Statistikk innhold
Statistics on
Municipal housing
The statistics cover dwellings that the municipality has at its disposal for rental through a tenancy agreement, for example nursing and care dwellings, dwellings for refugees and dwellings for the financially disadvantaged. They also cover the municipalities’ use of temporary accommodation and night shelters.
Selected figures from these statistics
- Public housing. Figures for the country as a wholeDownload table as ...Public housing. Figures for the country as a whole
2023 2024 2025 Total number of municipal disposed dwellings (number) 115 583 117 598 116 819 Dwellings with municipal right of disposal, per 1000 inhabitants (number) 21 21 21 Share of municipal dwellings accessible for wheelchairs users (per cent) 46 46 47 Gross investment expenditures, public housing and related services, per capita ( 1 658 1 651 1 594 Wages per owned municipal dwelling (NOK) 13 388 14 063 14 749 Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ...
About the statistics
The information under «About the statistics» was last updated 19 September 2026.
Dwelling
A dwelling is one or more rooms built or converted for year-round residential use for one or more persons. There must be access to the rooms without passing through another dwelling. A dwelling is for example a detached house, a terraced house, a flat in a two-family house, a flat in an apartment building or a bedsit. A bedsit in a private house is a dwelling if it has its own entrance.
In bedsit houses and similar with several bedsits or bedrooms, each bedsit or bedroom is as a rule counted as a separate dwelling, even if the kitchen and bathroom are shared. Whether a bedsit house or shared housing is counted as one or several dwellings depends on whether there is a tenancy agreement for each resident's room, or one agreement for the whole house. If each resident has a tenancy agreement, each bedsit or bedroom is counted as one dwelling.
Dwelling at the municipality's disposal
Dwellings at the municipality's disposal are dwellings that the municipality can rent out through a tenancy agreement, for example care dwellings, dwellings for refugees and dwellings for the financially disadvantaged. Dwellings owned by the users themselves, but where the municipality regulates the sale and purchase, are reported separately in the form, but are included in the total number of dwellings at the municipality's disposal and under the tenure status privately owned with municipal right of disposal. Rooms and dwellings in institutions, where no tenancy agreement is concluded, are not included.
Care dwelling
Care dwellings are dwellings adapted for nursing and care purposes. They are counted as dwellings at the municipality's disposal.
Tenure status
Tenure status describes the municipality's relationship to the dwellings. There are three types:
- Municipally owned for rental: the municipality is the owner and the landlord, for example when the municipality owns and lets a detached house or a dwelling in a housing cooperative. Dwellings owned by municipal enterprises are counted here, and for inter-municipal housing companies the municipality counts its share of the dwellings here. Dwellings owned by limited companies or foundations established by the municipality are counted as rented dwellings.
- Rented by the municipality for subletting: the municipality is itself the tenant and sublets to the households allocated a dwelling. This covers dwellings rented from private owners and dwellings owned by limited companies or foundations established by the municipality.
- Privately owned with municipal right of disposal: privately owned dwellings where the municipality regulates who may rent the dwelling, while the owner is the landlord. Dwellings owned by the users themselves, but where the municipality regulates the sale and purchase, for example care dwellings, are also counted here. They are reported separately in the form.
Dwellings accessible for wheelchair users
A dwelling is accessible for wheelchair users when wheelchair users can on their own reach the dwelling, enter the dwelling and have access to the necessary rooms inside the dwelling.
Let dwellings
The number of let dwellings is the total number of tenancy agreements as of 31 December in dwellings at the municipality's disposal.
New applications
New applications are applications for a municipal dwelling from households that did not live in a municipal dwelling at the time of application. Applications to change municipal dwelling or to extend the tenancy agreement in the current municipal dwelling are not counted as new applications.
Household
A household is the persons living in the same dwelling. A household can consist of one or more persons.
Allocation of a dwelling
A dwelling is allocated when the household has entered into a tenancy agreement or has moved into the dwelling.
Newly moved-in households
Newly moved-in households are households allocated a municipal dwelling that did not live in a municipal dwelling at the time of application. Households that changed to another municipal dwelling, or had the tenancy agreement extended in their current municipal dwelling, are not counted as newly moved in.
