Content
About the statistics
Definitions
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Name and topic
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Name: Births
Topic: Population
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Next release
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Responsible division
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Division for Population Statistics
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Definitions of the main concepts and variables
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Residents : Who is counted as a resident of Norway and where in Norway a person is counted as a resident is stipulated in the Population Registration Act of 16 January 1970. The regulations of the act were amended effective 1 February 1980.
Birth rates: Live births during a period divided by women of an age group, usually one-year and five-year age groups. The period is usually one year. For five-year periods the tables are published with the average for the five-year period, e.g., age-specific fertility rates are live births per 1 000 women of an age group.
Age at time of giving birth: Observed age at time of giving birth is the average age of the mother based on actual births during the period. Hypothetical age at time of giving birth is the average age of the mother/father, which is not affected by variations in the size of the cohorts.
The median age is the age in which half of the women were younger or equal to this age. Starting in 1999 information about the age of the father at the time of the child's birth was included for the first time.
Reproduction rate: Gross reproduction rate is the average number of girls born alive who under the prevailing fertility conditions are born to a woman who survives her entire reproductive period (15 to 44 years). This reproduction rate does not take into consideration the fact that some women die before or during their reproductive period.
Net reproduction rate corresponds to gross reproduction rate, but also takes current mortality factors into consideration.
Overall fertility rate: Average number of babies born alive per woman in the course of her life, under the provision that the fertility pattern in the period applies to the woman's entire reproductive period (15-49 years) and that deaths do not occur. The birth rate is determined by the number of women of reproductive age and their fertility.
Age: Age is usually the mother's age in years at the time of the birth of the child. Mother's age at the end of the year is used in the table that shows the average number of live births per woman within selected ages, for cohorts of women from 1850 to 1975.
Stillbirths: Foetuses born without signs of life after least 28 weeks gestation.
Live births: A live birth is defined as a foetus that shows signs of life at birth.
Marital status (applies to the variable, marital status of mother/father): After the Act on Registered Partnerships for Homosexual Couples became law on 1 August 1993, the following marital status divisions apply: Unmarried, married, widow/widower, divorced, separated, registered partner, separated partner, divorced partner and surviving partner. Before 1994 the five former divisions applied.
From 2001, cohabitating parents are included in the statistics. Earlier statistics have only had the official values; e.g. separated between in wedlock or not in wedlock. The new variable has three values: in wedlock, cohabitating parents and single parents. To fulfil the criteria for cohabitating parents the parents must have the same address at the date of birth or in the following three months after birth.