100 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Norway

Recently I decided that would tweet an interesting fact or observation about life in Norway every day for 100 days, because after twelve years as a Brit living among Norwegians, my head is full of them. This is what I came up with:

#1: Norwegians eat their sandwiches like this, with no bread on top. They have special paper to stop toppings falling off when carried around.

#2: Norway is a relatively young country, only achieving true independence in 1905. This is why Norwegians tend to be deeply patriotic.

#3: Norway had just one TV channel until around 1988. They still have state-funded channels, and a license fee for NRK (which is very good).

#4: It’s very common to find shared acquaintances when you first get to know someone. ‘Everyone knows everyone’ still sort of holds true.

#5: Every person has the ‘right to roam’ over any part of the Norwegian landscape as long as it is uncultivated land.

#6: Each Norwegian is in effect a millionaire, in Kroner. The sovereign wealth (or oil) fund is valued at $950bn and is the world’s largest.

#7: There is no equivalent for the word for ‘accountability’ in use in the Nordic languages. It’s sorely needed, if you ask me.

#8: The people of Norway fly a lot. A typical Norwegian takes approximately 10 times as many domestic flights as a typical European does.

#9: Alcohol stronger than 4.7% can only be bought at a government-run store. These have limited opening times and there aren’t many of them.

#10: Research shows that Norwegian society has unusually high levels of trust. This is often identified at their greatest resource (not oil).

#11: The groundbreaking drama #SKAM (‘Shame’) was aimed at a very small core audience of Norwegian teens, yet became a worldwide phenomenon.