Households on the waiting list
Households on the waiting list are households that as of 31 December have received a decision granting a dwelling at the municipality's disposal, but are waiting for the actual allocation of a dwelling. Only new households are counted, that is households that did not live in a municipal dwelling at the time of application. Households waiting to change municipal dwelling are not included.
Short-term contracts
Short-term contracts are fixed-term tenancy agreements of one year or less.
Temporary accommodation and night shelters
Temporary accommodation and night shelters are accommodation where no tenancy agreement is concluded. Temporary accommodation is accommodation where one can stay around the clock, for example boarding houses, hostels or camping cabins. Night shelters are accommodation where one as a rule cannot stay during the day. Accommodation with a short-term contract and short stays in institutions are not counted as temporary accommodation.
A household with several stays during the year is counted once. Figures are given for households in temporary accommodation during the reporting year, for households with stays of more than 3 months, for households with stays of 14 days or less, for households with children under 18 and for households with young people aged 18 to 24. Households in night shelters are reported separately.
User groups
Each newly moved-in household is placed in the user group that best describes the ground for the allocation, and is counted only once.
- Refugees: a person is counted as a refugee as long as the municipality receives the integration grant for the person. The grant is paid for five years after first settlement in the municipality.
- Households in need of an adapted dwelling: for example elderly persons, persons with intellectual disabilities and persons with physical disabilities.
- Households with mental illness and/or substance abusers: households where the ground for the allocation is mental illness, substance abuse or both. Up to and including 2019, the group was reported as three groups: mental illness, substance abusers, and substance abusers with mental illness. The three variables have figures up to and including 2019, the merged group from 2020.
- Households with other problems: households with other problems qualifying for a means-tested dwelling.
- Households without means testing: households allocated a dwelling at the municipality's disposal without means testing, for example municipal employees allocated a service dwelling.
Norway’s 357 municipalities (from 2024) are grouped into 17 KOSTRA groups by population and economic framework conditions; see the code lists for the KOSTRA municipality grouping in Statistics Norway’s classification database (Klass). The grouping is documented in Kringlebotten, M. and Langørgen, A. (2020): Gruppering av kommuner etter folkemengde og økonomiske rammebetingelser 2020. Rapporter 2020/48, Statistics Norway (available in Norwegian only). The grouping is updated approximately every five years, and changes in the municipal structure, most recently from 2024, are maintained through the code lists.
Number (dwellings, households, applications, rejections and contracts). For amounts: NOK 1000 for total and average amounts, and NOK for amounts per inhabitant and per household.
Name: Municipal housing
Topic: Construction, housing and property
Division for Health, Care and Social Statistics
The statistics are published at municipal level and for the city districts of Oslo. Key figures are also published for counties and for the whole country. Estimated national figures are published for most basic figures and key figures.
Frequency: Annual
Timeliness: The statistics have been published annually since 2001.
Preliminary figures are published on 15 March in the year after the reporting year, and final figures on 15 June in the year after the reporting year. The figures are published in KOSTRA: https://www.ssb.no/en/statbank/list/kombolig_kostra
Collected and revised data are stored securely by Statistics Norway in compliance with applicable legislation on data processing.
Statistics Norway can grant access to the source data (de-identified or anonymised microdata) on which the statistics are based, for researchers and public authorities for the purposes of preparing statistical results and analyses. Access can be granted upon application and subject to conditions. Refer to the details about this at Access to data from Statistics Norway.
The system for assuring the quality of Norwegian official statistics is based on quality requirements in the Statistics Act and in the European Statistics Code of Practice. The annual report on the quality of official statistics assesses compliance with the quality requirements for all official statistics as a whole.
The National programme for official statistics sets the framework for the areas Statistics Norway and other public authorities produce statistics on. The programme defines and outlines official statistics.
Further information about the system for quality in official statistics can be found at ssb.no.
