Buy data    Donate

Updates: 

A merger of the county governments of Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder was planned for 2016-01-01. The date has come and gone, and I don't see any evidence of a change.

ISO 3166-2 Newsletter II-3 is dated 2011-12-15. It merely changes the sort order of the divisions of Norway.

Country overview: 

Short name	NORWAY
ISO code	NO
FIPS code	NO
Language	Norwegian (no)
Time zone	+1 ~
Capital	Oslo

 

Norway was united with Sweden through most of the 19th century. The united kingdom was called Sweden and Norway. Norway proclaimed its independence on 1905-06-07.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Norge
2. Dutch: Noorwegen, Koninkrijk Noorwegen (formal)
3. English: Kingdom of Norway (formal)
4. Finnish: Norja
5. French: Norvège f, Royaume m de Norvège f (formal)
6. German: Norwegen n
7. Icelandic: Noregur
8. Italian: Norvegia f
9. Norwegian: Norge, Kongeriket Norge (formal) (Bokmål), Noreg, Kongeriket Noreg (formal) (Nynorsk)
10. Portuguese: Noruega, Reino m da Noruega f (formal)
11. Russian: Королевство Норвегия (formal)
12. Spanish: Noruega, Reino m de Noruega f (formal)
13. Swedish: Norge
14. Turkish: Norveç Krallığı (formal)

Origin of name: 

Old Norwegian Norvegr: Northern way, referring to the sea route

Primary subdivisions: 

Norway is divided into 19 fylker (sing. fylke: counties).

County	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Conv	NUTS	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Akershus	NO.AK	02	NO01	Ak	NO012	476,440	4,917	1,898	Oslo
Aust-Agder	NO.AA	09	NO02	AA	NO041	102,848	9,212	3,557	Arendal
Buskerud	NO.BU	06	NO04	Bu	NO032	239,591	14,927	5,763	Drammen
Finnmark	NO.FI	20	NO05	Fi	NO073	73,936	48,637	18,779	Vadsø
Hedmark	NO.HE	04	NO06	He	NO021	187,878	27,388	10,575	Hamar
Hordaland	NO.HO	12	NO07	Ho	NO051	437,766	15,449	5,965	Bergen
Møre og Romsdal	NO.MR	15	NO08	MR	NO053	243,888	15,104	5,832	Molde
Nordland	NO.NO	18	NO09	No	NO071	237,561	38,463	14,851	Bodø
Nord-Trøndelag	NO.NT	17	NO10	NT	NO062	127,444	22,396	8,647	Steinkjer
Oppland	NO.OP	05	NO11	Op	NO022	183,302	25,191	9,726	Lillehammer
Oslo	NO.OS	03	NO12	Os	NO011	512,093	454	175	Oslo
Østfold	NO.OF	01	NO13	Øf	NO031	252,520	4,183	1,615	Moss, Sarpsborg
Rogaland	NO.RO	11	NO14	Ro	NO043	380,913	9,326	3,601	Stavanger
Sogn og Fjordane	NO.SF	14	NO15	SF	NO052	107,261	18,619	7,189	Hermansverk
Sør-Trøndelag	NO.ST	16	NO16	ST	NO061	266,098	18,832	7,271	Trondheim
Telemark	NO.TE	08	NO17	Te	NO034	165,732	15,315	5,913	Skien
Troms	NO.TR	19	NO18	Tr	NO072	151,646	25,848	9,980	Tromsø
Vest-Agder	NO.VA	10	NO19	VA	NO042	157,697	7,281	2,811	Kristiansand
Vestfold	NO.VF	07	NO20	Vf	NO033	216,333	2,216	856	Tønsberg
19 counties						4,520,947	323,758	125,004
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. They are based on numbers used officially in Norway. Bergen was 13 before it merged with Hordaland. Statistical lists are often ordered by these numbers. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Conv: Conventional abbreviations commonly used in Norway. Occasional variations will be found, such as Øs for Østfold and Ve for Vestfold. NUTS: Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics codes from Eurostat. Population: 2001-11-03 census Capitals: Some references disagree about these capitals. Some atlases even show different capitals on different pages.

 

Note: In Østfold, Sarpsborg is the seat of the fylkestinget and fylkesadministrasjonen; Moss is the seat of the fylkesmannen.

Postal codes: 

Norway uses four-digit postal codes. The codes don't correlate well with province boundaries. The prefix "NO-" may be used to indicate Norwegian postal codes. The older prefix "N-" is often still used.

