Norway

Kingdom of Norway
Ølensvåg
Ølensvåg
Kingdom of Norway Ølensvåg; Ølensvåg
	Flag Coat of arms
	Motto: Royal: Alt for Norge ("Everything for Norway"); 1814 Eidsvoll oath: Enige og tro til Dovre faller; ("United and faithful until the mountains of Dovre crumble")
	Anthem: Ja, vi elsker Royal anthem: Kongesangen
	Location of Norway (orange) in Europe (white)
Capital and largest city	Oslo
Official languages	Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk)1
Government	Constitutional monarchy
• Monarch	Harald V
• Prime Minister	Jens Stoltenberg
Establishment
• Constitution	17 May, 1814
• Independence from union with Sweden	; declared 7 June, 1905
• Water (%)	7.03
Population
• 2007 estimate	4,711,626 (114th)
GDP (PPP)	2006 estimate
• Total	$213.6 billion (42nd)
• Per capita	$46,300 (3rd)
GDP (nominal)	2006 estimate
• Total	$335.3 billion (25th)
• Per capita	$72305.6 (2nd)
Gini (2000)	25.8; low inequality (6th)
HDI (2004)	0.965; Error: Invalid HDI value (1st)
Currency	Norwegian krone (NOK)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Calling code	47
ISO 3166 code	NO
Internet TLD	.no5.sj and .bv
	In addition Northern Sami is used in the municipal administration in six municipalities, and Finnish/Kven in one.; Includes Svalbard and Jan Mayen.; This percentage is for the mainland and also includes glaciers [1]; Statistics Norway estimation (September 5, 2006) using variant MMMM from Table 10. See also [2]; Two more TLDs have been assigned, but to date not used: .sj for Svalbard and Jan Mayen; .bv for Bouvet Island.;

Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway (Template:Lang-no), is a country in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. It is bordered by Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Norway has a very elongated shape; the country's extensive coastline along the North Atlantic Ocean is home to its famous fjords.

The Kingdom of Norway also includes the Arctic island territories of Svalbard and Jan Mayen. Norwegian sovereignty of Svalbard is based upon the Svalbard Treaty, but this does not apply to Jan Mayen. Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic Ocean and a claim for Peter I Island in the South Pacific Ocean are also external dependencies, but these are not part of the Kingdom. Norway also claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica, where it has established the Troll permanent research station.

Since World War II, Norway has changed from being one of the poorest countries in Europe, to one of the wealthiest in the world, with a fully developed welfare system. This economic progress is caused mainly by strategic investment from the country's vast oil and gas reserves alongside the coast. Norway has ranked top among all countries in human development since 2001. ^[5] It also rated the most peaceful country in the world in a 2007 survey by Global Peace Index. ^[6]

History

Archaeological finds indicate that there were people in Norway as early as the 10th millennium BC (12,000 years ago). Archaeological research shows that they came from either southern regions (northern Germany)^{[citation needed]}, or from the north-east (northern Finland or Russia) ^{[citation needed]}. From there they settled along the coastline.

In the 9th century it seems that Norway consisted of a number of petty kingdoms. According to tradition, Harald Fairhair gathered the small kingdoms into one in 872AD with the Battle of Hafrsfjord. He became the first king of a united Norway.

The Viking age (8th to 11th centuries) was one of unification and expansion. Norwegians established settlements on Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and parts of Britain and Ireland, and attempted to settle at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada (the "Vinland" of the Saga of Eric the Red). Norwegians founded the modern-day Irish cities of Limerick, Dublin, and Waterford^[7] and established trading communities near the Celtic settlements of Cork and Dublin^{[citation needed]} which later became Ireland's two most important cities. The spread of Christianity in Norway in this period is in large part attributed to the missionary kings Olav Trygvason (995–1000) and St. Olav (1015–1028), although Haakon the Good was Norway's first Christian king. Norse traditions were slowly replaced during the 9th and 10th centuries.

