Immigrants make up 12 percent of the population – 593,000 people according to the annual report of Statistics Norway (SSB). If you include children of immigrants born in Norway, the number is 710 400 similar to 14 percent of the total population. The number of people in this entire group of immigrant grew by 55 300 people last year.
The group who were Norwegian-born to immigrant parents increased by 8,700 people last year – 17 percent of all births in Norway.
The three largest Asians group
Looking at the Asian countries covered by ScandAsia, there are roughly 72.000 persons – or roughly 10 percent of the 710 400 persons who are either themselves immigrants or children of immigrant parents.
The three largest immigrant groups from this area are from Philippines (16,335 persons), Thailand (14,988 persons) and Vietnam (13,422 persons). The Vietnamese are by far the most reproductive group of the three. If you combine the children born in Norway where one or both of the parents are from Vietnam, the number is roughly 9,500 persons. The Philippines come in next with 8,700 children. The Thai or half-thai children are 6,500 persons.
Population by immigrant category and country background. Source: Statistics Norway | ||||||
2013 | ||||||
Born in Norway to Norwegian-born parents 1 | Immigrants | Norwegian-born to immigrant parents | Foreign born with one parent born in Norway | Persons born in Norway with one foreign born parents | Foreign-born to Norwegian-born parents | |
Total | 4,042,589 | 593,321 | 117,144 | 32,994 | 227,672 | 37,555 |
Norway | 3,879,086 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Brunei | 2 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 16 |
Myanmar | 9 | 3,342 | 514 | 1 | 37 | 1 |
Philippines | 783 | 16,335 | 1,672 | 751 | 7,118 | 628 |
Taiwan | 85 | 222 | 29 | 14 | 106 | 71 |
Hong Kong | 265 | 672 | 186 | 56 | 272 | 148 |
Indonesia | 366 | 1,236 | 203 | 73 | 527 | 184 |
Cambodia | 14 | 385 | 150 | 7 | 63 | 3 |
China | 1,199 | 7,558 | 1,467 | 453 | 1,428 | 2,550 |
Laos | 0 | 97 | 10 | 1 | 36 | 0 |
Malaysia | 83 | 605 | 63 | 53 | 305 | 30 |
Singapore | 115 | 371 | 38 | 125 | 252 | 178 |
Thailand | 300 | 14,988 | 595 | 723 | 6,036 | 387 |
Vietnam | 401 | 13,422 | 7,929 | 67 | 1,721 | 202 |
All Asian | 3,622 | 59,244 | 12,859 | 2,327 | 17,906 | 4,398 |
1The foreign country background is related to grandparents’ country of birth. The person can have 1 to 4 grandparents born abroad. Grandmother / grandfather’s country of birth is selected first if there are different countries of birth for grandparents. |
East Europeans are Largest Group
As for the bigger picture in Norway, the Poles are the largest immigrant group (77 000), followed by Swedes (35 600) and Lithuanians (28, 000). In the overview of how Norwegian-born children of immigrants are distributed, Pakistanis, Somalis and Vietnamese lead with respectively 15 200, 9100 and 8000 people.
Oslo’s eastern and southern districts stand out as areas in the country with the largest immigrant share, up to 50 percent. In the capital as a whole, immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents represent 30 percent of the population.
Immigrants in Norway have backgrounds from 220 different countries and territories. Forecasts of SSB presented last year proposed that immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrants will account for almost half of the population of Oslo in 2040.