section_path: Demographics/Population
section_name: Population
paragraph_text: Population
  
  Norway's population was 5,585,044 people in the fourth quarter of 2024. Norwegians are an ethnic North Germanic people. The total fertility rate (TFR) in 2023 was estimated at 1.40 children born per woman, below the replacement rate of 2.1, it remains considerably below the high of 4.69 children born per woman in 1877. In 2024 the median age of the Norwegian population was 40 years.
  
  The Sámi people are indigenous to the Far North and have traditionally inhabited central and northern parts of Norway and Sweden, as well as areas in northern Finland and in Russia on the Kola Peninsula. Another national minority are the Kven people, descendants of Finnish-speaking people who migrated to northern Norway from the 18th up to the 20th century. From the 19th century up to the 1970s, the Norwegian government tried to assimilate both the Sámi and the Kven, encouraging them to adopt the majority language, culture and religion. Because of this " Norwegianization process", many families of Sámi or Kven ancestry now identify as ethnic Norwegian.
  
  The national minorities of Norway are Kvens, Jews, Forest Finns, and Romani people.
  
  In 2017, Norway's population ranked first on the World Happiness Report, and in 2025, it ranked seventh.