Further subdivisions:

See the Municipalities of Norway page.

The provinces are subdivided into kommuner (municipalities), which were of two types: bykommuner (urban) and herredskommuner (rural). On 1992-09-25, the legal distinction between these two types was abolished.

The NUTS code system also defines groupings of counties. All the counties whose NUTS codes begin with the same four characters (for example, NO03-) can be designated as a group using those four characters. Here are the descriptions of the seven level-two NUTS regions of Norway.

Description	NUTS
Agder og Rogaland	NO04
Hedmark og Oppland	NO02
Nord-Norge	NO07
Oslo og Akershus	NO01
Sør-Østlandet	NO03
Trøndelag	NO06
Vestlandet	NO05

Territorial extent: 

Most of the counties have coastlines, and include many islands, mostly quite near shore. Some of the larger or outermost islands are mentioned here.

1. Akershus includes Håøya, Ostøya, Brønnøya, and Nesøya, all in Oslo Fjord.
2. Aust-Agder includes Tromøy, Justøya, and Sandøya.
3. Finnmark includes the islands of Sørøya, Magerøy, Seiland, Skogerøy, Rolvsøy, Silda, and Ingøy.
4. Hedmark includes Kelgøya in Lake Mjøsa.
5. Hordaland includes Stord, Osterøya, Store Sotra, Askøy, Holsnøy, Radøy, Fosnøy, Huftarøy, and Hellisøy.
6. Møre og Romsdal includes Smøla, Gurskøy, Averøy, Tustna, Ertvågøy, Nerlandsøy, and Harøy.
7. Nord-Trøndelag includes most of the island of Austra, as well as Vikna, Leka, and the fjord island of Ytterøy.
8. Nordland includes about half of the island of Hinnøy in the north, a share of Austra in the south, and many other islands in the Lofoten and Vesterålen groups and along the shore. Some of the largest are Andøya, Langøy, Austvågøy, Vestvågøy, Moskenesøy, and Vega.
9. Østfold includes Jeløy, Kirkeøy, Vesterøy, Spjær, Asmaløy, and Rauer.
10. Rogaland includes Karmøy, Bokn, Ombo, Rennesøy, Finnøy, and Utsira.
11. Sogn og Fjordane includes Bremanger, Sula, Vågsøy, and Hovden.
12. Sør-Trøndelag includes Hitra and Frøya.
13. Telemark includes Skatøy and Jomfruland.
14. Troms includes about half of the island of Hinnøy, and Soenja, Kvaløy, Ringvassøy, Arnøy, and Vanna.
15. Vest-Agder includes Kråka and Flekkerøy.
16. Vestfold includes Nøtterøy, Tjøme, and Bastøy.

Norway also includes several external territories. Svalbard is a large Arctic island group. It became part of Norway on 1925-08-14. Jan Mayen is an island east of Greenland, incorporated on 1930-02-27. Bouvet Island is an island in the South Atlantic, which became a Norwegian dependency on 1930-02-27. These are treated as two separate countries by ISO 3166 (and this website): Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands, and Bouvet Island. However, ISO 3166-2 assigns Jan Mayen the alternative Norwegian code NO-22, and Svalbard, NO-21. Peter I Island, near Antarctica, became a Norwegian dependency on 1933-03-24. Norway has also claimed part of Antarctica, Queen Maud Land, since 1939-01-14. In view of the Antarctic Treaty, I have listed both Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land under Antarctica.

The UN LOCODE page  for Norway lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: 

1. Bergen: Old Norse Björgvin, from björg: mountain, vin: pasturage
2. Finnmark: Norwegian for field of the Finns
3. Østfold: East of Folden (old name of the Oslo fjord)
4. Vestfold: West of Folden

Change history: 

There have been many minor boundary changes. Probably the most people were affected on 1948-01-01 when Oslo annexed many of its suburbs from Akershus.

