Persons with refugee background, 1 January 2002

Refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iraq were the two largest groups of foreign nationalities with 13 000 and 11 500 persons, respectively. The number of refugees from Serbia-Montenegro declined by 1 100 persons during 2001. This can partly be explained by the voluntary return of Kosovo- Albanians that started in 1999.

28 per cent of the immigrant population are refugees

Refugees made up 28 per cent of the total immigrant population on the 1st of January 2002. This group is also included in immigrant population as first generation immigrants who came to Norway because they had to flee their own country (family included). Children born in Norway by refugees do not count in the statistics of refugees. Around one third of the refugee population came from Eastern Europe, while the rest came from third world countries (Asia, Africa, South and Central America and Turkey).

Three quarters of the refugees were registered as principal applicants on the 1^{s t} of January last year, while the rest came to Norway as relatives of refugees. Of those registered as the principal applicant, 65 per cent were asylum seekers and 23 per cent transfer refugees.

Most refugees live in Oslo

Approximately one third of the refugees lives in Oslo. The refugee population increased by 1 600 from 2001 to 2002. Refugees made up 5 per cent of the total population in the capita, while the immigrant population accounted for 20 per cent of the population.

Differences in the duration of residence

33 per cent of the refugees have lived in Norway less than five years, while only 5 per cent have lived in Norway 20 years or more. 97 per cent of the refugees from Chile have lived in Norway more than ten years, while the percentage for the Vietnamese refugees was 83. On the contrary, 82 per cent of the Afghani and 76 per cent of the Iraqis have lived in Norway less than five years.

Improvement of data

Statistics Norway made up a general view of the persons resident in Norway who have came to Norway because of flight (family connection to refugee included). Statistics about refugees is based on information from the Population Register of Statistics Norway and the registers of the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration. We made improvements in the refugee statistics after the publishing of data from 2001, especially according to country background of persons from former Yugoslavia, Soviet Union, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Israel/Palestinian Territory.

Improvements for 2001 are also done according to refugee status ' principal applicants'. These alterations are published in table nr 1 for 2001:" Different definitions of refugees , by country background and refugee status . 1 January 2001 ".

Tables:

• Table 1 Different definitions of refugees, by country background and refugee status. 1 January 2002.
• Table 2 Refugees, by country background and duration of residence in Norway. 1 January 2002
• Table 3 Different definitions of refugees, by country background and age. 1 January 2002.
• Table 4 Refugees, by country background, citizenship and sex. 1 January 2002