Country contacts

The Kingdom of Norway lies to the west of Sweden on the Scandinavian peninsular with its capital Oslo on the southern coast.  Half of the country lies in the Arctic Circle and its long coastline is home to many famous fjords and bays.  It had a population of 4,554,000 in January 2003 with one of the lowest population densities in Europe.  The main languages are ‘book Norwegian’ and ‘new Norwegian’, with Sami also spoken in some districts.

Norway’s economy is dominated by oil and gas but it is also heavily dependant on exports of fish timber and aluminium.  It is the third largest exporter of oil in the world and partly as a result it now has the world’s second highest per capita GDP. 

Norway has held two referenda to join the EU.  In 1972 and in 1994 the ‘no’ vote narrowly won.  Norway does however, participate in the EU’s single market through the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement.