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850 000 people live alone
statistikk
2009-04-02T10:00:00.000Z
Population
en
familie, Families and households, household types (for example living alone, couples with/without children), private households, household size, family types (for example married couples with/without children, mother/father with children, cohabitants with children), single, parents' cohabitation arrangements, single parents, step parents, siblings (e.g. brother/sister, half brother/sister and step brother/sister), only child.Children, families and households, Population
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Families and households, 1 January 2009

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850 000 people live alone

There were 2 143 000 private households in Norway on 1 January 2009, an increase of 38 000 from the year before. The greatest increase occurred among people living alone. 40 per cent of all households in Norway1 now consists of one person, which means that nearly 20 per cent of all residents, or 852 000 people, live alone.

Persons in private households, living alone. 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2009. Numbers and per cent

The average size of a private household is 2.2 people per household, down from 3.3 in 1960. The decrease in household size continues, but at a slower pace than in the sixties, seventies and eighties.

One in five live alone

The share of one-person households is still increasing, up from 4 per cent in 1960 to10 per cent in 1980, and is now at 18 per cent. About half of the population live in households with children under 18 years of age. The remaining third live in households with several people, but without children under 18 years of age.

Persons in private households, by type of household. Per cent. The whole country and counties

Persons in private households. Per cent. Urban districts in Oslo

Oslo has the largest group of people living alone, with 30 per cent of the population, followed by Sør-Trøndelag and Troms counties at 19 and 18 per cent of population, respectively. Nord-Trøndelag, Sogn and Fjordane and Akershus counties have the lowest share of one-person households.

Large variations in different districts in Oslo

The share of the population living alone varies a lot between the urban districts in Oslo. In the district of St. Hanshaugen about 50 per cent of the residents live alone, while only 13 per cent of the population of Søndre Nordstrand do the same.

The statistical basis

The statistics are based on registers and legal residence address on 1 January 2009. This means that unmarried students registered at their parents' address are regarded as members of the household of their parents. Experience shows that statistics based on registers and legal residence address result in larger households, fewer one-person households and fewer cohabiting couples than statistics from surveys based on interviews and place of usual residence. The advantage of the kind of register statistics presented here is that it can be broken down to very precise geographical areas.

1Corrected 02.04.2009 at 11:23 a.m.

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