Adoptions, 2002

Except from China, only Colombia and South Korea had more than 100 adoptions to Norway. From Colombia there where 129 adoptions, a small increase from 2001. From South Korea 106 children were adopted, and this was a small decrease from the year before. About 70 per cent of all the foreign adoptions in 2002 came from these three countries.

Other countries with relatively many adoptions were Ethiopia and The Philippines with 40 adoptions each and India with 37.

If we do not take stepchildren into consideration, the foreign adoptions counted for almost 95 per cent. There were 47 Norwegians who were adopted to others than their stepmother or stepfather.

Age varies according to country

The age of the adopted varied according to the country the adoption was from, but also according to type. The highest proportion of children younger than 1 year came from South Korea, while most of the children from China and Colombia were 1-2 years old. In the age group 3-11 years there were many children from Brazil and The Philippines. Most of the adoptions above 12 years were stepchildren.

60 per cent of the adopted were girls

More than 60 per cent of all the adopted in 2002 were girls, but from most countries there were more boys than girls. This is because most of the adopted children from China were girls, as in previous years. There were about 10 boys and 300 girls among the Chinese children. There were also more girls than boys from India.

Most adoptions in Akershus and Hordaland

In absolute numbers there were most adoptions in Akershus with 140 and Hordaland with 125.

In relation to the population within the age group 25-44 years, the national average was 0.75 adoptions per 1000 inhabitants. The counties with the largest number of adoptions in 2002 were Aust-Agder, with 1.28 adoptions per 1 000 inhabitants, Hordaland with 0.99 and Akershus with 0.97. The county with the smallest number of adoptions per 1 000 inhabitants was Finnmark with 0.41.

Small decline in the proportion of adopted stepchildren

From 2001 to 2002 there was no change in the absolute number of adopted stepchildren, but since the 1970s there has been a decrease in the number of adopted stepchildren and an increase in the number of other adoptions. A consequence is that the proportion of adopted stepchildren has declined steadily since the beginning of the 1980s until today. In 2002 about 18 per cent of the adopted were stepchildren - while it was 16 per cent in 2001. In the 1970s between 40 and 50 per cent of all adopted were stepchildren. Most of the adopted stepchildren were Norwegians; 140 of total 157¹ adopted stepchildren in 2002 had Norwegian citizenship.

Who can adopt?

See law on adoption of 28.02.1986 no.8 (last changed on 1 January 2002) at:

http://www.lovdata.no/all/nl-19860228-008.html

Tables:

• Table 1 Adoptions, by the relationship of the adoptive parents to the child before adoption, and by the child's previous citizenship. 1966-2002 (Corrected 15 August 2003)
• Table 2 Adoptions, by the relationship of the adoptive parents to the child before adoption, and by the child's previous citizenship, sex and age. 2002 (Corrected 15 August 2003)
• Table 3 Adoptions, by the child's sex, age and previous citizenship. 2002
• Table 4 Adoptions, by the child's previous citizenship. Both sexes. 1997-2002
• Table 5 Adoptions, by the child's previous citizenship. Boys. 1997-2002
• Table 6 Adoptions, by the child's previous citizenship. Girls. 1997-2002