The Kingdom of Norway is a Nordic country west on the Scandinavian Peninsula , bordering Russia , Finland and Sweden , with territorial waters bordering Danish and British waters. It has a very elongated form and has an extensive coastline along the North Atlantic Ocean , where Norway's famous fjords are found. The nearby island territories of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are under Norwegian sovereignty and are considered as part of Norway as a kingdom , while Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic Ocean and Peter I Island in the South Pacific Ocean are Norwegian dependencies , which are not considered part of the kingdom. Additionally, Norway has a claim for Dronning Maud Land in Antarctica .
Geography
The landscape is generally rugged and mountainous, topped by glaciers and its coastline of over 83,000 km is punctuated by steep-sloped inlets known as fjords , as well as a multitude of islands and islets. The Northern part of the country is also known as the Land of the Midnight Sun because of its northern location, north of the Arctic Circle , where in summer the sun does not set, and in winter many of its valleys remain dark for long periods.
Norway straddles the North Atlantic Ocean for its entire length, bound by three different seas: the North Sea to the southwest and its large inlet the Skagerrak to the south, the Norwegian Sea to the west and the Barents Sea to the northeast. Norway's highest point is the Galdhøpiggen at 2,469 m.
The Norwegian climate is fairly temperate , especially along the coast under the influence of the Gulf Stream . The inland climate can be more severe and to the north more subarctic conditions are found.
Economy
The Norwegian economy is a prosperous bastion of social capitalism, featuring a combination of free market activity and government intervention. The government controls key areas, such as the vital petroleum sector (through large-scale state enterprises). The country is richly endowed with natural resources - petroleum , hydropower , fish , forests , and minerals - and is highly dependent on its oil production and international oil prices; in 1999 , oil and gas accounted for 35% of exports. Only Saudi Arabia and Russia export more oil than Norway, which is outside OPEC .
Norway opted to stay out of the European Union during a referendum in 1972, and again in November 1994 . However, Norway, together with Iceland and Liechtenstein , participate in the EU 's single market via the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement.
Economic growth picked up in 2000 to 2.7%, compared with the meager 0.8% of 1999, but fell back to 1.3% in 2001 . The government moved ahead with privatisation in 2000, selling one-third of the then 100% state-owned oil company Statoil .
With arguably the highest quality of life worldwide, Norwegians still worry about that time in the next two decades when the oil and gas begin to run out. Accordingly, Norway has been saving its oil-boosted budget surpluses in a Government Petroleum Fund , which is invested abroad and at the end of 2004 was valued at 164 billion US dollars .
Demographics
The Norwegian population is 4.6 million and increases by 0.4% per year (estimate July 2004). Ethnically most Norwegians are Nordic / North Germanic , while small minorities in the north are Sami or Cwen . In recent years immigration has accounted for more than half the population growth, and 7.3% of the population are immigrants as of 1 January 2003. But the country only takes in a very limited number of asylum seekers and is willing to repatriate these people to other countries as soon as possible. The largest immigrant groups are Swedes , Danes and Pakistanis
Approximately 86% of the inhabitants are members of the Evangelic Lutheran Church of Norway (state church). Other Christian societies total about 4.5% (The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church , The Catholic Church , Pentecostal congregations , The Methodist Church etc.) Among the non-Christian religions Islam is the largest in Norway with only about 1.5%, and other religions less than 1%. About 1.5% belong to the secular Human Ethical Union . As of 1 January 2003 approximately 5% of the population are unaffiliated
The Norwegian language has two official written forms, called Bokmål and Nynorsk , which do not differ greatly, as well as the unofficial Riksmål , which is an intermediate form between Bokmål and Danish . Bokmål and Riksmål are written by almost 90 % of the population, although many speak dialects that differ significantly from the written language. Nevertheless, most or all of the Norwegian dialects are interintelligible. Several Sami languages are spoken and written in the northern regions by the Sami people. The Germanic Norwegian language and the Finno-Ugric Sami languages are entirely unrelated.