Population and land area in urban settlements, 1 January 2002

As much as 77.3 per cent of Norway's population lived in a total of 929 urban settlements by 1. January 2002. Hedmark is the county with the lowest proportion of the population living in urban settlements and it also registered a moderate increase in the population in urban settlements from 2000 to 2002. The lowest rate of increase in population in urban settlements in this period have been recorded in Telemark, Nordland and Finnmark with 0.9 per cent, 0.8 per cent and 0.5 per cent growth respectively. The highest population increases in urban settlements from 2000 to 2002 was in Sogn og Fjordane and Møre og Romsdal with 4.3 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively.

Low population growth in the four largest urban settlements

It is only the urban settlements Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger/Sandnes and Trondheim that have over 100 000 inhabitants. Figures show that a total of about 1 303 000 people live in these four urban settlements and this figure constitute 29 per cent of the country's population. The population of these four urban settlements increased by 21 000 or 1.6 per cent between 2000 and 2002. This is more than the average national rate of 1.0 per cent within the same period.

The urban settlements that registered the highest growth from 2000 to 2002 were those with sizes between 2 000 and 19 999 inhabitants with about 4.5 per cent growth.

Only 207 out of the 929 urban settlements had 2000 or more residents as of 1. January 2002. These urban settlements constitute 86 per cent of the total population in urban settlements and as much as 75 per cent of total land area covered by urban settlements.

Increase, but less intensive utilisation of urban settlement area

The land area covered by urban settlements in the entire country was 2 193 km2 as of 1. January 2002. This is an increase of 54 km2 or 2.5 per cent from 2000 to 2002.

Increase in the number of residents in urban settlements from 2000 to 2002 was lower than increase in the land area, this can indicate less effective utilisation of land. The changes are small and the period so limited that the figures should therefore be used with care. Calculations for the whole country show that population density in urban settlements within the period 1. January 2000 to 1. January 2002 changed from 1 588 residents per km2 to 1 584 residents per km2. Uncertainty in the data can probably account for a higher difference between the two periods.

Within the same period, there have been registered new houses or renovated/rebuilt houses, a total of 25 500 small dwelling houses and 945 block of flats in the urban settlements. This is an increase of 2.9 and 3.4 per cent respectively for these building types.

Preliminary figures show a total of 9.5 per cent of urban settlement land area covered by buildings and almost 15 per cent covered by roads. The proportion covered by buildings shows a tendency to rise with rising urban settlements size, while the proportion covered by roads does not on the average vary between the different urban settlement size groups. In terms of population, there is also a tendency of increased density with increased urban settlement size. There is large variations however within group sizes for both population density and land area allocated to roads and buildings.

There are 16 new urban settlements from 2000 to 2002 while 8 urban settlements have been omitted. In addition there are 6 new urban settlements that have been defined previously as urban settlements while 10 urban settlements have been incorporated into other settlements.

Improved quality of the statistics

The urban settlement statistics are since 1999 based on results of linkages between the National population Register (DSF) and the Official Register for Buildings, Addresses and Ground-properties (GAB). With the use of numerical addresses, address/building coordinates and a geographic information system (GIS), buildings and associated population are grouped into urban settlements. The quality of the statistics will depend at any given time on the completeness and accuracy of the location data in the registers.

For 2002, it was possible to connect 99.4 per cent of the Norwegian population to location (geocoded addresses with coordinates), while the equivalent figure for 2000 was 98.1 per cent. This deviation, as well as varying percentages of geocoded population within and between municipalities, affects the validity of both estimated population figures for both 2002 and estimations of population growth of statistics from 1999 and 2000 periods.

Tables:

• Table 1 Urban settlements. Population and area, by municipality. 1 January 2002
• Table 2 Population and area in urban settlements. Municipality. 1 January 2002
• Table 3 Area and land use in urban settlements. Municipality. 1 January 2002
• Table 4 Population in densely and sparsely populated areas. Municipality. 1 January 2002.
• Table 5 New urban settlements. 1 January 2002
• Table 6 Omitted settlements. 1 January 2002
• Table 7 Results of the geocoding. Municipality. 1 January 2000 and 2002