In 1349, the Black Death killed between 40% and 50% of the Norwegian population,^[8] causing a decline in both society and economics. During this decline, it is probable that the Fairhair dynasty died out in 1387. Ostensibly, royal politics at the time resulted in several personal unions between the Nordic countries, eventually bringing the thrones of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden under the control of Queen Margrethe when the country entered into the Kalmar Union with Denmark and Sweden. Although Sweden declared its independence in 1523, Norway remained under the Oldenburg dynasty for 434 years until 1814. During the national romanticism of the 19th century, this period was by some referred to as the "400-Year Night", since all of the kingdom's royal, intellectual, and administrative power was centred in Copenhagen, Denmark. However, it must be said that the common people of Norway had more freedom and paid lower taxes than the Danish people because it was difficult for royal bureaucracy to have strict control over its distant Norwegian provinces. Other factors also contributed to Norway's decline in this period. With the introduction of Protestantism in 1537, the archbishopric in Trondheim was dissolved, and the church's incomes were distributed to the court in Copenhagen in Denmark instead. Norway lost the steady stream of pilgrims to the relics of St. Olav at the Nidaros shrine, and with them, much of the contact with cultural and economic life in the rest of Europe. Additionally, Norway saw its land area decrease in the 17th century with the loss of the provinces Båhuslen, Jemtland, and Herjedalen to Sweden, as a result of the wars between Denmark–Norway and Sweden.

After Denmark–Norway was attacked by Great Britain, it entered into an alliance with Napoleon, and in 1814 found itself on the losing side in the Napoleonic Wars and in dire conditions and mass starvation in 1812. The Dano-Norwegian Oldenburg king was forced to cede Norway to the king of Sweden, while the old Norwegian provinces of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands remained with the Danish crown. Norway took this opportunity to declare independence, adopted a constitution based on American and French models, and elected the Danish crown prince Christian Fredrik as king on May 17, 1814. However, Sweden militarily forced Norway into a personal union with Sweden, establishing the Bernadotte dynasty as rulers of Norway. Under this arrangement, Norway kept its liberal constitution and independent institutions, except for the foreign service. See also Norway in 1814.

This period also saw the rise of the Norwegian romantic nationalism cultural movement, as Norwegians sought to define and express a distinct national character. The movement covered all branches of culture, including literature (Henrik Wergeland, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, Jørgen Moe, Henrik Ibsen), painting (Hans Gude, Adolph Tiedemand), music (Edvard Grieg), and even language policy, where attempts to define a native written language for Norway led to today's two official written forms for Norwegian: Bokmål and Nynorsk.

Christian Michelsen, a Norwegian shipping magnate and statesman, was Prime Minister of Norway from 1905 to 1907. Michelsen is most known for his central role in the peaceful separation of Norway from Sweden on June 7, 1905. Norway's growing dissatisfaction with the union with Sweden during the late 19th century combined with nationalism to prompt the dissolution of the union. After a national referendum confirmed the people's preference for a monarchy over a republic, the Norwegian government offered the throne of Norway to the Danish Prince Carl and Parliament unanimously elected him king. He took the name of Haakon VII, after the medieval kings of independent Norway. In 1898, all men were granted universal suffrage, followed by all women in 1913.

During World War I, Norway was a neutral country. Norway also attempted to claim neutrality during World War II, but was invaded by German forces on April 9, 1940. The Allies also had plans to invade Norway, in order to take advantage of her strategically important Atlantic coast, but were thwarted by the German operation. Norway was unprepared for the German surprise attack, but military resistance continued for two months, longer than any country invaded by the Germans, save the Soviet Union. During the Norwegian campaign, the Kriegsmarine lost many ships including the brand new cruiser Blücher. The battles of Vinjesvingen and Hegra eventually became the last strongholds of Norwegian resistance in southern Norway in May, while the armed forces in the north launched an offensive against the German forces in the Battles of Narvik, until they were forced to surrender on June 10 after losing allied help following the fall of France. King Haakon and the Norwegian government continued the fight from exile in Rotherhithe, London. On the day of the invasion, the collaborative leader of the small National-Socialist party Nasjonal Samling — Vidkun Quisling — tried to seize power, but was forced by the German occupiers to step aside. Real power was wielded by the leader of the German occupation authority, Reichskommissar Josef Terboven. Quisling, as minister president, later formed a collaborationist government under German control. During the five years of Nazi occupation, Norwegians built a strong resistance movement which fought the German occupation forces with both armed resistance and civil disobedience. More important to the Allied war effort, however, was the role of the Norwegian merchant navy. At the time of the invasion, Norway had the fourth largest (as well as fastest and most effective) merchant navy in the world.page 93 It was led by the Norwegian shipping company Nortraship under the Allies throughout the war and took part in every war operation from the evacuation of Dunkirk to the Normandy landings.

