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People with foreign backgrounds in Norway now number over one million

The Local (news@thelocal.com)
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People with foreign backgrounds in Norway now number over one million
People born abroad or with foreign parents now number over one million in Norway. Photo by Anastasiya Dalenka on Unsplash

Latest data from Norway’s official statistics agency shows that the immigrants and the children of immigrants now count for over one million people in the Nordic nation.

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The two groups – immigrants and Norwegian-born people whose parents are both immigrants – numbered a total of 1,025,000 persons at the beginning of 2022. That represents the first time the figure has reached seven digits, according to Statistics Norway (SSB).

The 819,400 immigrants that form part of that total represent 15.1 percent of Norway’s population, SSB writes.

The data also show that 19,300 more immigrants and Norwegian-born people with immigrant parents lived in Norway on January 1st this year compared to the year before.

The increase in 2021 is bigger than the increase in 2020, when Covid-19 restrictions resulted in the lowest increase in immigrants settled in Norway since 2002.

People with Polish nationality formed the largest group when the statistics are broken down by individual country. 105,500 people with immigrant background in Poland lived in Norway at the beginning of this year. The next-largest group, Lithuanians, number 42,000.

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Third and fourth-largest groups by nationality were Swedes and Syrians with 35,900 and 34,400 respectively.

In capital city Oslo, the number of residents with immigrant background had increased by 900 over the 12 months leading up to January 1st this year, giving a total of 177,900 foreign or foreign-heritage residents, 25.4 percent of the city’s population.

The Oslo figure generally increases more than this each year, with an increase of between 2,400 and 8,900 each year from 2010 onwards, not including 2020. The number has been trending downwards since 2015.

The Norwegian municipality with largest increase in the number of immigrant residents was Lillestrøm, with 1,500 or a 1.2 percent increase, giving an overall proportion of 22 percent of the municipality’s population.

Norwegian-born people (who may not have Norwegian citizenship) whose parents are immigrants comprised 205,800 or 3.8 percent of the population at the turn of the year. The group increased by 8,000 or 4 percent in number over the preceding twelve months – the smallest increase since 2011.

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