Norway¶

Area

Europe

Norway is a country of incredible beauty and biological diversity, with its famous fjords along its huge North Atlantic coastline and 60,000 or more animal species in its large number of different habitats. The area has been inhabited for at least 12,000 years. The Viking age lasted from the 8th to 11th centuries, and sometime around the end of the 9th century the land was first united under one Viking king.

Norway's economy underwent rapid expansion after World War II, first due mainly to shipping and later (1970s onward) due to oil and natural gas development. Today, Norway is the wealthiest country in the world with the largest capital reserve per capita of any nation on earth. In August 2009 Norway's Government Pension Fund announced that it owned 1% of all the stocks in the world.

The people of Norway have twice rejected membership in the European Union. They are a founding member of NATO and the UN, to whom they are one of the largest financial contributors. Norway was an early adopter of women's rights, minority rights, and LGBT rights. They placed second in the 2008 Environmental Performance Index and first in the 2009 Worldwide Press Freedom Index. (Along with Denmark, Finland, Ireland, and Sweden. By comparison, Canada ranks #19 and USA is #20.) The death penalty was abolished in 1902, and Norway has the lowest homicide rate in the world. A recent Gallup poll reveals that for 80% of Norway's citizens religion does not occupy an important place in their life, making Norway one of the most secular countries in the world.

Norway on Wikipedia