Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

POLITICS

The key numbers to explain Norway’s 2021 election

Here are all the key stats, figures, and numbers you need to know to understand the 2021 Norwegian election.

Published: 14 September 2021 14:41 CEST
The key numbers to explain Norway's 2021 election
Labour leader Jonas Gahr Støre at a AUF conference. Photo by Erlend C. L. Birkeland/Arbeiderpartiet on Flickr.

100: This is the number of seats won by Norway’s five opposition parties on the night to secure a victory over Erna Solberg’s centre-right government. Norway’s parliament consists of 169 seats, and 85 is needed for a majority. 

The overall result didn’t come as too much of a shock as commentators and pollsters had predicted a change of government in the long runup to the election. 

89: The number of seats Norway’s most likely coalition have secured between them. This potential government is comprised of the Labour Party, the Centre Party and the Socialist Left Party. 

This combination was Labour’s dream combination ahead of the election. Still, the Centre Party have insisted they aren’t too thrilled about being in government with the Socialist Left Party despite their ambition to be in a majority government with just themselves and Labour being dead in the water since the summer. 

8: Last night’s result ends eight years of right of centre rule lead by Erna Solberg and the Conservative Party. 

Solberg’s government was always up against it to get reelected, and last night, Norway’s outgoing PM admitted that she knew the Conservatives would have needed a miracle to stand any chance of staying in power. 

As it happened: ‘We did it’ – Norway’s left-wing opposition triumphs in general election

4.7: That’s the historical share of the vote that the Red Party managed to grab last night. The party had never managed to meet Norway’s election threshold of four percent before. Parties that meet the threshold are awarded extra seats in parliament.

The Red Party will have eight MPs representing them in parliament. 

76.5: This is the percentage of the electorate who voted in last nights election. While this turnout may seem high, it’s lower than the 2017 election, when 78.2 percent of the voters headed to the polls. 

Even though voting in Norway isn’t compulsory, turnout has only been lower on four occasions. 

The 1945, 1993, 2001 and 2009 elections are the only times that turnout has been lower. 

1.6 million: This is how many people voted in advance in this years election, a record number and more than 50 percent of those who hit the ballot box in total. 

10: Ten parties will be represented in Norway’s next parliament. These are the Labour Party, Conservative Party, Progress Party, Liberal Party, Christian Democratic Party, Green Party, Socialist Left Party, Red Party and Patient Focus Party. 

1: Protest party the Patient Focus Party managed to grab one seat in Norway’s next parliament. The only non-mainstream party to do so. 

The party from Finnmark, northern Norway, are focused on raising awareness of the lack of healthcare provisions available in the remote parts of northern Norway. 

76: This is the number of women who have been elected to parliament this year. This equates to around 45 percent of all MPs.

The Red Party (62.5 percent) and the Socialist Left Party (61.5 percent) are the parties with the highest proportion of women elected to parliament. Ironically enough, the Progress Party will have the lowest proportion of female MPs, with less than 10 percent of their MPs being women. 

2: This is Labour’s second-worst set of election results since 1924 and worst since 2001. However, Labour won’t be bothered by this factoid, and last night’s developments continue a 94-year-long streak of finishing first in Norwegian parliamentary elections in terms of percentage of votes secured.

68: This, for now, is the size of the opposition to Norway’s next government. It could rise to 69 if the Patient Focus Party decides to oppose the government. 

4: The percentage of the votes that four parties battled it out to secure so they could meet Norway’s election threshold and secure levelling seats awarded to parties that achieve a decent share of support nationwide. 

It was celebrations for the Red Party and Liberals who met the threshold, grabbing four and five levelling seats each and commiserations for the Green Party and Christian Democrats who fell short. 

36: Jonas Gahr Støre will be Norway’s 36th prime minister since 1873 and first Labour prime minister for eight years. 

Election: Who is Jonas Gahr Store, Norway’s likely new prime minister?

9: Erna Solberg will be bitterly disappointed to have lost last night’s election, albeit not entirely shocked. However, there is the small consolation of becoming the first MP to be elected to parliament for the ninth time in over 100 years. 

The Bergen native has been an MP since 1989. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

POLITICS

How Norway’s 2025 budget will impact foreign residents

Norway’s government won’t unveil its budget for another few weeks, but several proposals, such as income tax cuts, have already been made public. Here's how foreign residents in Norway will be affected.

Published: 19 September 2024 12:06 CEST
How Norway's 2025 budget will impact foreign residents

Norway’s budget for 2025 will be unveiled on October 7th. It is the last budget the current government will present before the general election next year.

Tax cuts

Finance minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum said this summer that those on ordinary incomes would pay less income tax in 2025. How much income tax will be cut is currently unknown.

Tax residents of Norway currently pay a flat tax rate of 22 percent, and then a further “bracket tax” based on how much they earn. For example, those who earn up to 670,000 kroner per year pay a four percent bracket tax, while those making between 670,001 and 937,900 kroner pay a 13.6 percent bracket tax.

READ ALSO: How does Norway’s bracket tax for income work?

Norway’s tax card system would also be tweaked to benefit those with part-time jobs. Next year, you can earn up to 100,000 before paying tax. This could benefit foreign students in Norway.

Finances

The government will continue its electric subsidy for households next year. The government announced its intention to continue the policy this spring.

Currently, the state covers 90 percent of the electricity price above 73 øre per kWh – or 91.25 øre including VAT.

Residents of Norway’s 212 least central municipalities will have 25,000 kroner of their student loans written off per year from 2026.

Those in Finnmark and Nord-Troms will have their loans written off at a rate of 60,000 kroner a year.

READ MORE: The incentives to attract people to northern Norway

Crime

The government will spend an extra 2.8 billion kroner on fighting crime. Of this, 2.4 billion kroner will go directly to beefing up the number of police officers in Norway. Some 90 million kroner would be put towards cracking down on financial crime.

Furthermore, 405 million kroner would also be spent on fighting youth crime, by creating a fast track court for young offenders and creating more juvenile detention places.

Travel changes

Up to 2.9 billion kroner extra spending will go into maintaining Norway’s rail infrastructure. Signal and track failures have been a constant source of delays in east Norway, where services regularly struggle with punctuality.

Over 12 billion kroner will be spent on Norway’s rail system.

Norway could finally reveal more details on its proposed tourist tax. The country’s industry minister, Cecilie Myrseth, has previously said that a proposal would be tabled this autumn.

The minister didn’t say whether this would be related to the raft of proposals included in the budget.

A potential tourist tax has long been promised by the current government as part of the Hurdal Agreement it was formed on in 2021.

As part of its budget cooperation with the Socialist Left Party, the government will be required to assess whether a subsidy scheme should be introduced for long-distance bus travel in Norway.

Bus routes without an alternative, such as train, could be subsidised under the scheme.

SHOW COMMENTS