1. 1804-09-24: Trondhjem split into Nordre Trondhjem and Søndre Trondhjem.
2. 1821: Jarlsberg og Larvik formed by merging Jarlsberg and Larvik.
3. 1842: Kristiania split from Akershus.
4. 1866-10-01: Tromsø split from Finmarken.
5. 1919-01-01: Name of Nedenes county changed to Aust-Agder; Finmarken changed to Finnmark; Hedemarken changed to Hedmark; Søndre Bergenhus changed to Hordaland; Romsdal changed to Møre; Nordre Trondhjem changed to Nord-Trøndelag; Kristian changed to Opland; Smaalenene changed to Østfold; Stavanger changed to Rogaland; Nordre Bergenhus changed to Sogn og Fjordane; Søndre Trondhjem changed to Sør-Trøndelag; Bratsberg changed to Telemark; Tromsø changed to Troms; Lister og Mandal changed to Vest-Agder; Jarlsberg og Larvik changed to Vestfold.
6. 1925: Name of capital of country changed from Kristiania to Oslo.
7. ~1950: Name of Møre changed to Møre og Romsdal.
8. ~1955: Name of Opland changed to Oppland.
9. 1972-01-01: Bergen county merged with Hordaland. Before the merger, Bergen was the capital of both. Bergen's county number was 13, and its FIPS code, NO03.

Other names of subdivisions: 

The letters Ö ö sometimes appear instead of Ø ø, even in Norwegian sources. The word 'og' means 'and', and is sometimes translated.

1. Aust-Agder: Austur-Agðir (Icelandic); Nedenes (obsolete)
2. Finnmark: Finmarken (obsolete); Finnmárkku (Sami); Finnmörk (Icelandic)
3. Hedmark: Hedemarken (obsolete); Heiðmörk (Icelandic)
4. Hordaland: Hörðaland (Icelandic); Søndre Bergenhus (obsolete)
5. Møre og Romsdal: Møre, Romsdal (obsolete)
6. Nord-Trøndelag: Nordre Trondhjem (obsolete); Norður-Þrændalög (Icelandic)
7. Oppland: Kristian, Opland (obsolete); Upplönd (Icelandic)
8. Oslo: Kristiania (obsolete); Osló (Icelandic)
9. Østfold: Austfold (Icelandic); Smaalenene (obsolete)
10. Rogaland: Stavanger (obsolete)
11. Sogn og Fjordane: Nordre Bergenhus (obsolete); Sogn og Firða-Fylki (Icelandic)
12. Sør-Trøndelag: Søndre Trondhjem (obsolete); Suður-Þrændalög (Icelandic)
13. Telemark: Bratsberg (obsolete); Þelamörk (Icelandic)
14. Troms: Romsa (Sami); Tromsø (obsolete); Troms-Fylki (Icelandic)
15. Vest-Agder: Lister og Mandal (obsolete); Vestur-Agðir (Icelandic)
16. Vestfold: Jarlsberg og Larvik (obsolete)

Population history:

The data in the following table are from source [2].

County	1769-08-15	1801-02-01	1815-04-30	1825-11-27	1835-11-29	1845-12-31	1855-12-31	1865-12-31	1875-12-31	1890-12-31	1900-12-03
Akershus	41,311	49,419	47,055	57,019	64,472	69,092	78,012	88,449	83,912	83,831	93,181
Aust-Agder	29,633	34,507	35,363	40,592	46,088	52,376	57,847	66,654	74,155	81,036	79,927
Buskerud	57,052	65,346	59,453	71,796	78,514	85,817	92,906	103,571	105,118	108,464	117,066
Finnmark	5,984	7,705	7,018	8,749	10,838	12,737	16,389	20,329	24,185	29,170	32,800
Hedmark	48,881	61,715	60,520	71,938	80,758	88,051	102,301	120,312	119,363	118,654	125,719
Hordaland	63,757	77,916	80,689	94,132	106,719	114,973	126,908	138,604	153,256	179,599	205,771
Møre og Romsdal	49,328	57,325	56,452	63,871	72,502	81,313	90,282	104,361	116,780	127,804	136,137
Nordland	40,835	52,055		53,465	59,458	66,296	77,499	89,536	103,222	131,650	151,916
Nord-Trøndelag	30,856	42,666	43,459	51,660	58,935	65,467	73,530	82,443	81,377	81,196	83,391
Oppland	55,488	65,593	67,953	81,760	93,627	101,469	113,785	124,581	115,080	108,066	116,268
Oslo	13,874	16,806	17,851	25,738	30,645	40,349	49,768	76,367	107,834	166,535	250,692
Østfold	43,117	50,141	47,189	57,521	65,296	73,622	84,416	98,863	107,562	120,360	136,886
Rogaland	36,092	42,213	47,394	57,656	68,026	80,223	93,903	107,364	116,090	119,303	129,819
Sogn og Fjordane	44,082	52,599	55,825	63,787	70,775	77,977	81,495	86,801	86,107	87,550	89,038
Sør-Trøndelag	47,418	60,736	61,916	71,730	80,157	89,646	96,811	109,694	117,289	124,338	135,894
Telemark	38,021	47,451	48,987	57,657	67,719	72,816	76,467	81,953	83,484	91,963	98,983
Troms	12,757	19,374		21,953	26,861	31,438	38,357	45,476	54,088	65,333	74,599
Vest-Agder	34,343	41,548	46,557	52,032	58,329	63,468	68,628	75,177	78,505	78,737	81,567
Vestfold	31,297	38,484	40,632	48,193	55,105	61,244	70,736	81,214	86,019	97,325	100,223
Totals	724,126	883,599	824,313	1,051,249	1,194,824	1,328,374	1,490,040	1,701,749	1,813,426	2,000,914	2,239,877

