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Statistics on
Population and land area in urban settlements
The statistics show population, area and population density in urban settlements. It also provides the number of inhabitants residing in densely and sparsely populated areas by municipality and county.
Selected figures from these statistics
- Population and area in urban settlements. 1 January.Download table as ...Population and area in urban settlements. 1 January.
2026 2025 -2026 Population Change Change in per cent Residents in urban settlements 4 696 257 33 312 0.7 Residents in rural settlements 921 637 -1 286 -0.1 Area of urban settlements (km²) 2 298.64 12.79 0.56 Nummer of residents per km² in urban settlements 2 043 3 0.2 Proportion residents in urban settlements, per cent 83.45 0.10 0.1 Residents in the five largest urban settlements Oslo 1 119 478 8 591 0.8 Bergen 274 589 963 0.4 Stavanger/Sandnes 244 378 2 734 1.1 Trondheim 202 397 1 745 0.9 Drammen 126 230 550 0.4 Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ... - Population and area in urban settlements with more than 50 000 residents, by municipalityDownload table as ...Population and area in urban settlements with more than 50 000 residents, by municipality
Number of residents Area of urban settlements (km²) Quantity Share (%) Quantity Share (%) Oslo Oslo municipality 724 584 64.7 129.49 46.8 Bærum municipality 131 766 11.8 48.44 17.5 Asker municipality 74 909 6.7 37.47 13.5 Lillestrøm municipality 64 882 5.8 22.01 8.0 Lørenskog municipality 51 095 4.6 12.87 4.7 Nordre Follo municipality 42 690 3.8 15.00 5.4 Rælingen municipality 15 683 1.4 4.64 1.7 Nittedal municipality 11 243 1.0 4.94 1.8 Lier municipality 2 626 0.2 1.72 0.6 In total 1 119 478 276.57 Bergen Bergen municipality 274 589 90.70 Stavanger/Sandnes Stavanger municipality 140 797 57.6 41.66 51.9 Sandnes municipality 68 714 28.1 23.21 28.9 Sola municipality 24 526 10.0 11.85 14.8 Randaberg municipality 10 341 4.2 3.56 4.4 In total 244 378 80.28 Trondheim Trondheim municipality 202 397 59.59 Drammen Drammen municipality 97 304 77.1 35.31 67.6 Lier municipality 18 278 14.5 10.09 19.3 Øvre Eiker municipality 10 104 8.0 6.56 12.6 Holmestrand municipality 544 0.4 0.28 0.5 In total 126 230 52.24 Fredrikstad/Sarpsborg Fredrikstad municipality 72 468 58.6 36.10 59.0 Sarpsborg municipality 51 140 41.4 25.06 41.0 In total 123 608 61.16 Porsgrunn/Skien Skien municipality 51 611 53.1 26.70 48.7 Porsgrunn municipality 35 085 36.1 21.72 39.6 Bamble municipality 10 544 10.8 6.38 11.6 In total 97 240 54.80 Kristiansand Kristiansand municipality 68 300 24.83 Tønsberg Tønsberg municipality 38 406 67.4 16.10 60.7 Færder municipality 18 605 32.6 10.45 39.4 In total 57 011 26.54 Ålesund Ålesund municipality 47 565 83.8 22.02 75.4 Sula municipality 9 198 16.2 7.20 24.6 In total 56 763 29.22 Moss Moss municipality 44 161 86.6 18.44 82.0 Vestby municipality 6 843 13.4 4.06 18.0 In total 51 004 22.50 Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ... - Population in densely and sparsely populated areas. CountyDownload table as ...Population in densely and sparsely populated areas. County
2026 Densely populated area Sparsley populated area Unknown Total Share in densely populated areas Østfold 276 298 39 662 488 316 448 87.3 Akershus 682 318 65 477 1 412 749 207 91.1 Oslo - Oslove 724 904 1 640 2 170 728 714 99.5 Innlandet 231 437 147 657 394 379 488 61.0 Buskerud 226 509 46 025 447 272 981 83.0 Vestfold 224 435 34 565 332 259 332 86.5 Telemark 140 204 37 514 205 177 923 78.8 Agder 260 297 63 210 423 323 930 80.4 Rogaland 452 233 55 806 883 508 922 88.9 Vestland 536 782 120 630 930 658 342 81.5 Møre og Romsdal 204 662 68 107 400 273 169 74.9 Trøndelag - Trööndelage 374 548 113 887 731 489 166 76.6 Nordland - Nordlánnda 176 420 66 568 284 243 272 72.5 Troms - Romsa - Tromssa 126 116 44 814 288 171 218 73.7 Finnmark - Finnmárku - Finmarkku 59 094 16 075 119 75 288 78.5 Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ... - New and discontinued urban settlements. 2026Download table as ...New and discontinued urban settlements. 2026
