The coastline of Norway is formed along the

Skagerrak The Skagerrak (, , ) is a strait running between the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, the southeast coast of Norway and the west coast of Sweden, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area through the Danish Straits to the Baltic Sea. T ...

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

, Norwegian Sea, and

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; no, Barentshavet, ; russian: Баренцево море, Barentsevo More) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian terr ...

. This considers only the mainland coastline and excludes

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group rang ...

. A straight line along Norway's sea borders (the coastal perimeter) is long. Along the coast there are many fjords,

islands An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

, and bays, resulting in a low-resolution coastline of over . At linear intercepts, this length increases to (see the coastline paradox). Much of Norway's wealth is linked to its long coastline; for example, the

petroleum industry The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The larg ...

, maritime transport,

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...

, and

fish farming upright=1.3, Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture) at Loch Ainort, Isle of Skye">mariculture.html" ;"title="Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture">Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture) at Loch Ainort, Isle of Skye, Scotland Fish farming o ...

. The Norwegian landscape was formed by

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...

s that eroded the

basement rock In geology, basement and crystalline basement are crystalline rocks lying above the mantle and beneath all other rocks and sediments. They are sometimes exposed at the surface, but often they are buried under miles of rock and sediment. The baseme ...

and formed countless valleys and fjords, as well as the characteristic skerries that protect the land from the ocean along most of the mainland coastline. There are only a few shorter or longer stretches where the mainland is exposed to the open sea along the coast: at Lindesnes,

Lista Lista is a former municipality located in the old Vest-Agder county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1965. The administrative centre was the village of Vanse where Vanse Church is located. Lista municipal ...

Jæren Jæren is a Districts of Norway, traditional district in Rogaland county, Norway. The other districts in Rogaland are Dalane, Ryfylke, and Haugalandet. Jæren is one of the 15 districts that comprise Western Norway. At about , Jæren is the large ...

, Stad,

Hustadvika Hustadvika is a long section of coastline in Fræna Municipality in Romsdal, Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the shipping route between the towns of Molde and Kristiansund. Unlike most of the Norwegian coast, there are no lar ...

, and Folda in Trøndelag, and along the Varanger Peninsula.

Facts

Because of countless peninsulas and inlets, large and small islands, holms, and skerries, the Norwegian coast is among the longest in the world. Some facts about the Norwegian coastline: * Municipalities in Norway that have a coast: 279 *Mainland coastline (with fjords and bays): *Island coastline: *Total coastline (mainland and islands): *Number of islands: 239,057 *Number of skerries: 81,192

Gallery

File:Tjøme Sandø c.JPG, Low tide at Sandø in

Færder Færder is a municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Borgheim. The municipality was established in 2018 by the unification of the former municipalities of ...

File:Utsira hamn3.jpg, ''Sørevågen'' (South Bay) at Utsira in

Rogaland Rogaland () is a county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Vestfold og Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. In 2020, it had a population of 479,892. The admin ...

File:Storvika-fra-skaret-2009-08-18.jpg, ''Storvik'' (Big Bay) in Gildeskål File:Bleik_village_and_Bleik_island,_seen_from_Mount_Royken.jpg, Bleik in Andøya

References

{{reflist Coasts of Norway