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Apr 2008: Although Norway is an affluent paradise, Norwegian drivers are rude and aggressive, according to an insurance company survey - Trysvesta Research.
Mar 2008: Children in need of state care and protection has doubled since 1990. The reason given is a weakening of family ties and structure, parents splitting up and getting new partners, creating unstable homes. And grandparents are busy working.
Scandinavia, west of Sweden. Capital: Oslo.
In 1949, Norway abandoned neutrality and joined the NATO alliance. In 1972 and 1974, the Norwegians rejected membership in the European Union.
Norway is a constitutional monarchy - the Kingdom of Norway. Harald V became king in 1991 at the age of 54. His parents were King Olav V of Norway and Princess Martha of Sweden. King Harald married Sonya Haraldsen in 1968. He and Queen Sonya have two children: Princess Martha Louise and Crown Prince Haakon. The Crown Prince also married a commoner - an unpretentious, attractive and worthy single mother, Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby, welcomed to the royal family by the Norwegian people.
CIA Factbook: "The Norwegian economy is a prosperous bastion of welfare capitalism, featuring a combination of free market activity and government intervention. The government controls key areas, such as the vital petroleum sector, through large-scale state enterprises."
Estimted per capita GDP:
2008 $55,200 (ranks ahead of Singapore and the United States)
2007 $54,200
2006 $52,700.
GDP annual growth rate:
2008: 1.8%
2007: 3.7%
2006: 2.5%
Unemployment estimate
2008: 2.6%
Norway has a superb balance of trade and no foreign debt.
In the late 1960s, oil and gas were discovered off its coast and boosted Norway's economy. In 2004 Norway produced 3.31 million barrels a day, compared to 7.8 million barrels by the United States and 9 million by Saudi Arabia. In 2005: 3.22, down slightly from 2004.
Ninety-nine percent of Norway’s electricity is produced by water-power. None is nuclear.
Norway's economy is free enterprise with government control in key sectors, including petroleum production. The trend has been toward privatization. Its distribution of wealth is flatter than that of France or that of the United States.
Norway's hourly productivity rate is 10 percent higher than that of the United States. Norway's unemployment rate for 2005 has been estimated at 4.2 percent.
Most Norwegians have five weeks of vacation time each year, and there are eleven paid holidays.
Complaints arise that with the new wealth the work ethic has declined. Norwegians stay home from work more than any other people in Europe, including the Swedes. According to the New York Times (July 25, 2004) "On an average day, about 25 percent of Norway's workers are absent from work, either because they have called in sick, are undergoing rehabilitation or are on long-term disability."
Military expenditures as a percentage of GDP: 1.9 (2005).
Gender Gap: The World Economic Forum lists Norway as second (behind Sweden) in the elimination of a gender gap.
Norwegians have a progressive income tax, a gross assets tax, a value added tax of 23%, and taxes on gasoline which leave the price of gas more than what people in the U.S. are accustomed to paying. Norwegians speak of paying much in ordinary taxes, but many of them, especially in the big city of Oslo, are content in doing so, appreciating the reduction in traffic, clear air and safe neighborhoods. In 1999, the federal tax burden was 41.8 percent of GDP, compared to 26 percent for the United States.
In 2003, Norway spent $308 per capita on foreign aid, compared to $23.76 for the United States.
2008: deaths 9.33; births 11.12
2007: deaths 9.37; births 11.27
2006: deaths 9.40; births
11.46
2005: deaths 9.45; births 11.67
Estimated for July 2008: 4.64 million. Growth rate: 0.35 percent per year. Density for 2005: 15 persons per square kilometer.
More arriving than leaving, a net gain of 1.71 persons per 1,000 population, down from 1.73 in 2005.
Infant mortality - estimated deaths before the age of one year, per 1,000
live births:
2008 3.61
2007 3.64
2006 3.67
2005 3.7
Average life expectancy at birth estimated for 2008: 79.81, up from 79.67 in 2007.
Living with HIV/AIDS, ages 15 to 49: 0.1 percent. (2001)
The top 10 percent in household income in 1995 did 21.8 percent of the spending, and the lowest 10 percent of households did 4.1 percent. In France these figures for 1995 were 25.1 and 2.8. These figure for the United States in 1997 were 30.5 percent and 1.8 percent. The relatively poor of Norway spent about twice as much as do the relatively poor in the United States.
In total crimes reported, Norway ranks close to Germany - less than the United States and more than Japan. Norway had 39 reported assaults in 2002, 3.3 per 1,000 in 2003, well below 7.7 per 1,000 in the U.S., well above 1.8 for France and 1.4 for Germany.
Both Norway and the United States have a suicide rate of around 10 per 100,000 persons per year.
Norway leads the world in the average number of years spent in education: 16.9.
Norway has been listed in the top four.
Norway is fifth in medals won per capita in Olympic summer games before 2004. It leads in the total amount of medals won in winter games.
"In 2001 a 15-year-old boy with an African father was killed in Oslo. Police
believed the killing was racially motivated. Authorities charged three young
persons with aiding and abetting voluntary manslaughter for their role in the
killing; all three were linked to a neo-Nazi organization." (From the
U.S. Department of State - http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18384.htm.)
SOURCES:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/living/columnists/6049680.htm
Copyright © 2008 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.