Capital
: Oslo.
Area :
323,759 sq km (125,004 sq miles).
Population
of Norway : 4,552,252 (official estimate 2003).
Population of Oslo : 517,401 (2003).
Population Density : 14.9
per sq km.
Geography :
Norway is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean,
to the east by Finland, the Russian Federation
and Sweden, to the south by the Skagerrak
and to the west by the North Sea.
The coastline is 2735km (1700 miles) long, its most outstanding
feature being the fjords. Most of them are between
80 to 160km long, and are often very deep and surrounded by high
mountains. Much of northern Norway lies beyond the Arctic
Circle and the landscape is quite stark. In the south,
the landscape consists of forests with lakes and rivers.
Government : Constitutional monarchy.
Declared independence from Sweden during 1905.
Head
of State: King Harald V since 1991.
Head of Government:
Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik since 2001.
Language
: Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk). Sami
is spoken by the Sami population in the north of the country and
English is widely spoken.
Religion
: Approximately 86 per cent Evangelical Lutherans, plus other Christian
denominations.
Time :
Norway Mainland: GMT + 1 (GMT + 2 from last Sunday
in March to last Saturday before last Sunday in October).
Jan Mayen Islands, Svalbard: GMT + 1.
Electricity : 220 volts AC, 50Hz.
Plugs are of the European round two-pin type
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