Gloomy office workers who love hiking: How Norwegians really live

Local Norway

3 days ago

The neighbouring Swedes think of Norwegians a little like Americans think of Canadians: cheerful to an unnerving degree, resolutely outdoorsy, but perhaps a bit on the simple side. They also see them, of course, as irritatingly and unjustly rich because of all that oil money.
But while there are elements of truth to all this, the reality of the average Norwegian is a little different.
Meet Anne and Jan
Statistically, the average Norwegian woman is called Anne, although she also might be called Inger, Ingrid, Kari or Marit. The average Norwegian man is called Jan, although he also might be called Björn, Per, Ole or Lars.
They are avid hikers
Anne and Jan do indeed love to spend time outdoors. Fully 96.5 percent of Norwegians told a survey for Statistics Norway that they had participated in "outdoor activities" in 2024.
The outdoor activity you are most likely to encounter Anne and Jan doing is hiking. Nearly 75 percent of Norwegians said they'd been hiking in the mountains or forests in 2024. Next up in their list of wholesome pastimes is swimming outdoors (69 percent), going berry picking or mushroom picking (47 percent), going on a boat trip (47 percent), country skiing (34 percent) and alpine skiing (21 percent).
Anne and Jan are quite likely to be found tying up a bivouac out in the forest: an alarming 26 percent of Norwegians said they had actually slept outside in nature on at least one night over the preceding year.
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The motivation for all this exertion isn't primarily fitness, with 68.6 percent of Norwegians saying their motivation for getting out into nature was "nature experiences", although 56.9 percent said fitness was part of the goal.
Only 13 percent of Norwegians say they "never train", with 60 percent saying they exercise several times a week.
As you might expect, all of that exercise doesn't leave that much time for culture, so neither Anne nor Jan are particularly enthusiastic about opera, ballet, or fine art.
Only seven percent of Norwegians said they had seen an opera in the last year, in the most recent cultural barometer in 2023, and only 13 percent had seen a ballet or dance performance.
The two of them are, however, willing to dip their toes into less highbrow culture: 65 percent of Norwegians said they had been to the cinema, 58 percent had been to a concert, and 38 percent had been to the theatre.
They are not the cheeriest of the bunch
While Swedes and Danes may see the average Norwegian as annoyingly chirpy, this is largely due to the sing-song rhythm of their language. Anna and Jan are in fact likely to be rather gloomy, at least compared to the rest of the Nordics.
According to the annual ranking of self-reported happiness put together by Gallup World Poll, the average Norwegian ranks themself only 7.26 on a ladder of 0-10.
While this may seem pretty happy, it only ranks them seventh in life satisfaction worldwide, with their neighbours in Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden bagging first to fourth place respectively
The Finns, while perhaps less overtly positive, rated their life satisfaction at a giddy 7.74.
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An office worker
While you might think the average Norwegian spends their days out on an oil rig, a fishing trawler, or wrestling with sheep on the steep slopes of a fjord, you are most likely to encounter Jan or Anne in a shop, office, hospital or school.
The most common job in Norway if you include part-time work is a sales assistant in a shop, followed by health worker.
If you only include full-time roles, the most common job is "a higher-level case worker in public and private organisations". This is basically any desk job that doesn't involve managing other people.
Anne is most likely to work as a primary school teacher.
Not as rich as you might think...
With an average monthly salary of 62,680 kroner for men and 55,280 for women, Anne and Jan
are
likely to be pretty wealthy, but their envious Danish friends across the Skagerak are actually a bit richer (and Denmark barely had any oil at all).
Anne and Jan also, according to UNECE, earn less on average than the Swiss, the Luxembourgers, the Icelanders and the Americans (although you can bet none of these countries get quite as much from their governments).
...and maybe less educated
Surprisingly Anne and Jan never went to university. Under 35 percent of Norwegians over the age of 16 have a university level education, meaning they are still slightly outnumbered by the 37 percent whose highest qualification is a school leaving certificate.
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But a Tesla driver nonetheless
Elsewhere in the world, driving a Tesla is a sign of wealth, but in Norway even average Joes like Jan and Anne are customers of the increasingly controversial Elon Musk. The Tesla Model Y is the most common car on Norway's roads.
Getting older
Jan and Anna are 40 (That's if you look at the median. If you look at the mean, they're 41.6). And although they're graying a bit, they still have fully half of their lives to go. The average man in Norway can expect to live to 82, and the average woman to 85, up from 80 and 84 just ten years ago.
About three quarters of that time will be spent working, with the average age to start withdrawing old-age pension just under 66.
Incidentally, this means it would be time for Norway's finance minister Jens Stoltenberg (66) to hang up his boots if he was an average Norwegian (which he obviously isn't). Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and opposing leader Erna Solberg, though, still theoretically have a year to go.
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Shrinking families
Jan and Anne are married and they have two children. Anne was 30 when she had her first child and Jan was 32, meaning Emma (the most common girl's name in 2015) is now ten and Jakob (the most common boy's name of 2017) is now 8.
Most Norwegian families still follow what's called the "two child family norm", but fertility
is
starting to fall from over two children per woman in the 1970s to 1.44 in 2025.
Just under 40 percent of men in Norway are married and just over 37 percent of women, meaning they just outnumber those who have never been married (37 and 35 percent). 53 percent of men and 50 percent of women have previously been married.
Just over 51 percent of children live with married parents, 25 percent live with cohabiting parents, 22 percent live with only one parent. About 59 percent of Norwegians lived in families or shared households, and 41 percent of people lived alone.
Cheese-eating hiking families
When it comes to diet, Norwegians aren't generally seen as being that healthy, but in fact Anne and Jan's consumption of fruit and vegetables, at 85.4kg each a year, is slightly above average for the EU. Their consumption of bread (50kg), meat (45kg), and fish (11kg) are all about average for the EU. Their consumption of cheese, however, at 17.5kg, is quite high.
When it comes to restaurant habits there is not much data, although statistics from the food delivery service Foodora back in 2020 found the meal Norwegians were most likely to order was a burger, followed by pizza, followed by sushi.
They are also surprisingly abstemious. Only 40 percent of men drink alcohol weekly, and 28 percent of women, which is very slightly above the EU average.
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Not as skinny as you might think
Perhaps it's all that cheese, but despite the hiking, Jan and Anna aren't as skinny as you might expect. Just under 19 percent of Norwegians are classed as obese, which might look good next to the podgy Brits (27 percent), but cuts a bulkier profile next to the Swedes (15 percent), Danes (13 percent) and French (9.7 percent).
The average Norwegian
In short,
the average Norwegian (Anne or Jan) is a nature-loving, moderately wealthy, somewhat under-educated office worker who hikes often, eats plenty of cheese, and drives a Tesla.
They may not be quite as happy, cultured or rich as their neighbours assume, but they live long, quiet lives, raise small families, and spend a surprising number of nights sleeping in the woods.