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Housing conditions, register-based

The statistics provide an overview of the housing conditions of all persons and households in Norway. This includes, among other things, homeownership, overcrowding, building type, and accessibility.

Updated: 14 September 2026
Next update: Not yet determined

Selected figures from these statistics

  • Households by tenure status and crowded dwelling, per cent and number.
    Households by tenure status and crowded dwelling, per cent and number.1
    Households (per cent)Number of households2024 - 20252024 - 2025
    202420252025Change in numberPercentage change
    Tenure status
    Owner72.672.71 896 75420 0211.1
    Freeholder59.259.21 545 33414 6641.0
    Part- / share holder13.413.5351 4205 3571.5
    Tenant27.427.3713 6235 8390.8
    Crowded dwelling
    Live in crowded dwelling, few rooms and sq.m.6.66.6172 9421 1400.7
    Live in spacious dwelling, many rooms and sq.m.89.089.02 323 42724 3101.1
    Unknown4.44.4113 9844100.4
    1The statistics were revised on September 14, 2026. All tables have been updated for the period 2015-2025.
    Explanation of symbols
  • Households by tenure status and county
    Households by tenure status and county1
    2025
    TotalFreeholderPart- / share holderTenantTenants (per cent)
    The whole country2 610 3771 545 334351 420713 62327.3
    Østfold146 17586 00921 95438 21226.1
    Akershus315 160211 23627 97175 95324.1
    Oslo - Oslove355 771125 513110 045120 21333.8
    Innlandet185 063120 87414 84949 34026.7
    Buskerud126 43475 88716 30834 23927.1
    Vestfold121 48373 20216 92531 35625.8
    Telemark85 42150 53114 00020 89024.5
    Agder148 810101 4369 56637 80825.4
    Rogaland220 385148 75617 84253 78724.4
    Vestland305 404182 39439 14883 86227.5
    Møre og Romsdal125 16985 3678 41031 39225.1
    Trøndelag - Trööndelage238 130138 43930 61369 07829.0
    Nordland - Nordlánnda117 98874 05012 88731 05126.3
    Troms - Romsa - Tromssa82 87249 1618 61325 09830.3
    Finnmark - Finnmárku - Finmarkku36 11222 4792 28911 34431.4
    1The statistics were revised on September 14, 2026. All tables have been updated for the period 2015-2025.
    Explanation of symbols
  • Households by crowded dwelling and county
    Households by crowded dwelling and county
    2025202520252025
    Live in crowded dwelling, few rooms and sq.m.Live in spacious dwelling, many rooms and sq.m.UnknownNumber of households
    The whole country6.689.04.42 610 353
    Østfold5.089.65.3146 176
    Akershus6.488.55.0315 158
    Oslo - Oslove13.883.03.2355 771
    Innlandet4.492.03.7185 073
    Buskerud5.589.64.9126 437
    Vestfold4.389.26.4121 480
    Telemark4.491.54.185 417
    Agder4.691.14.3148 807
    Rogaland4.691.04.4220 371
    Vestland6.289.54.3305 416
    Møre og Romsdal4.891.73.5125 163
    Trøndelag - Trööndelage7.088.14.8238 121
    Nordland - Nordlánnda5.390.83.9117 980
    Troms - Romsa - Tromssa6.090.13.982 865
    Finnmark - Finnmárku - Finmarkku5.789.94.436 118
    Explanation of symbols
  • Households by type of building and county
    Households by type of building and county1
    2025
    Dwellings totalDetached houseHouse with two dwellingsRow house, linked house and house with 3 or 4 dwellingsMulti-dwelling buildingOther residential buildingUnknown type of building
    The whole country2 610 4111 204 283224 305313 463675 353112 93380 074
    Østfold146 17472 82015 73120 34826 4075 2875 581
    Akershus315 162134 86629 80246 63582 79310 03211 034
    Oslo - Oslove355 76727 61820 55831 177250 09217 1959 127
    Innlandet185 079123 06214 12015 21519 1489 0724 462
    Buskerud126 43665 81612 91114 45024 4245 2973 538
    Vestfold121 48361 30011 47317 45320 3976 1394 721
    Telemark85 41252 5726 5029 13910 7834 1152 301
    Agder148 82485 93211 12717 34422 1957 4134 813
    Rogaland220 383114 83022 21029 66139 4677 5596 656
    Vestland305 421144 39124 03340 33776 17110 7949 695
    Møre og Romsdal125 15873 04513 66916 55313 4245 9462 521
    Trøndelag - Trööndelage238 126107 31520 83528 17559 58513 4078 809
    Nordland - Nordlánnda118 00171 16910 55413 22714 3765 3843 291
    Troms - Romsa - Tromssa82 86547 0816 9579 53913 3653 4392 484
    Finnmark - Finnmárku - Finmarkku36 12022 4663 8234 2102 7261 8541 041
    1The statistics were revised on September 14, 2026. All tables have been updated for the period 2015-2025.
    Explanation of symbols
  • Persons by the households tenure status and county
    Persons by the households tenure status and county
    2025
    TotalFreeholderPart- / share holderTenantTenant (per cent)
    The whole country5 490 9863 693 918627 7451 169 32321.3
    Østfold308 238205 36536 12866 74521.7
    Akershus712 106523 89654 360133 85018.8
    Oslo - Oslove697 129289 341215 585192 20327.6
    Innlandet373 575271 93722 86278 77621.1
    Buskerud265 722179 72528 06957 92821.8
    Vestfold253 589174 30027 23352 05620.5
    Telemark175 018118 35622 42234 24019.6
    Agder317 340241 35214 80461 18419.3
    Rogaland493 142369 08030 89093 17218.9
    Vestland653 066447 66870 697134 70120.6
    Møre og Romsdal267 761204 47912 48350 79919.0
    Trøndelag - Trööndelage491 714330 60853 746107 36021.8
    Nordland - Nordlánnda240 559171 05820 07949 42220.5
    Troms - Romsa - Tromssa168 152114 48414 64939 01923.2
    Finnmark - Finnmárku - Finmarkku73 87552 2693 73817 86824.2
    Explanation of symbols