Following the war, the Social Democrats came to power and ruled the country for much of the cold war. Norway joined NATO in 1949, and became a close ally of the United States. Two plebiscites to join the European Union failed by narrow margins in 1972 and 1994. Large reserves of oil and gas were discovered in the 1960s, which lead to a continuing boom in the economy.

Geography, climate and environment

Norway comprises the western part of Scandinavia in Northern Europe. The rugged coastline, broken by massive fjords and thousands of islands, stretches over 2,500 km. Norway shares a 2,542 km land border with Sweden, Finland, and Russia to the east. To the west and south, Norway is bordered by the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea, and Skagerak. The Barents Sea washes on Norway's northern coasts.

At 385,155 km² (including Jan Mayen, Svalbard), Norway is approximately the size of Germany, but much of the country is dominated by mountainous or high terrain, with a great variety of natural features caused by prehistoric glaciers and varied topography. The most noticeable of these are the fjords, deep grooves cut into the land flooded by the sea following the end of the Ice Age; the longest is Sognefjorden. Norway also contains many glaciers and waterfalls.

The land is mostly made of hard granite and gneiss rock, but slate, sandstone and limestone are also common, and the lowest elevations have marine deposits. Due to the Gulf Stream and prevailing westerlies, Norway experiences warmer temperatures and more precipitation than expected at such northern latitudes, especially along the coast. The mainland experiences four distinct seasons, with colder winters and less precipitation inland. The northernmost part has a mostly maritime Subarctic climate, while Svalbard has an Arctic tundra climate.

There are large seasonal variations in daylight. In areas north of the Arctic Circle, the summer sun may never completely descend beneath the horizon, hence Norway's description as the "Land of the Midnight Sun." During summer, inhabitants south of the Arctic Circle still experience sunlight nearly 20 of the day's 24 hours.

Politics

Norway is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government.

The Royal House is a branch of the princely family of Glücksburg, originally from Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. As it stands, the functions of the King, Harald V, are mainly ceremonial, but he has influence as the symbol of national unity. Although the constitution of 1814 grants important executive powers to the King, these are always exercised by the Council of State in the name of the King (King's Council, or cabinet). The reserve powers vested in the Monarch by the constitution are in reality symbolic, but has on a few occasions been important like World War II, when the Monarch said he would step down if the government should accept the German demand. The Council of State consists of a Prime Minister and other ministers, formally appointed by the King. Parliamentarism has evolved since 1884 and entails that the cabinet must not have the parliament against it, and that the appointment by the King is a formality when there is a clear majority in Parliament for a party or a coalition of parties. But after elections resulting in no clear majority to any party or coalition, the leader of the party most likely to be able to form a government is appointed Prime Minister by the King. Norway has often been ruled by minority governments. The King has government meetings every Friday at Oslo Palace (Council of State), but the government decisions are decided in advance in government conferences, headed by the Prime Minister, every Tuesday and Thursday. The King opens the Parliament every September, he receives ambassadors to the Norwegian court, and he is the symbolically Supreme Commander of the Norwegian Armed Forces and the Head of the Church of Norway.

The Norwegian parliament, Stortinget, currently has 169 members (increased from 165, effective from the elections of 12 September, 2005). The members are elected from the nineteen counties for four-year terms according to a system of proportional representation. When voting on legislation, the Storting – until the 2009 election – divides itself into two chambers, the Odelsting and the Lagting. Laws are in most cases proposed by the government through a Member of the Council of State, or in some cases by a member of the Odelsting in case of repeated disagreement in the joint Storting. Nowadays, however, the Lagting rarely disagrees, effectively rubber-stamping the Odelsting's decisions. A constitutional amendment of February 20, 2007 will repeal the division after the 2009 general election.

Impeachment cases are very rare (the last being in 1927, when Prime Minister Abraham Berge was acquitted) and may be brought against Members of the Council of State, of the Supreme Court (Høyesterett), or of the Storting for criminal offenses which they may have committed in their official capacity.

