More and more Swedes in Norway

At the start of 1998 Norway's immigrant population totalled 244,700 or 5.5 per cent of the population. The immigrant population increased by 12,400 in the course of 1997. More than 2,900 were second-generation immigrants. Swedes accounted for the largest increase, with 2,900, followed by Iraqis and Pakistanis with 820 and 800 respectively.

The number of Nordic immigrants increased by 4,200, or 10 per cent, while the population of Third World immigrants increased by 6,400, or six per cent. The number of persons from North America and Oceania continued to drop, as it has done since the 1970s. In 1997 there were 180 fewer of them.

81 per cent eligible to vote

In the immigrant population aged 18 and up, 73,800 were Norwegian citizens, while 78,300 were foreign citizens who have resided here for at least three years. Had local elections been held in late 1997, however, 152,100 or 81 per cent of the adult immigrant population would have been eligible to vote. Most are from Denmark (15,000), Sweden (11,800) and Pakistan (11,000).

Definition of the immigrant population

According to Statistics Norway's definition of the immigrant population, 206,900 are first-generation immigrants and 37,800 second-generation immigrants. First-generation immigrants are born abroad to parents who are also born outside Norway, while second-generation immigrants are born in Norway to foreign-born parents. Persons with one parent born in Norway are excluded from this definition. The same applies to foreign adoptees and those born abroad to Norwegian parents.

New Statistics
Population statistics. The immigrant population, 1 January 1998.
The statistics are published annually in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. For more information, contact: Trude.Jakobsen@ssb.no, tel. +47 62 88 51 39, or Kirsten.Enger.Dybendal@ssb.no, tel. +47 62 88 52 96. Supplementary tables on foreign-born persons and the immigrant population are available from the contact persons.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 45, 1998