Urban area Population Area (sq. Km) Municipality Comment 0231 Fosby 345 0.41 3124 Aremark Back on the list. Last listed in 2016 0546 Spro 298 0.24 3212 Nesodden New urban settlement 0587 Setskog 200 0.19 3226 Aurskog Back on the list. Last listed in 2022 1714 Stavseng 251 0.03 3450 Etnedal New urban settlement 2083 Nedre Sirerudningen 314 0.01 3328 Ål New urban settlement 2156 Spikkestad (merged with Drammen) 5 599 2.51 3203 Asker Back on the list. Last listed in 1998. Separated from Drammen 4744 Bru 283 0.20 1103 Stavanger Back on the list. Last listed in 2021 5031 Førde 340 0.33 4612 Sveio Back on the list. Last listed in 2024 5082 Landa 252 0.19 4617 Kvinnherad New urban settlement 5177 Heggland 237 0.22 4624 Bjørnafjorden New urban settlement 5248 Rissundet 223 0.13 4631 Alver New urban settlement 5282 Uggdalseidet 316 0.40 4616 Tysnes Back on the list. Last listed in 2023 6101 Sylte 375 0.53 1578 Fjord Back on the list. Last listed in 2012 7058 Eidsbotn 211 0.19 5037 Levanger Back on the list. Last listed in 2021 7805 Borg 216 0.21 1860 Vestvågøy New urban settlement 0124 Finnestad 211 0.22 3118 Indre Østfold Discontinued urban settlement 0524 Kjærnes 318 0.27 3218 Ås Discontinued urban settlement. Merged with Ski 1163 Drevsjø 278 0.47 3425 Engerdal Discontinued urban settlement 1585 Sandbumoen 242 0.24 3437 Sel Discontinued urban settlement 2144 Tranby 5 322 2.15 3312 Lier Discontinued urban settlement. Merged with Drammen 4015 Farestad 226 0.20 4205 Lindesnes Discontinued urban settlement 5523 Austreim 347 0.35 4638 Høyanger Discontinued urban settlement 5687 Flatraket 300 0.33 4649 Stad Discontinued urban settlement Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ...
About the statistics
The information under «About the statistics» was last updated 3 June 2021.
Urban settlement
A cluster of buildings shall be registered as an urban settlement if it is inhabited by at least 200 persons.
The distance between the buildings should normally not exceed 50 metres, but for some space-demanding building categories - such as apartment buildings, industrial buildings, offices / commercial buildings, schools, hospitals etc. - the distance can be increased to 200 metres.
Adjacent built-up and constructed areas, such as parks, sports facilities and industrial areas, should be part of the urban settlement.
Building clusters with at least 5 commercial buildings or 5 residential buildings are included up to a distance of 400 metres from the urban settlement core.
Urban settlements are geographical areas with dynamic boundaries. Thus the number of urban settlements and their boundaries will change over time, depending on construction activity and changes of resident population.
The delimitation of the urban settlements is independent of the administrative boundaries.
Classification of urban settlement
A standard classification of the urban settlements is:
200 - 1 999 residents
2 000 - 19 999 residents
20 000 - 99 999 residents
100 000 or more residents
In the publication Population and land area in urban settlements and from 1rst of January on the situation files, the following classification is used:
200-499 residents
500-999 residents
1 000-1 999 residents
2 000-19 999 residents
20 000-99 999 residents
100 000 or more residents
Rules for change of number and names of urban settlements
Where 2 or mor urban setttlements are merged, the new merged urban settlement is always given the number of the largest urban settlement. Where urban settlements of less than 10 000 residents are merged, only the name of the largest settlement is kept.
