37 per cent of the Norwegian households consist of only one person. This is an increase from 34 per cent compared to 1990. The number of cohabiting couples has doubled the last ten years.
These are some of the preliminary figures from the Population and Housing Census 2001. Altogether there were 1,955,000 households in Norway 3 November 2001. This is an increase of more than 200,000 households from 1990. By households we mean persons living in the same dwelling.
Compared to previous censuses there are constantly more people living alone. In 1990 34 per cent of the households consisted of one person and in 1980 the number was 28 per cent. As a comparison, with the census in 1930 – only 10 per cent were at that time living alone.
The figures show that 720,000 persons live alone, which represent 16 per cent of the population. This portion has increased since 1990 when 14 per cent lived alone. 61 per cent of the occupants that are 80 years or older live alone compared to 55 per cent in 1990.
28 per cent of the households consist of two persons. While the number of married couples has gone down somewhat since 1990, the number of cohabitants has more than doubled from 1990 to 2001. In 1990 about one out of ten couples were cohabitants whereas two out of ten were cohabitants in 2001. 424,000 live as cohabitants in Norway. In the county of Vest-Agder the number is the smallest while the largest number is in Finnmark.
There is an average of 2.3 occupants in each dwelling. If we look at the last decades we find that the number of residents per dwelling has gone down from 3.3 in 1960 to 2.3 in 2001. See figure 3. In 1960 there were obvious regional differences in the number of occupants per dwelling, whereas the difference between counties was small in 2001. Oslo is unique in the country by having 1.9 occupants per dwelling. Oslo is furthermore the only county without having had a decrease in the number of occupants per dwelling since 1990. In 2001 the counties Rogaland and Sogn og Fjordane had on average the most occupants per dwelling, 2.5.
Two out of three live in single family homes
For more information, please contact paul.inge.severeide@ssb.no, telephone +47 62 88 52 90, coen.hendriks@ssb.no, telephone +47 62 88 52 49, or even.hoydahl@ssb.no, telephone +47 62 88 51 48
