The first works containing information on Norwegian import and export of goods were published as early as the first half of the 19th century. From 1829, the County Governors’ (Amtmennenes (snl.no)) five-year reports provided information on the economic conditions in the counties within the various sectors of the economy. For external trade, the quantities of several important goods imported were described, first for the years 1828 and 1829. Soon, reports on the export of goods followed from 1830 onwards. Other significant works from this period, which contained data on the import and export of important goods over several years, were prepared by professor A. M. Schweigaards Norges Statistik (1840) (books.google.no) and M. Braun Tvethes Norges Statistik (1848).
From these first reports until today, nearly 200 years have passed. Since then, much has changed in terms of statistical basis, methods, classifications, and who has compiled the statistics. Although much has changed, the topics themselves are fundamentally the same today as they were before:
- Which goods were exported from the country and which were imported?
- In what quantities?
- At what values?
- Which countries were the trade partners?
This article attempts to provide a relatively concise historical overview of external trade with goods from a statistical perspective.
In 2025, Statistics Norway has completed work to make much of the historical data digitally available, and this can now be found in Statistics Norway’s statistics bank. Hopefully, this extensive historical data will be of interest to many users.
Statistical sources
Statistics with a full coverage of Norway’s external trade with goods has been available since 1835. At that time, the Table Office of the Department of the Interior started statistical processing of the material in the customs books from all customs stations. From 1835 to 1850, this statistic was published every third year but became annual from 1851 onwards.
In the years 1835-1865, the statistics provided figures for quantities only. Value figures were first introduced in 1866. These figures were not based on actual values of the goods but on average prices for a selection of representative reports of individual goods for the year. At the same time, a calculation of export and import values for the years back to 1851 was carried out.
This publication contained 12 tables and provided an overview of the import and export of various types of goods, including to which countries the goods were sent and from which countries they came. Reading and understanding these tables compared to today’s statistical tables can be challenging. The language is Danish, the script is Gothic, and many of the types of goods may be unfamiliar to today’s readers. Additionally, measurement units that are now largely outdated were used, such as pounds, barrels, pots, ottingers, baskets, chests, and kaster. The statistics are also geographically divided according to Norwegian customs stations and trading partners.
The year 1875 is noteworthy for several reasons. Statistics Norway, established in 1876, published its first statistics on Norway’s trade for the year 1875 in 1877. At the same time, 1875 marks an important milestone in Norwegian economic history, as the krone was introduced as the currency, replacing the spesidaler. As if that were not enough, the metric system was introduced this year through the “Meter Convention (snl.no)” – an international treaty signed by Norway and 16 other countries during a diplomatic conference in Paris on May 20, 1875. The introduction of the metric system contributed to the gradual disappearance of many of the old measurement units from the statistics.
The first edition of Norway’s Trade published by the newly established «Det Statistiske Centralbureau (PDF)».
From 1922, declarations of the value of the exported goods were used. Additionally, the exporters also filled a form for statistical purposes for each individual batch of goods, where e.g. information of the FOB values of the goods was asked for. For imports, similar declarations were implemented from 1932 providing CIF values. After World War II, the customs authorities in many European countries collaborated with the statistical authorities to establish the international commodity nomenclature. This nomenclature was introduced in 1959. From 1988, the EC countries and EFTA countries began using a standardized customs declaration called the Single Administrative Document (SAD).
In the years before 1939 and after 1958, the statistics relate to general trade, while the years 1939-1958 relate to special trade. The difference consists mainly in the different treatment accorded to goods which pass through the country via bonded warehouses. Repair and processing trade has sometimes been excluded from the statistics, sometimes included, and in some periods with “added value” (only the actual repair or processing costs) and at other times with “full value.” In the years after 1971, repair trade is not included, while goods for processing are still included for their full value. For the main figures, these changes in definitions had less significance.
Commodity flows to and from Svalbard were recorded separately before 1951 and not included in the figures for Norway’s total trade. However, from 1951, trade between Svalbard and foreign countries is included.