Prior to an amendment to the Norwegian Constitution on February 20, 2007 indictments were raised by the Odelsting and judged by the Lagting and the Supreme Court justices as part of the High Court of the Realm. In the new system impeachment cases will be heard by the five highest ranking Supreme Court justices and six lay members in one of the Supreme Court courtrooms (previously cases were heard in the Lagting chamber). Storting representatives may not perform as lay judges. Indictments will be raised by the Storting in a plenary session.

The Storting otherwise functions as a unicameral parliament and after the 2009 general election the division into Odelsting and Lagting for passing legislation will be abolished. Legislation will then have to go through two – three in case of dissent – readings before being passed and sent to the King for assent.

The judiciary consists of the Supreme Court (eighteen permanent judges and a chief justice), courts of appeal, city and district courts, and conciliation councils. Judges attached to regular courts are appointed by the King in council.

In order to form a government, more than half the membership of the Council of State is required to belong to the Church of Norway. Currently, this means at least ten out of nineteen members.

In December each year, Norway gives a Christmas tree to the United Kingdom, in thanks for the UK's assistance during World War II. A ceremony takes place to erect the tree in Trafalgar Square.

Foreign relations

Counties and municipalities

Norway is divided into nineteen first-level administrative regions known as fylker ("counties"; singular fylke) and 431 second-level kommuner ("municipalities"; singular kommune). The fylke is the intermediate administration between state and municipality. The King is represented in every county by a "Fylkesmann".

There is ongoing debate as to whether the nineteen fylker should be replaced with five to nine larger regions.^{[citation needed]} Some expect this to happen by 2010, whereas others expect the intermediate administration to disappear entirely. Another option would probably require consolidating the municipalities into larger entities and delegating greater responsibility to them.

The counties of Norway are:

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Economy

Norway possesses the second highest GDP per-capita and third highest PPP per-capita in the world, and has maintained 1st place in the world in the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) for the fifth consecutive year (2006). Cost of living is about 30% higher in Norway than in the US, and 25% higher than the UK.

The Norwegian economy is an example of mixed economy, featuring a combination of free market activity and large government ownership. The government controls key areas, such as the strategic petroleum sector (Statoil, Hydro, hydroelectric energy production Statkraft), and the largest Norwegian bank (DnBNOR) and telecommunication provider (Telenor). The government controls 31.6% of publicly listed companies. When non-listed companies are included the state has even higher share in ownership (mainly from direct oil license ownership).

The control mechanisms over petroleum resources are a combination of state ownership in major operators in the Norwegian fields (Statoil approx. 70% in 2005, Norsk Hydro 43% in 2004) and the fully state owned Petoro (market value of about twice Statoil) and SDFI. Finally the government controls licensing of exploration and production of fields.

The country is richly endowed with natural resources: petroleum, hydropower, fish, forests, and minerals. Norway has obtained one of the highest standards of living in the world, partly from petroleum production and the substantial income related to this sector. Norway also has a very low unemployment rate, currently below 2% (June 2007). The hourly productivity levels, as well as average hourly wages in Norway are among the highest in the world. The egalitarian values of the Norwegian society^{[citation needed]} ensures that the wage difference between the lowest paid worker and the CEO of most companies is much smaller than in comparable western economies.^{[citation needed]}

In 2006, oil and gas accounted for 58% of exports.^{[citation needed]} Only Russia and OPEC member Saudi Arabia export more oil than Norway, which is not an OPEC member. To reduce over-heating from oil-money, the uncertainty from the oil income volatility, and save money for an aging population, the Norwegian state started in 1995 to save petroleum income (taxes, dividends, licensing, sales) in a Sovereign wealth fund ("Government Pension Fund - Global"). This also reduces the boom and bust cycle associated with raw material production and the marginalization of non-oil industry (see also Dutch Disease).

Because of its size the fund is invested in developed financial markets outside Norway. The budgetary rule ("Handlingsregelen") is to spend no more than 4% of the fund each year (assumed to be the normal yield from the fund ). By January 2006, the Fund was at USD 200 billion, representing 70% of GDP in Norway. During the first half of 2007, the pension fund became the largest fund in Europe, totaling about USD 300 billion. Already (April 2007), Norway has the largest capital reserve per capita of any nation. Projections indicate that the Norwegian pension fund is set to become the largest capital fund in the world. Conservative estimates tell that the fund may reach USD 800-900 billion by 2017. Other natural resource-based economies (examples: Russia and Chile) are trying to learn from Norway by establishing similar funds.

