Norway

Norway is a Northern European country that borders the North Sea, the North Atlantic Ocean, and Sweden. It occupies 323,802 sq. km, making it slightly larger than the state of New Mexico. It has a population of 4.77 million, growing at a rate of 0.33%. Its largest city and capital, Oslo, is home to 875,000 people. The government is a constitutional monarchy, and Norway has two official languages, Bokmal Norwegian and Nynorsk Norwegian. The currency used is the Norwegian Krone.

The Norwegian prosperous economy combines free-market activity and government intervention. The government controls the petroleum sector through state-majority-owned enterprises. Other than petroleum, other natural resources are abundant in Norway, including fish, forests, and minerals. Norway is the world’s second-largest gas exporter and ninth-largest oil exporter. Norway opted out of the European Union but contributes significantly to the European Economic Area. Oil and gas revenues have been saved by the Norwegian government in anticipation of a reduction in resources and have been accumulated in a sovereign wealth fund. Norway’s economy slowed and eventually contracted during the global economic crisis but returned to growth in 2010. Norway’s primary trade partners are the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and France.

**Ease of Doing Business Ranking is determined by the World Bank Group and is ranked out of a possible 185 countries. www.doingbusiness.org

* CPI Score is published by Transparency International and relates to the perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between 100 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).

Most recent statistics have been taken from the CIA World Factbook unless noted otherwise.