Decrease in child benefit recipients in 2018

Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB scanpix

Decrease in the number of child benefit recipients in 2018

For the first time in 20 years, the number of recipients of child benefits went down in 2018. The reason is that there is a decrease in the number of births in Norway.


At the end of December, there were 670,940 recipients of child benefits in Norway. This is 2,139 fewer than at the same time the year before, according to statistics from Nav.

In 2018, the long-term growth we have seen in the number of child benefit recipients stopped. This is due to the fact that since 2009 there has been a decrease in the birth rate in Norway, says statistics director Ulf Andersen in Nav in a press release.

By women only

The reduction corresponds to a decrease of 0.3 percent, and the decline has taken place exclusively among women. Among the female recipients, the decline was 0.6 percent, while among men it rose by 1.7 percent in the same period.

There is an increase among male recipients of child benefit. Nav explains that there is an increased number of male foreign nationals who work in Norway and are entitled to child benefit, and that several of those who divorce choose shared housing and thus share the child benefit between them.

The age of recipients of child benefit has also increased. This is because the average age of first-time women has increased in recent years.


© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
RSS Feed