The future size of the fund is of course closely linked to the oil price and the developments in international financial markets in which the fund is invested.

Referendums in 1972 and 1994 indicated that the Norwegian people wished to remain outside the European Union (EU). However, Norway, together with Iceland and Liechtenstein, participates in the European Union's single market via the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement. The EEA Treaty between the European Union countries and the EFTA countries – transposed into Norwegian law via "EØS-loven"^[9] – describes the procedures for implementing European Union rules in Norway and the other EFTA countries. This makes Norway a highly integrated member of most sectors of the EU internal market. However, some sectors, such as agriculture, oil and fish, are not wholly covered by the EEA Treaty. Norway has also acceded to the Schengen Agreement and several other intergovernmental agreements between the EU member states.

In 2000, the government sold one-third of the then 100% state-owned oil company Statoil in an IPO. The next year, the main telecom supplier, Telenor, was listed on Oslo Stock Exchange. The state also owns significant shares of Norway's biggest bank, DnB NOR and the airline SAS. Since 2000, economic growth has been rapid, pushing unemployment down to levels not seen since the early 1980s.

The Norwegian currency is the krone.

Demography

As of 2005, Norway's population of 4.6 million is growing by 0.363% per year. Most Norwegians are ethnic Norwegians, a Nordic/North Germanic people, while small minorities in the north are Sami and Kven. The Sami are considered an indigenous people and traditionally live in the central and northern parts of Norway and Sweden, as well as in northern Finland and in Russia on the Kola Peninsula. The largest concentration of Sami people is, however, found in Norway's capital and main city, Oslo. Norway also has a small Finnish community originally from Finland, like the Sami the Finns speak a native Finno-Ugric language in addition to Norwegian, which in the northern part of Norway are called Kven. Other groups defined as national minorities of Norway are Jews, Forest Finns, Roma/Gypsies and Romani people/Travellers.

In recent years, immigration has accounted for more than half of Norway's population growth. In 2006, Statistics Norway (SSB) found that record 45,800 immigrants arrived in the country — 30% higher than 2005. At the beginning of 2006, there were 387,000 persons in Norway with an immigrant background (i.e. immigrants, or born of immigrant parents), comprising 8.3 per cent of the total population. The largest immigrant groups by country of origin, in order of size, are Pakistanis, Swedes, Iraqis, Danes, Vietnamese and Somalis. The Iraqi immigrant population has shown a large increase in recent years, and now ranks as the third-largest immigrant group.

There were 285,000 non-Western legal immigrants in Norway as of January 2006, most common country of origin is Pakistan, followed by Iraq, Vietnam and Somalia. Ekhaugen’s study shows that 50% of the non-western immigrants who settled in Norway in the period from 1966 to 1975 were welfare dependent 25 years later.^[10] Oslo has by far the largest non-western immigrant population of about 99,000, or 18% of the population. The largest increase in 2005 was of immigrants from Poland, Iraq, and Russia.^[11]

Religion

In common with other Scandinavian peoples, Norway's ancestral inhabitants – the indigenous Norse – followed a form of native Germanic paganism known as Norse paganism. By the end of the tenth century, when Norway had been Christianized, the indigenous Norse religion and practices were prohibited. Anti-heathenry laws, however, were removed early in the twentieth century.^{[citation needed]} Many remnants of the native religion and beliefs of Norway exist today, including referential names of cities and locations, to the days of the week, to the everyday language. For example, the word for performing magic is 'å trylle', which comes from 'å trolle', which in turn literally means 'to troll', and the Norwegian word for magician is 'trollmann', or 'troll man'. The word for thunder is 'torden', or 'Thor's roar'.

Nearly 83% of Norwegians are members of the state Church of Norway. Many remain in the state church to be able to use services such as baptism, confirmation, marriage and burial, rites which have strong cultural standing in Norway.

