports on business structure and centrality. The classification is documented in the Standard for the Classification of Municipalities 1994. This standard has been applied since the election in 1997. Centrality is also used independently.
The classification of regions and municipalities has always been in accordance with the applicable standard. This will therefore vary over time.
Administrative information
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Regional level
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County, districts in Oslo, regions, centrality and municipality class.
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Frequency and timeliness
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Every 4 years (election years).
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International reporting
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Not relevant
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Microdata
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The statistics files are stored permanently in Statistics Norway.
Background
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Background and purpose
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Figures are based on a census conducted in connection with municipal and county council elections. The census is commissioned by the Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion. The purpose is to describe the participation of immigrants in elections. Similar surveys have been conducted among foreign nationals at local elections since 1987, and at general elections since 1997 for Norwegian citizens with an immigrant background.
The multiple choice survey in its present form has been carried out since 2003.
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Users and applications
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In addition to the customer, other user groups that use the statistics include students, particularly political science students, various ministries and election researchers.
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Coherence with other statistics
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Election results for municipal and county council elections.
The Norwegian Electoral Survey since 1957.
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Legal authority
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Statistics Act § 2-2 and Election Act § 15-7.
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EEA reference
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Not relevant
Production
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Population
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Census conducted in connection with municipal and county council elections. A stratified sample of almost 6 800 is taken from the population of Norwegian citizens with an immigrant background entitled to vote. From the population of foreign nationals with a right to vote, a stratified sample of 6 500 persons is taken.
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Data sources and sampling
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Data sources are the censuses conducted in the different municipalities.
A representative sample of foreign nationals and Norwegian citizens with an immigrant background entitled to vote. Two disproportional samples are selected from these two groups, with a certain number from the largest nationality groups and the remainder of the samples being distributed between the different continents.
The nationality groups are ranked by size and divided as follows:
The 10 largest groups
The 15 next largest groups
Rest of EU/EEA-countries
Rest of Non EU/EEA-countries
Rest of Asia
Rest of South America
Rest of Africa
Rest of America
Rest of Oceania
The samples are thus:
250 persons drawn from countries ranked 1-10
200 persons drawn from countries ranked 11-25
150 persons drawn from the continent of Oceania
200 persons drawn from each continent (6) of the remainder
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Collection of data, editing and estimations
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Persons selected are grouped by municipality number and printouts of lists are sent to the respective local authorities. Local authority election officials are sent details of persons selected, who according to the central register, were resident in the relevant municipality on 30 June. The election officials then check in the census to see whether these persons voted. An indication is then given on the list of whether they voted or not, and returned to Statistics Norway.
Machine-aided controls during registration of figures, extensive total sum checks and logical correlations.
In order for all nationality groups to count proportionately to the share of the population they constitute, the figures need to be weighted. The weight for each group is s, whereby the weights can add up to the sample size
i.e. the inverse probability of being drawn for the group, multiplied by the sample’s share of the population.
All persons have a weight that is proportional to the probability of being drawn. Figures can thus be published for all continents in addition to the 25 largest population groups. Total figures and figures for the continents are weighted.
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Confidentiality
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Figures are not published for samples with less than 25 in a cell; dots are shown for these figures.
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Comparability over time and space
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Similar surveys have been conducted since 1987, and this type of survey has been carried out at all local elections since 2003.
Accuracy and reliability
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Sources of error and uncertainty
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The results of sample surveys will entail a degree of uncertainty; a certain sample variance, which should be taken into account when interpreting the results.
Errors can generally occur during the checking of lists. It is not possible to control this. Errors can also occur during list registration.
The statistics is now published as Municipal and county council election, electoral survey.