Estimated population at the term of the year, 1 January 2013

The population growth of 67 600 will be approximately twice as high as in the years preceding 2006. In the seven years from 2006 onwards, the population growth has totalled 413 000. Not since 1920 has the percentage growth been at the same level. Seventy-two per cent of the population growth will come from migration surplus from abroad, and 28 per cent will be due to the birth surplus. Earlier figures show that the birth surplus in the middle of the 1990s was around 70 per cent. A net migration from abroad of 48 600 will be the highest result ever recorded; 1 600 higher than in the previous peak year of 2011. A birth excess of 19 000 will be at the same level as in the years from 2008 onwards, but before that we must go back to the years preceding 1975 to find higher figures.

Continuing growth in central populated areas

Population growth in the big cities and central areas continues. However, while 37 per cent of the growth took place in Oslo and Akershus last year, the percentage for these areas in 2012 will be 30.