Museums and collections, 2007

Norwegian museums had almost 10.2 million visitors in 2007, an increase of 863 000 compared with 2006. This means that on average every Norwegian visits a museum 2.2 times in the course of one year. Almost 40 per cent visited museums in Oslo. Slightly more than half were paying visitors, an increase of 900 000 from 2006.

Norwegian museums had just over 38 million objects in their collections in 2007 - an increase of 3.3 million from 2006. The bulk of the collections are photographs and natural history objects, with 18 million and 12 million objects respectively. In 2007, the category ‘archaeological objects’ was introduced in the classification of the objects.

Exhibitions constitute an important part of the museums' activities. Norwegian museums held 2 860 exhibitions in 2007, an increase of 121 exhibitions from 2006. Basic exhibitions increased by 88, whereas travelling exhibitions remained stable. More than half of the exhibitions are held by social museums.

The museum statistics for 2007 cover 173 museums. The number of museums shows that the ongoing consolidation process in the Norwegian museum sector is levelling out. The total income for the museums was NOK 3 billion, of which NOK 2 billion was public contributions. Total expenditure for the museums was NOK 2.9 billion. The number of man-years was 3 770, of which remunerate man-years accounted for 3 570. A total of 2 660 remunerated man-years were carried out by permanent employees.

Tables:

• Table 1 Museums and collections. Visits and exhibitions. 2007
• Table 2 Museums and collections. Size of collections. 2007
• Table 3 Museums and collections. Finance, employment position and man-years. 2007
• Table 4 Museums and collections. Visits, exhibitions and subjects, by number of visits. 2007