Other Christian denominations total about 4.5% of the population. These include the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church, the Roman Catholic Church, Pentecostal congregations, the Methodist Church, Adventists and others. Among non-Christian religions, Islam is the largest, representing about 1.5% of the population; it is practiced mainly by the Arab, Albanian, Pakistani, Somalian and Turkish communities. Other religions comprise less than 1% each, including Judaism (see Jews in Norway), the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Jehovah's Witnesses). Indian immigrants introduced Hinduism to Norway, but account for only 0.50% of the population. There are eleven Buddhist organizations, grouped under the Buddhistforbundet organisation, which make up 0.42% of the population. Around 1.5% of Norwegians adhere to the secular Norwegian Humanist Association. About 5% of the population is unaffiliated.^[12]

In 2005, a survey conducted by Gallup International in sixty-five countries indicated that Norway was the least religious country in Western Europe, with 36% counting themselves as being religious, 9% as being atheists, and 46% neither.^[13];

Languages

The Norwegian language has two official written forms, Bokmål and Nynorsk. They have officially equal status, i.e. they are both used in public administration, in schools, churches, radio and television, but Bokmål is used by the vast majority, about 85-90%. Around 95% of the population speak Norwegian as their native tongue, although many speak dialects that may differ significantly from the written language. In general Norwegian dialects are inter-intelligible, though some may require significant effort. Several Sami languages are spoken and written throughout the country, especially in the north, by the Sami people. The state recognises these languages as official, and speakers have a right to receive communications from government in various Sami languages The Kven minority speak Kven, a variety of Finnish. The Germanic Norwegian language and the Finno-Ugric Sami and Kven languages are entirely unrelated.

The main foreign languages (primærfremmedspråk) taught in Norway are English, German and French. People may contact the authorities or take their exams in any of the three main foreign languages as well as in the two other Scandinavian languages (Danish and Swedish).

Any Norwegian student who is a child of immigrant parents is encouraged to learn the Norwegian language. The Norwegian government offers language instructional courses for immigrants wishing to obtain Norwegian citizenship.

Norwegian is highly similar to the other Scandinavian languages, Swedish and Danish. All three languages are intelligible and all the languages can be used to communicate with each other.

Individual human rights

Norway is the current top-ranked nation in the UN Human Development Index, an index made up by literacy rate, education level and per capita income.

Freedom of expression is enshrined in Article 100 of the Constitution of Norway. Freedom of religion is enshrined in Article 2 of the Constitution, which also establishes the state religion as "Evangelical Lutheran". The press is not censored. Editors adhere to self-imposed commandments of caution, in order to protect people's privacy and other civic rights ("Vær Varsom-plakaten").

Public radio and TV broadcast mostly without interference from the government, although permission to broadcast depends on the programme spectrum. Broadcast advertisement is regulated, with particular restrictions on paid political messages and advertising directed at children.

The constitution forbids retroactive laws, punishment not based on laws and court decisions, and the use of torture. Capital punishment for high crime during wartime was abolished in 1979.^[14]

In 1999, the Human Rights conventions of the United Nations and the Council of Europe were constituted as law in Norway (menneskerettsloven) and given superiority to all laws after the constitution.^[15] However, Norwegian lawyers have joined the Council of Europe's Committee Against Torture to express their concern about the long-term detention of criminal defendants and the use of solitary confinement in Norway, deeming it to be torture.^[16] The use of leg-irons and handcuffs on a group of robbers who, armed with G3s, shot and killed a police officer in 2004, was deemed illegal by Norwegian courts. Long processing times for asylum seekers and the treatment of those arriving without identity papers has also been under discussion.

In 2005, the international conventions against discrimination of women and race discrimination were incorporated into (but not made superior to) Norwegian law. Amnesty International has recently focused on violence against women in Norway and a shortage of public services to victims of violence.^[17]

Norway has compulsory military service for men. Conscripts are drafted at age 18 for initial service (førstegangstjeneste) of between six to twelve months (Service may begin at age 17 with parental consent). After completion of the initial service period, personnel are transferred to reserve units, which may be called up for periodic training (repetisjonstjeneste) until age 44. Conscientious objectors serve twelve months in an alternative civilian national service. If a candidate refuses to attend the assessment of fitness (sesjon), where any objections to future military service are to be stated, they are liable to prosecution. A person who is deemed fit for service and who is not a conscientious objector, but still refuses military service is also liable to prosecution. Changes to the structure of the armed forces has resulted in a lower demand for conscripts, and the number of males needing to serve is decreasing.

Homosexuality was officially decriminalized in 1972 and homosexual partnerships legalized in 1993. According to Statistics Norway (SSB), 192 homosexual partnerships were recorded in 2004. Since 2002, it has become possible for homosexual partners to adopt each other's children from previous relationships, although joint adoption is not allowed as of 2007.