The purpose of the statistics is to give the municipalities, central government and the public an overall picture of the municipalities’ housing instruments: how many dwellings the municipalities have at their disposal for rental, who applies for and is allocated a dwelling, which financial instruments are used, and how many households are provided with temporary accommodation. The data form part of KOSTRA and provide management information on the municipalities’ social housing efforts.
KOSTRA was started as a project in 1995 to coordinate and streamline reporting from the municipalities to central government and to provide relevant management information on municipal activities. All municipalities and county authorities were included from the reporting year 2001. Since 2001, Statistics Norway has collected data on municipal housing and housing instruments from all municipalities and from all city districts of Oslo. Previously, data on municipal housing allowance schemes were collected through the questionnaire “Recipients of financial assistance for housing expenses”.
The statistics are financed through the government assignment to Statistics Norway.
KOSTRA provides management information on municipalities and county authorities for the public and the media, the municipalities themselves, central government bodies and other key users. Key users of the municipal housing statistics are the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, the Norwegian State Housing Bank, the Norwegian Directorate of Health, and the municipalities and their organisations, such as the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) and the National Association of Municipal Housing Administrations (KBL).
No external users have access to statistics before they are released at 8 a.m. on ssb.no after at least three months’ advance notice in the release calendar. This is one of the most important principles in Statistics Norway for ensuring the equal treatment of users.
The statistics on Municipal housing are related to two other statistics. The statistics on Care services (Sjukeheimar, heimetenester og andre omsorgstenester) cover the care services linked to care dwellings. The statistics on Social assistance (Økonomisk sosialhjelp) cover the services provided by the NAV offices under the Social Services Act, including the duty to find temporary accommodation for those who cannot find it themselves (Section 27 of the Social Services Act).
Households in temporary accommodation are reported in these statistics through form 13, while assistance financing such stays is included in the social assistance statistics. The two statistics describe the same field from different sides, and the figures cannot be compared directly.
The statistics are developed, produced and disseminated pursuant to Act no. 32 of 21 June 2019 relating to official statistics and Statistics Norway (the Statistics Act).
Data are collected on behalf of the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development pursuant to the Local Government Act of 22 June 2018 No. 83, Section 16-1, cf. the Regulation of 18 October 2019 No. 1412 on reporting from municipalities and county authorities, and Section 10 (1) of the Statistics Act.
The statistics are part of the national programme for official statistics, main area Construction, housing and property, sub-area Housing and living conditions.
Annual series from 2015 onwards. Earlier years are available in discontinued tables in the Statbank, with varying starting years for the individual tables.
All municipalities report data, one form per municipality. Oslo submits one form per city district and one form for dwellings that do not belong to any district. The reporting unit is the municipality, and for Oslo the city district. The observation and analysis units are dwellings, households, applications, rejections and tenancy agreements.
All dwellings at the municipality's disposal are to be reported, both owned and rented dwellings and privately owned dwellings with municipal right of disposal. Dwellings owned by the users themselves, but where the municipality regulates the sale and purchase, are reported separately in the form and are included in the total. Figures are given for the total number of dwellings at the municipality's disposal and by tenure status, the number of let dwellings by tenure status, the number of municipally owned dwellings bought and sold during the year, and how many of the dwellings at the municipality's disposal are accessible for wheelchair users.
Figures are given for the number of applications for a dwelling, and for how many of them are new applications, that is applications from households that did not live in a municipal dwelling at the time of application. Correspondingly, figures are given for the number of rejected applications and for rejections of new applications.
The statistics give the number of households allocated a municipal dwelling in the statistical year, in total and for newly moved-in households, that is households that did not live in a municipal dwelling at the time of application. The newly moved-in households are broken down by the user groups refugees, households in need of an adapted dwelling, households with mental illness and/or substance abusers, and households with other problems qualifying for a means-tested dwelling. Up to and including 2019, the group mental illness and/or substance abusers was reported as three groups, see Definitions. The number of newly moved-in households allocated a dwelling without means testing is also given.
Figures are given for the number of households that have received a decision granting a municipal dwelling, but are waiting for the actual allocation of a dwelling. Only new households are counted, that is households on the waiting list that do not already live in a municipal dwelling. The households on the waiting list are broken down by the same user groups, except the group without means testing.