The statistics for external trade in goods have both in the past and more recently been primarily compiled based on information from the customs authorities’ import and export declarations. However, there are some exceptions, such as for oil and gas exports from the continental shelf. Norwegian crude oil from the continental shelf was exported for the first time in 1971. Information about crude oil and gas delivered directly from the continental shelf is collected from the operators and the Norwegian Offshore Directorate. The customs authorities have not extended their area of responsibility to include the shelf, which has resulted in Statistics Norway not receiving customs declarations for the flow of goods between the offshore oil platforms and foreign countries.
Other examples where information is obtained from sources other than customs declarations include coal exports from Svalbard, the export and import of Norwegian-owned ships, aircraft, and oil platforms, as well as the direct export of fish caught by Norwegian vessels outside the Norwegian customs territory. In addition, trade in certain goods is excluded from the statistics in accordance with recommendations from the United Nations. For more details, refer to the «about the statistics» section for foreign trade in goods, where data sources, collection, processing, and more are described.
The statistics on external trade in goods were published from 1835 to 1883 in the publication “Tabeller vedkommende Norges Handel og Skibsfart”. This publication was issued every third year until 1850, and annually thereafter. From 1884, Statistics Norway published the annual report “NOS Norway’s Trade”, with breakdowns by commodity groups, customs offices, and countries. In 1961, the title of the publication was changed to ‘External Trade’. The final annual edition was published in 2003 for the year 2002. In 1913, monthly publications on foreign trade were introduced, a series that ended in 2001.
All the historical publications on foreign trade in goods have been scanned and are available on ssb.no.
Commodity groups
- The nomenclatures for commodity groups have changed significantly over time.
- 1835-1865: During this period, goods in the statistics were listed in alphabetical order.
- In 1866, a systematic division into 25 main groups was introduced, with further subdivisions within each group. This classification remained largely unchanged until 1939.
- From 1939 to 1952, the commodity classification was based on the League of Nations’ Minimum List of Commodities for International Trade Statistics, in which goods were divided into 48 chapters.
- From 1953 onward, the commodity classification followed the United Nations’ Standard International Trade Classification (SITC). Goods were divided into 10 commodity sectors, with the most detailed level comprising 1,300 basic headings
- Since 1953, the SITC nomenclature has been revised four times: in 1961, 1976, 1988, and 2007.
A methodological documentation of the most recently revised edition is provided in the UN publication Statistical Papers, Series M no 34 rev 4, 2006 (unstats.un.org, PDF). Following the latest revision, there are now 10 commodity sectors and 2,970 basic headings.
The development of classifications is also reflected in the digitized historical time series that have now been made available. It has not been possible to convert the earliest time periods to the later classifications, which results in breaks in the time series.
The SITC revision groups for the years 1960 through 1975 have been converted to Rev. 2 to ensure comparability of the series. For the transition between Rev. 2 and Rev. 3, the content of the main commodity groups was more similar, and therefore no conversion was carried out in this case.
International standards were also established for customs tariffs, and the links between the nomenclatures for statistics and customs tariffs became central to the production of statistics. After the introduction of a new customs tariff in 1959, based on the Brussels Nomenclature (BTN) — later referred to as the Customs Cooperation Council Nomenclature (CCCN) — the most detailed commodity classification was based on this nomenclature. The development of the SITC nomenclature was coordinated with the international BTN so that all SITC groups were clearly composed of one or more BTN item numbers. This coordination has been maintained, even after the CCCN was replaced by the so-called HS nomenclature and SITC Rev. 2 was replaced by Rev. 3 in 1988. The HS nomenclature, or the Harmonized System, quickly became a widely used statistical nomenclature, and by 1992, 68 countries had based their customs tariffs on this classification system.
Country breakdown
Statistics on external trade in goods have various dimensions, one of which is clearly the quantities and values of imported and exported goods. Another important dimension is the geographical one—that is, between which countries and other geographical divisions the flows of goods occur.
Tracking the geographical dimension over such a long time period as covered by the historical tables is not entirely straightforward due to changes in economic territories resulting from the splitting or merging of regions over the years. Examples from the period include the rise and fall of colonial powers’ economic territories, changes in independence not only altered the territories of colonial powers but also led to the establishment of new independent states, or the re-establishment of former states. Other examples include the division and later reunification of Germany, the breakup of Yugoslavia, the formation of the Soviet Union, and the separation between Norway and Sweden, among others.