International rankings

Organization	Survey	Ranking
International Monetary Fund	GDP per capita	2nd out of 232 (2006)
United Nations Development Programme	Human Development Index	1st out of 177 (2001-2006)
A.T. Kearney / Foreign Policy	Globalization Index 2005	14th out of 111
Heritage Foundation / Wall Street Journal	Index of Economic Freedom 2006	30th out of 155
Reporters Without Borders	Worldwide press freedom index	6th out of 168 (1st 2002-2005)
Save the Children	State of the World's Mothers 2004 (Children)	1st out of 119
Save the Children	State of the World's Mothers 2004 (Women)	6th out of 119
Save the Children	State of the World's Mothers 2004 (Mothers)	6th out of 119
UNICEF	Child Well-being league table	7th out of 21 industrial countries
Transparency International	Corruption Perceptions Index 2004	8th out of 145
World Economic Forum	Global Competitiveness Report 2005-2006	9th out of 117
Nationmaster	Labour Strikes	5th out of 27
The Economist	Worldwide quality-of-life index, 2005	3rd out of 111
Yale University/Columbia University	Environmental Sustainability Index, 2005 (pdf)	2nd out of 146
The Fund for Peace	Failed States Index, 2007	177th out of 177 (177th being the best rating)
The Economist	Global Peace Index	1st out of 121

Literature

The history of Norwegian literature starts with the pagan Eddaic poems and skaldic verse of the 9th and 10th centuries with poets such as Bragi Boddason and Eyvindr Skáldaspillir. The arrival of Christianity around the year 1000 brought Norway into contact with European medieval learning, hagiography and history writing. Merged with native oral tradition and Icelandic influence this was to flower into an active period of literature production in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Major works of that period include Historia Norwegie, Thidreks saga and Konungs skuggsjá.

Little Norwegian literature came out of the period of the Scandinavian Union and the subsequent Dano-Norwegian union (1387—1814), with some notable exceptions such as Petter Dass and Ludvig Holberg. In his play Peer Gynt, Ibsen characterized this period as "Twice two hundred years of darkness/brooded o'er the race of monkeys", although the latter line is not as frequently quoted as the former. During the union with Denmark, written Norwegian was replaced by Danish.

Two major events precipitated a major resurgence in Norwegian literature. In 1811 a Norwegian university was established in Christiania Seized by the spirit of revolution following the American and French Revolutions, the Norwegians signed their first constitution in 1814. Soon, the cultural backwater that was Norway brought forth a series of strong authors recognized first in Scandinavia, and then worldwide; among them were Henrik Wergeland, Peter Asbjørnsen, Jørgen Moe and Camilla Collett.

By the late 19th century, in the Golden Age of Norwegian literature, the so-called Great Four emerged: Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Alexander Kielland, and Jonas Lie. Bjørnson's "peasant novels", such as "En glad gutt" (A Happy Boy) and "Synnøve Solbakken" are typical of the national romanticism of their day, whereas Kielland's novels and short stories are mostly realistic. Although an important contributor to early Norwegian romanticism (especially the ironic Peer Gynt), Henrik Ibsen's fame rests primarily on his pioneering realistic dramas such The Wild Duck and A Doll's House, many of which caused moral uproar because of their candid portrayals of the middle classes.

In the twentieth century three Norwegian novelists were awarded the Nobel prize in literature: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson in 1903, Knut Hamsun for the book "Markens grøde" ("Growth of the Soil") in 1920, and Sigrid Undset in 1928. In the 20th century writers like Dag Solstad, Jostein Gaarder, Jens Bjørneboe, Kjartan Fløgstad, Lars Saabye Christensen, Johan Borgen, Herbjørg Wassmo, Jan Erik Vold, Rolf Jacobsen, Olaf Bull, Jan Kjærstad, Georg Johannesen, Tarjei Vesaas, Sigurd Hoel, Arnulf Øverland and Johan Falkberget have made important contributions to Norwegian literature.

National flower

Norway has two national flowers.

At an international congress for botanists held in Amsterdam in 1935, Saxifraga cotyledon was elected national flower of Norway. Later, in 1976, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation held an referendum on one of their programs which elected Calluna vulgaris, commonly known as heather, as national flower.

Both plants are accepted as national flowers.