About the statistics

The information under «About the statistics» was last updated 10 September 2026.

Person

The statistics include all persons who, according to the National Population Register, were registered as residents of a private household (see separate definition) in Norway on 1 January and who can be linked to a dwelling. Who is regarded as a resident of Norway and where a person shall be registered as residing is stipulated in the Population Registration Act of 16 January 1970 (with subsequent amendments) and the associated regulations from 1994. The total number of residents in an area is referred to as the population.

Persons are excluded from the housing conditions statistics for three reasons:

  1. Persons registered in Norway but residing abroad. Students who are registered as living with their parents while studying abroad are not included. In addition, some persons residing outside mainland Norway (on Svalbard or in military and foreign service) are excluded when other persons are registered as living in their dwelling in Norway.

  2. Persons who are not living in a private household. This group has a relatively high average age, and most reside in institutions such as nursing homes. It also includes persons with no fixed address and persons with a strictly confidential protected address.

  3. In the Housing Conditions Register, persons who cannot be linked to a dwelling are also excluded. As of 1 January 2025, approximately 64,000 persons, or 1 per cent of all residents, were removed from the population for this reason. More information about the linkage between households and dwellings is provided under Production.

Household

A household consists of persons living in the same dwelling.

The statistics cover private households, meaning persons living in the same private dwelling and not in an institution. The construction of households is described in more detail under Production. Households may consist of one or more families. Persons belonging to the same family also belong to the same household. We first determine which persons belong to the same household and subsequently identify which members of the household belong to the same family.

Dwelling

A dwelling is defined as one or more rooms that has been built or rebuilt for the purpose of being used as a round-the-year dwelling for one or more persons. It must be possible to have access to the room (-s) without having to go through another dwelling. Both dwelling units and single rooms are counted as dwellings. A dwelling unit is a conventional dwelling with at least one room and kitchen. Single rooms are living quarters with separate entrance and with access to water and toilet outside other living quarters.

The statistics include dwellings that have been assigned to a household based on the residents' registered address and additional statistical matching procedures, described in more detail under “Production”. Consequently, the number of dwellings in the Housing Conditions Statistics is lower than in Statistics Norway's dwelling statistics.

Tenure status

Shows the household's ownership status of the dwelling.

Owners include both freeholders and households owning through a housing cooperative or housing company. A household is classified as owner-occupying if at least one member of the household is registered as owning the dwelling in the Cadastre (Matrikkelen), the Norwegian Tax Administration's property register, or in their personal tax return. If none of the residents are registered as owners, the household is classified as renting the dwelling.

Crowded dwelling

This measure combines information on the number of persons, rooms and square metres in a dwelling to determine whether a household is living in crowded conditions.

The household's room requirement is calculated on the assumption that it should have access to one shared living room and a sufficient number of bedrooms, defined as one bedroom per person or one bedroom per couple.

A household is considered crowded if:

  1. The number of rooms in the dwelling is lower than the household's calculated room requirement; and
  2. The dwelling's P-area is less than 25 square metres per person.

If information on either the number of rooms or the P-area is missing, the household is considered crowded if at least one of the two conditions is met.

Number of rooms in the dwelling
Kitchens, bathrooms, storage rooms, entrance halls, corridors and similar rooms are not counted. A room must satisfy the requirements for habitable rooms under building regulations and must be at least 6 square metres.

P-area
Floor area within enclosing walls, according to Norwegian Standard NS 3940, for rooms used for short-term or long-term occupation (P-rooms).

From 2024 onwards, the concept of P-room has been discontinued. Where information on P-area is unavailable, including for some newly built dwellings, P-area is estimated from usable floor space using an adjustment factor.

