South Norway (, ) is the southern and by far most populous half of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

, consisting of the

regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

Western Norway Western Norway ( nb, Vestlandet, Vest-Norge; nn, Vest-Noreg) is the region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the counties Rogaland, Vestland, and Møre og Romsdal. The region has no official or political-administrativ ...

Eastern Norway Eastern Norway ( nb, Østlandet, nn, Austlandet) is the geographical region of the south-eastern part of Norway. It consists of the counties Vestfold og Telemark, Viken, Oslo and Innlandet. Eastern Norway is by far the most populous region ...

Southern Norway Southern Norway ( no, Sørlandet; lit. "The Southland") is the geographical region (''landsdel'') along the Skagerrak coast of southern Norway. The region is an informal description since it does not have any governmental function. It rough ...

(

Agder Agder is a county (''fylke'') and traditional region in the southern part of Norway. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder counties were merged. Since the early 1900s, the term Sørlandet ("south ...

) and

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; sma, Trööndelage) is a county in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County ( no, Trondhjems Amt); in 1804 the county was split into Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag by the King of Denma ...

(

Central Norway Central Norway ( nb, Midt-Norge, nn, Midt-Noreg) is an informal region of Norway that is not clearly defined. The term ''Central Norway'' may in its most limited usage refer only to Trøndelag county, but may also be understood to include all or ...

). In English, South Norway was historically also known as Norway Proper, a term that often has a broader meaning in contemporary usage. In Norwegian, ''South Norway'' usually refers to Agder County. South Norway has no administrative functions, and does not constitute a cultural or linguistic region, as opposed to

Northern Norway Northern Norway ( nb, Nord-Norge, , nn, Nord-Noreg; se, Davvi-Norga) is a geographical region of Norway, consisting of the two northernmost counties Nordland and Troms og Finnmark, in total about 35% of the Norwegian mainland. Some of the lar ...

, the northern half of the country. To people from the latter region, citizens hailing from the southern half are known by the

exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group ...

('southerners'). The inhabitants themselves, however, have no common "southern" identity, as they rather identify with the regions they are from and call themselves (from Western Norway), (from Eastern Norway), (from Southern Norway) and (from Trøndelag). Practical use of the region mostly applies to purposes such as

weather forecasting Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since the 19th cen ...

. South Norway () must not be confused with Southern Norway (), which is a sub-region with a distinct cultural identity limited to the southernmost county of

References

Geography of Norway Regions of Norway {{Norway-geo-stub