25 Interesting Facts About Norway

Here are 25 Kickass and Interesting Facts About Norway.

1-5 Interesting Facts About Norway

1. King Harald of Norway vowed to remain unmarried for life unless he could marry his true love, who was the daughter of a cloth merchant. They both later married with help from the Government of Norway and she became the Queen of Norway. – Source

2. Norway has the World’s biggest sovereign fund, where it has been saving almost all the money it gets from the sale of oil and is worth almost a trillion dollars. – Source

3. Norway introduced salmon sushi to the Japanese – Source

4. Norway has very strict rules on advertising cars as “green” – saying “cars can do nothing good for the environment except less damage than others” – Source

5. Norway has a minimum security island-prison where inmates are almost free to do as they wish. The criminals prisoned there are among Norway’s worst, but it has the lowest rate of re-offending in Europe, if not the world. – Source

6-10 Interesting Facts About Norway

6. Norway gets 98-99% of its electricity from hydroelectric power, more than any other country – Source

7. Norway stopped investing money into Walmart after determining that the company is guilty of “serious violations of fundamental ethical norms.” – Source

8. The relative number of English speakers is higher in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and The Netherlands than it is in Canada. – Source

9. Sweden is so good at recycling, it now runs out of garbage to recycle and now imports garbage from Norway to fuel its energy programs – Source

10. Dying is illegal in Longyearbyen, Norway because the town’s small graveyard stopped accepting bodies after discovering the permafrost prevented the bodies from decomposing. – Source

11-15 Interesting Facts About Norway

11. The archipelago of Lofoten in Norway is north of the Arctic Circle. Yet because of the largest positive temperature anomaly in the world relative to latitude, it is teeming with life and has the largest deep water coral reef in the word. – Source

12. The people of Oslo, Norway donate the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree in London every year in gratitude to the people of London for their assistance during WWII. – Source

13. To encourage more men to assume a greater share of care-giving responsibilities, Norwegian law states that 14 weeks of parental leave is reserved for fathers. Norway is the first country to introduce compulsory paternity leave. – Source

14. In 2008, Norway knighted a penguin. – Source

15. It is illegal to spay or neuter your dog in Norway except under specific circumstances regarding health, quality of life, or utility. – Source

16-20 Interesting Facts About Norway

16. Voss water is just water from the municipal water supply in Iveland, Norway – Source

17. In 1999, Norway granted refuge to an U.S. drug smuggler because the Norwegian Supreme Court declared that U.S. prisons do not meet “minimum humanitarian standards.” – Source

18. In 1251, Henry III of England was given a polar bear by the King of Norway. He kept it in the Tower of London, on a long chain so that it could swim in the Thames. – Source

19. In 2011, Norway went through a nationwide butter shortage, where smugglers would often get caught smuggling butter and online auctions for one packet of butter reached as high as $77. – Source

20. IKEA names sofas, coffee tables, bookshelves, media storage and doorknobs after places in Sweden; beds, wardrobes and hall furniture after places in Norway; carpets after places in Denmark and dining tables and chairs after places in Finland. – Source

21-25 Interesting Facts About Norway

21. The former Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg used to play Age of Empire as “Steklov”, his KGB code name. – Source

22. In Norway, income and wealth are public record, easily viewable online – Source

23. The popular 90’s energy drink ‘SURGE’ can still be bought in Norway under the name ‘URGE’ – Source

24. During the Nazi invasion of Norway, the Norwegian King was defended by some members of a local rifle club – Source

25. Norway has won the largest number of Gold, Silver and Bronze medals of all countries in the Winter Olympics. – Source