Norway is located between 57 ^or 57’31 “and 71 ^or 11’8″ north latitude and between 4 ^or 30’13 “and 31 ^or 10’4″ east longitude. It borders to the north with the Barents Sea, to the northeast with Russia and Finland, to the east with Sweden, to the south with the Skagerrak Strait and to the west with the Atlantic Ocean.

Norway belongs to the Scandinavian peninsula.

Its 386 958 km ² extend along a mountain range that covers two thirds of the country.

Etymology

Norway is officially called Kongeriket Norge, according to the regulations written in Bokmål, “the language of the book”, while it is called Kongeriket Noreg in the grammar of Nynorsk, another of the official languages of the country. In other languages spoken in the country it has the following names:

• Northern Sami: Norga or Norgga gonagasriika.
• Lule Samico: Vuodna or Vuona gånågisrijkka.
• Southern Sami: Nøørje or Nøørjen gånkarijhke.
• Finnish language: Norja or Norjan Kuningaskunta.

Many etymologists believe that the name of the country comes from the Nordic Germanic languages and that it means the “northern route” or the “way to the north”, which in Old Norse would be Nord veg or Norð vegri. [Citation needed] In Norse In ancient times, the name of Norway was Nóreegr, in Old Saxon it was Norþ weg and in medieval Latin it was Nhorvegia.

Old Norse and Nynorsk are quite similar to an Old Sami word meaning “along the coast” or “along the sea”, which is written nuorrek in present-day Lule Sami. The presence of this archaism is used by other scholars to establish that the word Sami is aboriginal and was not taken from the Nor-Germanic languages.

The earliest written evidence for the use of the word “Norway” dates from the 9th century in an Anglo-Saxon translation of a book by Paulo Orosio, “Seven History Books Against the Pagans.” The translation was made by King Alfred the Great of Wessex to include his account of Ohthere’s travels from Hålogaland, a Viking adventure.

Population

The 4.5 million Norwegians live, for the most part, in cities scattered throughout the country. The population density is low and there are large areas that remain uninhabited. Some 30,000 Sami live in the northern reaches of Finnmark ; Such is the true name of the “Lapps” whose ancestral culture lives on with reindeer herding and their language, music, art and crafts.

Norway’s first settlers were hunters and gatherers who arrived there shortly after the Ice Age.

General characteristics

Relief

Most of Norway is mountainous, but mountains are not a mountain system but rather a series of plateaus ranging in height from 600 to 900 meters. The origin of the mountainous massif is due to the Caledonian fold.

In summary, Norway has three orographic factors from north to south: the Finmark Plateau, the Kjolen Mountains and the southwestern plateaus and depressions of southeastern Norway. El Monte Galdhøpiggen (2469 m) is the highest mountain in Norway and Scandinavia.

The Kjolen and Dofrines Ranges form Norway’s main orographic system, which form a series of plateaus.

Hydrography

Due to the orographic configuration of Norway, the rivers are short, but have a great flow due to the large frozen areas of its mountains that thaw in summer. In Norway the lakes occupy about 7,600 km ², which would be equivalent to approximately 2% of the total area. In Norway, flordos and peaks also predominate.

Climate

According to Bridgat, since a third of Norway is in glacial areas and most of it is more than 300 meters above sea level, it is understood that the Norwegian climate is very cold. But at the same time, Norway feels favored climatologically, since in the western region, it feels influenced by the Gulf Stream and the atmospheric currents that flow through the southwest and south, which protect from the cold currents of the North Pole.

Economic development

Norway has a prosperous and rich economy, combining a free market activity with state intervention resulting in its population living in a welfare state, with low levels of inequality. The government controls key areas, such as the vital oil sector (through large-scale state-owned companies).

The country is widely provided with natural resources – oil, hydropower, fish, forests and minerals – and is highly dependent on its oil production and international prices for it; in 1999, oil and gasoline constituted 35% of exports. Only Saudi Arabiaand Russia export more oil than Norway, which is outside OPEC.

Norway chose to remain outside the European Union during a referendum in 1972 and again in 1994. However, Norway, together with Iceland and Liechtenstein, participate in the EU single market through the European Economic Area agreement.

The main reasons why the Norwegian population refuses to enter the EU are the high standard of living they enjoy, due to the large income from oil production, the Scandinavian country in the EU would have a role of donating economic resources to the weaker countries. On the other hand, they should most likely reconsider their massive whaling, something that is frowned upon by the European Union.

Economic growth improved in 2000 to 2.7%, compared to the much poorer 0.8% of 1999, but fell again to 1.3% in 2001. The government moved toward privatization in 2000, selling a third of the Statoil oil company, until then 100% state-owned.

Although possibly with the highest quality of life in the world, Norwegians are beginning to worry, as it is estimated that within the next two decades oil will begin to become scarce. Consequently Norway has been keeping its oil-driven budget surplus in a state oil fund, which is invested abroad and is valued (as of November 26, 2003) at US $ 114 billion.