If a merged urban settlement overpass 10 000 residents, the name of the largest urban settlement is kept if the number of residents is more than twice the number of residents in the smallest urban settlement. Otherwise the names will be shared for the new urban settlement.
These rules apply from 1rst of January 2013 and onwards.
Name: Population and land area in urban settlements
Topic: Population
Division for Population Statistics
Besides statistics of urban settlements the statistics give figures of residents in densely and sparsely populated areas by basic statistical unit and municipality.
Yearly
None.
The code for urban settlement and sparse population is stored on the files over Norwegian residents January 1st each year.
Urban settlements are regional delimitations that can describe the urban development in Norway. The dicotomy of sparsely and densely populated areas is useful in analysis describing social, environmental and demographic variations.
The term urban settlements is used in Statistics Norway since the Population Census in 1960. The original definition is, with a few modifications, used in all the censuses since 1960.
Since 1960 to 2001 population statistics for urban settlements has been elaborated in connection with the censuses each 10 years.
Since 1990 the statistics are elaborated per 1 January each year. A new method for automatic delimitation of the urban settlements has been used since 1999. Allthough the definition of urban settlements remains the same, the statistics will differ slightly due to the new method. Figures referring to new and old method should not be compared.
In 2013, Statistics Norway introduced a new method for defining urban settlement boundaries. The urban settlements statistics are still based on information from the Central Population Register and the Ground property register, and it is still the distance between buildings that determines what areas are defined as an urban settlement. But the new method gave a more accurate delimitation, where the outer boundary in most cases will follow the boundary of roads and built-up elements. The more precise delimitation was made possible by using Statistics Norway’s delimitation of land use map.
The statistics is mainly used by civil administration (ministries, directorates, county- and municipality administrations) as well as for research purposes. Population in urban settlements is used in many analysis as an important variable in social, environmental and demographic studies.
No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 08 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given inthe Statistics Release Calendar. This is one of Statistics Norway’s key principles for ensuring that all users are treated equally.
The international recommendations and definitions are closely related to the Norwegian definition. The most important difference is that the distance between the buildings should not exceed 200 metres in the international definition, whereas the criterion is 50 metres in the Norwegian. In the nordic definition deviation from the 200 metre limit is allowed.
Statistics Norway also produce land use statistics for urban settlements.
Statistics Act § 10
None
The population is persons registered as residents in Norway. The observation unit is person.
The main data sources are the Central Population Register, the national register of Ground, Addresses and Buildings (Matrikkelen) and Statistics Norway’s delimitation of land use.
The statistic is estimated by counting the number of persons who belong to urban or rural settlement.
None
If a table consists of three or fewer units and disclosing these units can lead to identification of individuals, the figure is rounded up or left empty.
As mentioned there have been some small changes in the definition of urban settlements since 1960. During the period 1990 to 1998 the statistics have been elaborated on the basis of information from the municipalities own registration in the GAB-register. Since 1999 (expect of 2001 and 2010) the delimitation will be done by Statistics Norway using an automatic method (GIS). Data should not be compared unless the method is the same.
In 2013 the method was revised to give a more precise delimitation. The change involves a break in the time series. The area of urban settlements declined, and the number of inhabitants increased, leading to 16 percent higher population density.
The sources of error are mainly connected to the quality and completeness in the registers used. By merging the Central Population Register and the GAB register(Matrikkelen), each individual gets coordinates for their reisident. Thus, the key for the merge which is the numeric address, must be identical in the two registers.
None
In Norwegian only:
Tettstedsavgrensing og arealdekke innen tettsteder - metode og resultater. Notater (1999/29).
Tettstedsavgrensing - teknisk dokumentasjon 2000. Notater (2000/69).
Regionale inndelinger (NOS C513).
RAPP 1986/11 Statistikk for tettsteder.
Justert tettstedsavgrensing - dokumentasjon av metode. Notater (2014/28).
Contact
Relatert innhold
Analyses, articles and publications
27 October 2025Urban settlements on mapAll map layers produced by Statistics Norway are on our map portal: kart.ssb.no. Here map layers can be visualized and downloaded for your own analyses.