The statistics cover the use of short-term contracts and the extent of municipal financial housing assistance: guarantees, loans, municipal housing allowance and subsidised rent.
Finally, figures are given for the number of households in temporary accommodation and in night shelters during the reporting year. For temporary accommodation, figures are given for
- households with stays of more than 3 months
- households with stays of 14 days or less
- households with children under 18, in total and with stays of more than 3 months
- households with young people aged 18 to 24, in total and with stays of more than 3 months
Households in night shelters are reported separately. The figures cover households that the municipality has had in temporary accommodation, and are not a count of homeless persons.
Data are collected from the municipalities through KOSTRA form 13. The information is obtained from various municipal agencies, and the organisation of this varies between municipalities. Data on start-up loans and state housing allowance are obtained from the Norwegian State Housing Bank.
The statistics are a full census covering all municipalities and all city districts of Oslo, see Population. For non-response and the estimation of national figures, see Sources of error and uncertainty.
The statistics are based on an annual dispatch of questionnaires to all municipalities and to the city districts of Oslo. The questionnaires are returned electronically through KOSTRA. The deadline for reporting is 15 February.
Editing is defined here as checking, examining and amending data. The controls are based on logical and validity controls built into the electronic questionnaires. On receipt, the new data are compared with the previous year's figures and various ratios. Large deviations are checked and corrected as far as possible in consultation with the municipalities.
For municipalities that have not reported, national figures are estimated, see Sources of error and uncertainty.
The figures are published on two levels, as basic figures and as indicators. The basic figures mostly consist of units, either added up over the year or at a given point in time (31 December). These figures are reported as absolute figures, whereas the indicators mainly are ratios.
Interviewers and everyone who works at Statistics Norway have a duty of confidentiality. Statistics Norway has its own data protection officer.
Statistics Norway does not publish figures where there is a risk of identifying individual data about persons or households.
The ‘suppression’ method is used in these statistics to ensure this: absolute figures at municipal and city district level are replaced by the symbol : when fewer than 4 units form the basis of the figure. This mainly applies to the variables on user groups, see Definitions.
More information can be found on Statistics Norway’s website under Methods in official statistics, in the ‘Confidentiality’ section.
The questionnaire was comprehensively revised from the reporting year 2010. Only a few variables are fully comparable with figures from before the revision.
National and regional figures in the current tables, from 2015, include estimates for municipalities that have not reported. The estimation model differs from the one used in the earlier, discontinued tables, and there are therefore some deviations in national and regional figures compared with those tables. All years in the current tables are calculated with the same method and are therefore comparable over time.
From the statistical year 2020, the user groups mental illness, substance abusers and substance abusers with mental illness are merged into one group, see Definitions.
The main sources of error are measurement errors. The questions may be interpreted differently by the municipalities, and the municipalities do not always record the requested information as part of their case processing. The information is often held by several municipal agencies and by private actors, and must be compiled before reporting. The questionnaire has built-in controls, and the figures are compared with previous years on receipt, see Collection of data, editing and estimations.
The statistics are a full census, and sampling error is therefore not relevant. The non-response is around 3 per cent, and final national figures are therefore as a rule estimates based on data from the municipalities that have reported, grouped by population size.
A revision is a planned change to figures that have already been published, for example when releasing final figures as a follow-up to published preliminary figures. See also Statistics Norway’s principles for revisions.
Preliminary figures for these statistics are published on 15 March and final figures on 15 June. Before the publication on 15 June, the municipalities have had the opportunity to correct errors and omissions in their data, and Statistics Norway has carried out quality controls and editing of the data.
The statistics are reviewed annually by the KOSTRA working group on municipal housing, with participants from the ministry, directorates, the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) and the municipalities. The working group reports its assessments to the KOSTRA Coordination Council.
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Relatert innhold
Analyses, articles and publications
Article / 17 March 2014KOSTRA - Key figures on municipal activitiesThe key figures in KOSTRA (Municipality-State-Reporting) provide information on most of the municipal and county municipal activities, including economy, schools, health, culture, the environment, social services, public housing, technical services and transport and communication.