Health and welfare

Compulsory membership in a national health-insurance system guarantees all Norwegians free medical care in hospitals, compensation for doctors’ fees, and free medicine, as well as an allowance to compensate for lost wages. Membership fees securing cash benefits during illness or pregnancy, covered by another insurance fund, are compulsory for salaried employees and optional for the self-employed. Most Norwegian doctors work in hospitals, the majority of which are owned by the state, counties, and municipalities. Extensive programs of preventive medicine have conquered Norway’s ancient nemesis, tuberculosis. There is also a well-developed system of maternal and child health care, as well as compulsory school health services and free family counseling by professionals. A public dental service provides care for children under age 18.

A “people’s pension” was established in Norway in 1967 to ensure each citizen upon retirement a standard of living reasonably close to the level that the individual had achieved during his or her working life. The pension covers old age and cases of disability or loss of support. The premiums are paid by the individual members, employers, municipalities, and the state. The basic pension is adjusted every year, regardless of the plan’s income. Supplementary pensions vary according to income and pension-earning time. The state pays a family allowance for all children up to 18 years of age.

Norway ranks among the top 10 countries of the world in GNP per capita and has one of the world’s highest standards of living. Since the 1950s Norwegians have spent a smaller share of their income than formerly on food, beverages, and tobacco. Travel and leisure activities have increased their share rapidly, however, as have such household goods as electrical appliances. During the 1960s the number of automobiles per inhabitant increased dramatically, from 1 in 21 persons having a automobile to 1 in 3; it now is about 1 in 2. By law, Norwegians are guaranteed 25 vacation days every year. Working hours may not exceed 9 hours a day or 40 hours per week. A five-day workweek had become the rule by the late 1960s.

Norway has pursued progressive social policies. In 1993 it became the second country to legally recognize unions between homosexual partners. Indeed, in 2002 the conservative finance minister officially registered his partnership and met little public opposition. In 2009 same-sex marriage was legalized.

Housing

Until the 1970s Norway felt the housing shortage created by World War II. The shortage was aggravated further by high costs in the densely populated urban areas. But housing standards have improved tremendously, and most families live in houses built since the war—a majority of them financed by state loans on favourable terms. In densely populated areas, particularly in and around Oslo, housing prices soared beginning in the early 1990s but then fell precipitously in 2007–08 as a result of the global economic downturn, only to recover later in the decade.

Education

School attendance is mandatory for 10 years, from age 6 to 16, with an optional 11th year. Mandatory subjects include Norwegian, religion, mathematics, music, physical education, science, and English. Optional courses in the arts and in other foreign languages, as well as vocational training in such areas as office skills, agriculture, and seamanship, are available in the upper grades. With three years of additional high school, students may take the examinations leading to university study.

A small percentage of college and university students study abroad. Institutions of higher education in Norway have been expanded to accommodate the doubling of the student population that occurred between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s. Norway’s seven universities include four traditional universities—the University of Oslo (established 1811), the University of Bergen (1946), the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim (with roots in the Norwegian Institute of Technology, founded 1910), and the University of Tromsø (1968)—along with the University of Stavanger, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Ås, and the University of Agder. There are also six university-level specialized institutions (including the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen and the Norwegian Academy of Music) as well as about two dozen university colleges that predominantly offer three-year programs of study.

Many students attend vocational schools, and a few thousand students attend folk high schools (generally boarding schools offering a one-year course designed for 17-year-old students from rural areas). The great majority of Norway’s schools are state-run and free; however, there are also private, fee-charging schools at every level. All students are eligible for government loans. Lifelong learning and continuing education programs for adults are also important components of the Norwegian education system.

Science and research have limited means in a small country. Nevertheless, the Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research at the Norwegian Institute of Technology (SINTEF) was created in 1950 as an independent organization at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology to stimulate research and develop cooperation with other public and private research institutions and with private industry. SINTEF is financed by the state and by payments for its services. In the natural sciences, reflecting the country’s intimacy with an overpowering physical environment, the individual efforts of Norwegians have won particular acclaim.