Fewer immigrants to Norway

People at Karl Johan in Oslo.Photo: Vidar Ruud / NTB scanpix

About 52,000 immigrants came to Norway in 2018. This is the lowest level since 2006, figures from Statistics Norway show.

In addition, about 34,000 people emigrated from Norway last year, which gives a net immigration of around 18,000, according to Statistics Norway.

Immigration has fallen every year since the peak years 2011 and 2012, when around 80,000 immigrated to Norway. Net immigration at the same time around 47,000.

Most immigrants from Syria
Syrian citizens contributed the most of the net immigration last year. There were 3,800 people from Syria who moved to Norway in 2018, while just under 100 people left.

This trend is also seen for migrants from Eritrea and Congo. More people come here, but few move out. Last year, 1,072 immigrants from Eritrea came to Norway, while 41 moved out. At the same time, there were 674 immigrants from Congo. No one moved out.

The pattern is another for nationals from countries where there are mostly labor immigrants. There were as many Polish citizens who moved from Norway as last year. When it came to citizens of Estonia and Sweden, more people moved out of the country than into.

Lowest birth rate since 1987
Around 55,000 children were born in Norway in 2018, which is the lowest birth rate since 1987. At the same time, around 41,000 people died. The birth surplus was thus around 14,300 last year, which is a decrease of around 1,600 from the previous year.

Oslo had the largest birth surplus last year, while in the counties Hedmark, Oppland, Telemark, Sogn and Fjordane and Nordland there were more who died than was born.

This gives a total population growth of around 33,000. There are about half of the above-mentioned peak years, when around 5,000 more children were born at the same time.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today