Persons entitled to vote

Updated: 29 November 2021

Modified:

Next update: 17 April 2023

Persons entitled to vote
Persons entitled to vote
2021
3.89
million

About the statistics

Final and estimated figures for persons entitled to vote in national, regional and local elections. Disaggregated by sex, age, country background and county and constituencies. For national elections timeseries from 1815.

Electoral roll

All prospective voters must be on the electoral register. The electoral register is a list of all those who are entitled to vote in a municipality. One is registered in the electoral register in the municipality by the population register on 30 June of the election year. If one has moved, it will still be the address on 30 June that determines the municipality in which one are entitled to vote.

Persons entitled to vote

Every Norwegian citizen aged 18 or older by the end of the election year has the right to vote in the national election. In the municipal and county council elections one have the right to vote if one meet one of these requirements:

  • You are a Norwegian citizen and will have reached the age of 18 by the end of 2019 and are, or have been, registered as residing in Norway
  • You are a citizen of another Nordic country (i.e. Denmark, Iceland, Finland or Sweden) and will have reached the age of 18 by the end of the year of the election, and have been registered as residing in Norway by 30 June of the year of the election at the latest
  • You are another foreign citizen and have reached the age of 18 by the end of the year of the election and have been registered as residing in Norway for the last three consecutive years before the election day. In this case, there is a requirement that the period of residence has been consecutive

Norwegian citizens with an immigrant background

Norwegian citizens with an immigrant background who are entitled to vote: This category includes both immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents. Immigrants are persons born in a foreign country by foreign-born parents who have moved to Norway. Norwegian-born to immigrant parents is persons born in Norway by foreign parents, and also with four grandparents born in a foreign country.

Name: Persons entitled to vote
Topic: Elections

17 April 2023

Division for Population Statistics

Electoral districts.

Selected municipalities.

Every four years (election year).

Not relevant

Data files at the individual level that are processed and stored long-term

The purpose is to provide a number of estimated figures on how many people will be entitled to vote in the elections. After the election the official election statistics will provide the final figures based on electoral roll information provided by the election boards.

Public administration, the press and research institutes for planning and review of the coming election.

No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 08 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given inthe Statistics Release Calendar. This is one of Statistics Norway’s key principles for ensuring that all users are treated equally.

Act on Official Statistics and Statistics Norway §§ 10 and 20.

Not relevant

All persons entitled to vote.

Electoral roll and population register

The basis for the statistics on changes in the population are electronic copies received by statistics Norway of all such messages that update the register. The reports also update a separate population database for statistical purposes in Statistics Norway. This population base forms the basis for statistics on the composition of the population.

The basis for the final figures is a register sent to Statistics Norway by the Norwegian Electoral Directorate just before and after the election.

Not relevant
Not relevant


Municipal council and county council elections: Final figures back to 1903. Calculated figures back to 1999.

Elections to the Storting: Final figures back to 1815. Calculated figures back to 2001.

The estimated figures are based on withdrawals from the population system in March/April of the election year. The number of how many will be granted the right to vote on the basis of a change in citizenship is based on data material from the previous year. The same applies to the number of deaths in the period until the election. The estimate for the number of persons entitled to vote thus depends on the deviations from last year's figures, the greater the deviation the larger the margin of error. This applies particularly to the number of naturalizations, as these figures vary considerably.

Not relevant

Contact

Ane Margrete Tømmerås

ane.tommeras@ssb.no

(+47) 91 99 29 62

Statistics Norway's Information Centre

informasjon@ssb.no

(+47) 21 09 46 42