Norway Introduction
In Norway, outdoor activity is year-round, even during those long, cold winter days. These modern day Viking descendants do not let a little cold weather and snow get in their way. They love to ski, snowboard, ice skate and enjoy a wide variety of winter sports and activities. Proof of their love of winter sports was their showing in the 2014 winter Olympics. Norway finished third behind Russia and the United States. Warm weather brings hiking, mountain climbing, sailing and many other outdoor activities that can be enjoyed during the long summer days.
Officially the Kingdom of Norway, the country stretches up the western coast of the Scandinavian Peninsula to the Arctic Circle. A narrow nation spread across nearly 150,000 square miles, Norway is the ninth largest country in Europe and sixty-eighth in the world. Norway has over 25,000 miles of rugged coastline, adding to its natural beauty. It also shares an over 1,000 mile eastern border with Sweden, which is the longest uninterrupted border within Europe.
Norway’s population of just over five million makes it the one hundred-eighteenth largest country in the world. The predominant language spoken is Norwegian, which has two dialects: Bokmål and Nynorsk. Both dialects have official status and are spoken either as a first or second language. A small minority of the population speaks different dialects of the Sami language, depending on the region. English language instruction is required in all Norwegian public schools.
The country is called the “land of the midnight sun” because of its northern latitude, which causes large seasonal variations in daylight. From May to late July, the sun never descends below the horizon in the area north of the Arctic Circle, while the rest of Norway has up to 20 hours of daylight each day. The amount of daylight is reversed from the long summer sunshine from late November to late January. Norway’s climate is influenced by the Atlantic Gulf Stream along its western coast, which brings more precipitation and milder winters to the southern and western parts of the country.