AREA: 323,758 sq km (125,050 sq miles).

POPULATION: 4,417,599 (1998).

POPULATION DENSITY: 13.6 per sq km.

CAPITAL: Oslo. Population: 494,793 (1997).

GEOGRAPHY: Norway is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by Russia, Finland and Sweden, to the south by the Skagerrak (which separates it from Denmark) and to the west by the North Sea. The coastline is 2735km (1700 miles) long, its most outstanding feature being the fjords. Most of them are between 80-160km long (50-100 miles), and are often very deep and surrounded by towering mountains. Much of northern Norway lies beyond the Arctic Circle and the landscape is stark. In the south the landscape consists of forests with many lakes and rivers.

GOVERNMENT: Constitutional monarchy. Declared independence from Sweden in 1905.  
Head of State: King Harald V since 1991. 
Head of Government: Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg since 2000.

LANGUAGE: Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk). Lappish is spoken by the Sami population in the north. English is widely spoken.

RELIGION: 89% Evangelical Lutherans; plus other Christian denominations.

TIME: Norway Mainland: GMT + 1 (GMT + 2 from last Sunday in March to last Saturday before last Sunday in October).

Jan Mayen Islands, Svalbard: GMT + 1.