The fundamental principles for the geographical dimension in the current compilation of external trade statistics on goods are as follows: For imports, the country of origin is used, and for exports, the country of destination. For raw materials, the country of origin is the country where the goods were produced. For finished and processed goods, the country of origin is where the goods received their final form. The country of destination is the last known recipient country of the goods at the time of export.
For ships, aircraft, and mobile oil platforms, the country of origin is defined as the country that previously held economic ownership of the item. In the case of Norwegian-produced goods that were sold abroad and later re-imported, the country of origin is recorded as the country from which the goods were returned. The statistical country classification follows the international standard ISO-3166.
Current publication of external trade in goods statistics
Statistics Norway currently publishes in the external statistics database according to various nomenclatures
- Grouping of goods by item number in the customs tariff/the international Harmonized System (HS).
- Classification of goods into commodity groups based on the United Nations’ Standard International Trade Classification (SITC), Revision 4.
- Classification of goods according to end-use categories based on the UN’s Broad Economic Categories (BEC) classification.
- Classification of goods by product group according to the Classification of Products by Activity (CPA)
In addition, tables with key figures (values) are published, where figures for ships and petroleum-related values are presented separately. Furthermore, figures are published for mainland exports by county of production and for foreign trade by mode of transport. For these tables, the SITC commodity classification is used. Previously published tables on trade in goods by enterprise characteristics (by industry and number of employees) are available for the 2014–2015 period. Finally, a few ‘special tables’ are published for the export of fish and crude oil before and after processing in the United Kingdom.
For the HS and SITC nomenclatures, data for quantities and values are published, whereas for BEC and CPA data for values data are provided only.
The time series currently published mainly cover the period from 1988 onwards for most tables. For more detailed information about the production of current statistics, please refer to the «about the statistics».
Historical tables
Some of the historical time series for foreign trade in goods have now been digitized and are available in the statistical database. These historical time series were also previously published in the NOS Historical Statistics series (1968 (PDF), 1978 (PDF) and 1994 (PDF)). For further details on the historical statistics, refer to the chapters on foreign trade in goods in these publications. These publications also contain tables that have not yet been made digitally available.
The historical time series that are now digitally available from historical statistics are:
- Import of important goods (quantity), 1828–1975. More complete statistics are available from 1835, when information from customs records were processed for statistical purposes. Data up to and including 1874 have been converted to metric units.
- Export of important goods (quantity), 1830–1975 (1987).
- Import and export of goods by commodity group (value):
- 1866-1938 National classification), converted from speciedaler to kroner up to 1875.
- 1938-1953 (UNs «minimum list»)
- 1953-1975 (SITC)
- 1960-1987 (SITC)
In addition, land-distributed tables based on data files from Statistics Norway for the years 1960–1987 have also been produced, categorized by 1-, 2-, 3-, and 5-digit SITC codes with value figures, as well as quantity figures by 5-digit SITC.
The figure below summarizes the development of foreign trade in goods from 1866 to the present, measured as the percentage share of exports and imports in GDP at current nominal values. In addition, the figure highlights some of the key events in the production of trade statistics during this period, some in more detail mentioned elsewhere in the article.
This figure shows the development of Norway’s imports and exports of goods as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) from 1866 to 2024. The values are expressed as a percentage of GDP, providing an overview of the importance of foreign trade to the Norwegian economy over time. Two lines are displayed in the chart: Exports (blue line): shows the share of goods exported as a percentage of GDP. Imports (red line): shows the share of goods imported as a percentage of GDP. The area between the lines is shaded: Red shading indicates periods of trade deficit, meaning Norway imported more than it exported. Blue shading indicates periods of trade surplus, meaning exports exceeded imports. Key points: From the late 1800s until the 1970s, Norway mostly had trade deficits. From the 1970s onward, trade surpluses have been more common, especially after the rise in oil exports. Around 2022, there is a sharp peak in exports as a share of GDP. The import share has been more stable but has also varied over time. A number of historical and institutional events are marked along the timeline, such as the establishment of Statistics Norway in 1876 and various revisions of international trade classifications. These events are described in a separate table.