Metropolitan regions of Norway

There are 16 statistical metropolitan areas in Norway, of which six count as "Greater City Regions" (Storbyregioner) and ten as "City Regions" (Byregioner). The classification comes from Storbymeldingen (The Greater City Report) from the Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. This report was composed in 2002–2003 to create a coherent policy for the development of metropolitan areas within Norwegian society.[1] It was presented by then Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Erna Solberg on 12 March 2003.[2] The Greater City Regions contain cities with numbers of inhabitants ranging from around 60,000 to 1.4 million, while the City Regions range from around 45 to 175 thousand. This is out of a national population of around 5.2 million citizens.[3]

Oslo skyline

The three most populous regions are the Greater Oslo Region, the Greater Bergen Region, and the Greater Stavanger Region.

Greater City Regions

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Six Norwegian cities are considered Greater Cities (Storbyer). This classification is the result of an overall evaluation of these cities' population and their importance as regional centres.[1] The six cities are Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger, Kristiansand and Tromsø. According to Storbymeldingen, these regions contained the following number of municipalities and inhabitants as of 1 July 2009 (the right-hand column shows the number of inhabitants in the main city, within the boundaries of its municipality):[1]

Greater City Region Municipalities Inhabitants
in region 2010
Inhabitants
in region 2030[4]
Inhabitants
in municipality 2010
Greater Oslo Region 46 1,422,443 1,835,191 590 041
Greater Bergen Region 14 412,156 478,926 275,112
Greater Stavanger Region 13 321,412 403,907 122,602
Trondheim Region 11 261,759 301,966 169,343
Kristiansand Region 10 155,648 185,051 80,748
Tromsø Region 2 75,570 83,869 70,818

City Regions

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In addition to these six regions, there are ten lesser regions referred to as City Regions (Byregioner). The City Regions of Drammen and Moss are for many purposes considered part of the Greater Oslo Region, bringing the number down to eight.[1] The City Regions, according to the same report, are the following (these regions do not all contain one, main city, so here this category is not included):[1]

City Region Municipalities Inhabitants in 2009 Inhabitants
in 2030[4]
Mjøsa Cities 10 180,161 201,829
Drammen Region 8 151,769 190,055
Lower Glomma Region 4 143,992 173,620
Haugesund/Stord Region 10 128,797 156,830
Tønsberg Region 7 114,868 140,742
Grenland 5 123,075 159,312
Larvik/Sandefjord Region 3 87,531 100,897
Ålesund Region 9 82,165 97,604
Moss Region 4 55,290 66,887
Bodø Region 3 48,878 60,557

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Innledning: Storbymeldingens mål og perspektiver" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. 2003-05-09. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  2. ^ "Storbymelding uten løfter om øremerkede millioner" (in Norwegian). Aftenposten. 2008-03-12. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  3. ^ "Befolkning" (in Norwegian). Statistisk Sentralbyrå. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
  4. ^ a b "Population per 1 January, by county and municipality. Registered 2009. Projected 2010–2030, by variant MMMM". Ssb.no. Retrieved 2010-05-08.[dead link]