Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Norwegian Life
Norway is consistently ranked among the most liveable countries in the world and it's not
difficult to see why. Norway's famously generous cradle-to-grave welfare state (funded in
part, it must be said, by high taxes) and civilised working conditions are backed by a seem-
ingly inexhaustible stash of oil revenues saved up for future generations. But the erstwhile
homogeneity of Norwegian culture is changing, if not rapid-ly then discernibly, with an in-
creasingly multicultural society causing many to rethink Norwegian national identity.
In the nine years from 2001 to 2009, Norway ranked first seven times (including in 2009) on the UN Human
Development Index, which ranks countries according to a range of quality-of-life indicators.
Work & Family Life
If government support for the family is your yardstick, Norway may be the best country in
the world in which to have a family. From the early 1970s onwards, the foundation of Nor-
way's family welfare system has been to provide 'a mother's wage', protecting a woman's
right to remain at home without relying on her husband's income. Such measures remain in
place, but the focus has broadened and now includes everything from paid leave (Norwegi-
ans are entitled to five weeks a year) to heavily subsidised childcare.
A 2007 study found that Norway has more per-capita millionaires - 55,000, or one in every 85 Norwegians
- than any other country in the world.
Perhaps because of these unparalleled levels of support, Norway has one of the highest
fertility rates in the Western world (1.77 children per family). Another side effect is that the
Norwegian workplace is extremely child-friendly. As one Norwegian mother told the BBC
in 2006, 'There's just a completely different level of acceptance among employers here. It's
not uncommon to put a telephone conference on hold because you can hear a baby crying in
the background.' And according to the 2010 annual report of the NGO Save the Children,
Norway was ranked as the best country in the world in which to have children.
There have nonetheless been changes in family demographics in recent years, with the
averageage(27.5)offirst-timemothersincreasing,adeclineinmarriagerates(5.5per1000
peoplegetmarriedeachyear),ariseindefactorelationships (over50%ofchildrenareborn
outside wedlock, compared to 39% in 1990), and an increase in the number of single moth-
ers (around one-quarter of children grow up in single-parent households).