 

County	1900-12-03	1910-12-01	1920-12-01	1930-12-01	1946-12-03	1950-12-01	1960-11-01	1970-11-01	1980-11-01	1990-11-03	2001-11-03
Akershus	93,181	98,870	126,407	149,995	170,173	183,013	233,746	322,320	368,575	417,719	476,440
Aust-Agder	79,927	76,447	74,692	73,808	74,853	75,780	77,054	80,575	90,645	97,333	102,848
Buskerud	117,066	129,205	144,867	151,918	160,933	168,247	182,481	198,178	214,349	225,106	239,591
Finnmark	32,800	38,065	44,190	53,308	58,790	64,475	71,982	75,791	78,356	74,524	73,936
Hedmark	125,719	133,982	149,025	157,420	168,999	172,566	176,750	178,922	187,236	187,276	187,878
Hordaland	205,771	220,697	245,310	260,239	296,112	308,164	338,265	369,430	388,084	407,427	437,766
Møre og Romsdal	136,137	144,621	159,387	165,062	182,856	191,436	213,025	223,359	236,174	238,409	243,888
Nordland	151,916	164,403	173,826	186,920	215,971	221,701	237,193	240,462	244,528	239,311	237,561
Nord-Trøndelag	83,391	84,908	89,221	96,016	105,679	109,860	116,635	117,718	125,861	127,157	127,444
Oppland	116,268	119,223	129,136	137,696	154,718	160,405	166,093	172,159	180,774	182,578	183,302
Oslo	250,692	271,027	312,063	340,094	417,225	434,076	475,599	477,948	452,299	461,190	512,093
Østfold	136,886	152,306	160,128	167,030	178,449	185,419	202,641	220,892	233,335	238,296	252,520
Rogaland	129,819	143,213	168,768	175,693	204,948	214,133	241,377	270,911	308,213	340,644	380,913
Sogn og Fjordane	89,038	90,039	90,113	91,806	96,848	97,678	99,842	100,760	105,904	106,659	107,261
Sør-Trøndelag	135,894	148,927	167,399	175,477	194,449	198,268	212,104	233,420	244,600	250,978	266,098
Telemark	98,983	108,004	125,177	127,703	131,629	136,327	149,802	156,405	162,054	162,907	165,732
Troms	74,599	82,198	90,763	97,482	113,740	117,517	127,569	136,224	146,825	146,716	151,646
Vest-Agder	81,567	82,067	82,807	81,233	93,979	96,930	108,875	124,013	136,622	144,917	157,697
Vestfold	100,223	103,582	116,495	125,297	136,603	142,559	160,209	174,640	186,698	198,399	216,333
Totals	2,239,877	2,391,784	2,649,774	2,814,197	3,156,954	3,278,554	3,591,242	3,874,127	4,091,132	4,247,546	4,520,947

Sources: 

1. [1] Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen  (Historical overview of changes in municipal and county division). Statistisk sentralbyrå report (retrieved 2007-02-20).
2. [2] Folke- og boligtellingen 2001 , on the Statistisk sentralbyrå website (retrieved 2004-10-12). I clicked on each of the county or city names, then on Fylkeshefte, then on Tabeller. These data differ somewhat from the data in the book "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries". One possible reason is that the Statistisk sentralbyrå may have corrected the data to reflect the present-day boundaries. Another possibility is that the figures were adjusted by small amounts at random, in order to circumvent any attempt to identify an individual person's data. Totals in the population history table were calculated by adding up the individual county data.
3. [3] "Hvem Hva Hvor." Chr. Schibsteds Forlag. Oslo, 1964.
4. [4] Fourth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, Vol. II, United Nations, New York, 1987.
5. [5] Sterke regioner  (Strong regions) is a report on proposals for region creation from KS (Kommunesektorens interesse- og arbeidsgiverorganisasjon), retrieved 2011-12-23.