History of Norway company by 1985, just to go bankrupt by 1993. Unemployment reached record-high levels in the early 1990s. By 1990 Norway was Europe's largest oil producer and by 1995 it was the world's second-largest oil exporter. Membership in the European Union was rejected in a 1994 referendum, with Norway instead joining the European Economic Area and later also the Schengen Area. Large public investments in the 1990s were a new National Hospital and Oslo Airport, Gardermoen—connected to the capital with Norway's first high-speed railway, the Gardermoen Line. A number of large government companies, such as Statoil, Telenor and Kongsberg were privatized.
Bible Belt (Norway) the southeast near the Swedish border, covering Rømskog, Marker and Aremark. Bible Belt (Norway) The Norwegian Bible Belt (Norwegian: "bibelbeltet") is a loosely defined southwestern coastal area of Norway, which is more religious than most of Norway. Typically, the definition covers Western Norway (Vestlandet) and Southern Norway (Sørlandet), which includes the counties of Rogaland (typically called the "buckle" of the Bible Belt), Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane, Møre og Romsdal, Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder. However, the most urban areas, such as Stavanger (once known as the 'religious capital of Norway'), have become strongly secularised since the 1960s and are no longer considered