Households with an uncertain dwelling linkage are assigned the value "not specified" for both number of rooms and P-area.

Type of building

Determined according to the building's primary function. Combined buildings, such as residential and commercial buildings, are classified according to the function occupying the largest share of the building's usable floor space.

The building types are aggregated from the more detailed classification used in the Cadastre (Matrikkelen).

Detached house
Includes detached houses and farmhouses.

Two-dwelling house
Includes both vertically and horizontally divided two-dwelling houses.

Terraced house, linked house and other small houses
Includes terraced houses, linked houses, atrium houses, terrace houses and other small houses containing three or more dwellings.

Block of flats
Includes apartment blocks and multi-storey residential buildings with at least two floors.

Other building type
Includes building types not covered by the other categories. Buildings intended for communal living, such as student housing, and residential care institutions are included in this group.

Unspecified building type
Households with an uncertain dwelling linkage are assigned the value "not specified".

Year of construction

The year of construction is the year when the building was ready for occupancy. The information is based on multiple sources, including the Cadastre (Matrikkelen), SEFRAK, SERG, FINN.no and population censuses.

In buildings with multiple dwellings where occupancy occurred gradually, the year of construction is defined as the year when at least half of the dwellings were ready for occupancy.

For renovated buildings, the original year of construction is used. For dwellings located in extensions where information is registered only on the extension itself, the year of construction of the extension is used.

Unspecified year of construction
In addition to households lacking information on year of construction, households with an uncertain dwelling linkage are assigned the value "not specified".

Access to an elevator

This variable indicates whether an elevator is installed in the building when the building has more than one floor, and which floor the household occupies.

Passenger elevators are included, while freight elevators and stair lifts installed in detached houses are excluded.

Number of floors in the building
The number of floors is determined from the floor information registered for the building.

Location (floor) within the building
The floor code in the dwelling number identifies the floor on which the dwelling entrance is located.

Unspecified access to an elevator
Households with an uncertain dwelling linkage are assigned the value "not specified".

Child

A child is defined as any person with no partner and no own children, who has de jure place of usual residence in the household of at least one of their parents. A child is either biological or adopted. A foster child is not considered a child in this statistics.

Immigrant

Persons who have immigrated to Norway and who were born abroad to two foreign-born parents and four foreign-born grandparents. Country of birth is primarily determined by the mother's place of residence at the time of birth.

The statistics distinguish between:

  1. Immigrants from the Nordic countries excluding Norway, EU/EFTA countries, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
  2. Immigrants from Europe outside the EU/EFTA and the United Kingdom, Africa, Asia, America excluding the United States and Canada, Oceania excluding Australia and New Zealand, and polar regions.

Equivalised income

The household's total income after tax divided by the number of consumption units in the household.

To compare income levels after tax between persons living in different types of households, as an approximation of economic well-being, it is common to take both household income and household size into account. This is done by dividing the household's total income after tax by the number of consumption units in the household.

The number of consumption units is calculated using equivalence scales. These scales take into account both that larger households need a higher income than smaller households to achieve the same standard of living and that larger households benefit from economies of scale in the consumption of goods and services such as televisions, washing machines, newspapers, broadband subscriptions and electricity. Several equivalence scales are used for different purposes. In the income and wealth statistics, the EU equivalence scale is used.

Under this scale, the first adult in the household is assigned a weight of 1.0, each additional adult a weight of 0.5, and each child below the age of 17 a weight of 0.3. According to this scale, a household consisting of two adults and two children must have an income 2.1 times higher than that of a single-person household in order to have the same economic well-being.

Income quartiles

All households are divided into four equally sized groups according to their equivalised income (see definition above). The lowest quartile consists of the quarter of households with the lowest equivalised income. The second quartile consists of the quarter with the second lowest equivalised income. The third quartile consists of the quarter with the second highest equivalised income, and the highest quartile consists of the quarter with the highest equivalised income.

Low income, 60 per cent

All households with an equivalised income below 60 per cent of the median income. The median income is the value at the midpoint of the income distribution when equivalised income for the entire population is ranked in ascending or descending order. Thus, there are as many persons with a higher income as there are persons with a lower income.

Recipients of housing allowance

Households that received housing allowance from the Norwegian State Housing Bank during the income year.

Recipients of social assistance

Households where the main income earner received NOK 1,000 or more in social assistance during the income year.

Total income

The sum of employment income, capital income, taxable transfers and tax-free transfers received during the calendar year. Assessed taxes and other negative transfers are not deducted.

Recipients of National Insurance benefits

Households where the main income earner received more than half of their total income from the National Insurance Scheme. Figures are presented separately for households where the main income earner is below 67 years of age and 67 years of age or older. The latter group is dominated by recipients of old-age pensions.

High debt burden

Households with total debt equal to or greater than three times the household's total income.

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