Museums and collections, 2008

Norwegian museums had almost 10.2 million visitors. This means that on average every Norwegian visits a museum 2.1 times in the course of one year. Almost four million, or 39 per cent, visited museums in Oslo.

Norwegian museums had just over 43 million objects in their collections in 2008; an increase of five million from 2007. The bulk of the collections are photographs and natural history objects, with 23 million and 12 million objects respectively. In 2008, the category ‘archaeological objects’ counted just over four million objects.

Exhibitions constitute an important part of the museums' activities. Norwegian museums held 2 880 exhibitions in 2008, a small increase from 2007. Temporary exhibitions increased by 46, whereas permanent exhibitions fell by 36. More than half of the exhibitions are held by social museums.

The museum statistics for 2008 cover 166 museums. The number of museums shows that the ongoing consolidation process in the Norwegian museum sector is levelling out. The total income for the museums was NOK 3.22 billion, of which NOK 2.2 billion was public contributions. Total expenditure for the museums was NOK 3.16 billion. The number of man-years was 3 840, of which remunerated man-years accounted for 3 640. Women covered 53 per cent of the remunerated man-years. A total of 203 man-years were carried out by volunteers.

Tables:

• Table 1 Museums and collections. Visits and exhibitions. 2008
• Table 2 Museums and collections. Size of collections. 2008
• Table 3 Museums and collections. Finance, employment position and man-years. 2008
• Table 4 Museums and collections. Visits, exhibitions and subjects, by number of visits. 2008