Norway now has more than 5.4 million residents, after a baby boom last year and more immigration than the year before. The country’s capital of Oslo is just 173 short of 700,000.
Both mark major increases, with the country’s population rising by a million since 1998. Immigration took a dive during the Corona crisis, when flights were mostly grounded, but it’s moving up again now.
Newspaper Aftenposten reports that Oslo’s population has fluctuated greatly during the pandemic. After rising strongly for several years it flattened out in 2020, with new trends of more people moving out of the city than into it. Norwegians also discovered that they could work not only from home but other remote locations, like their holiday homes, or homes that otherwise would present a long daily commute.
The moving-out trend peaked in August, but state statistics bureau SSB (Statistics Norway) could report last week that Oslo’s population rose again during the fourth quarter of last year. The rise was slight, though, at only 1,167. Oslo had a population of 699,827 as of January 1.
newsinenglish.no staff
