There are 16 statistical

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...

s in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a 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 Jan Mayen and t ...

, of which six count as "Greater City Regions" (''Storbyregioner'') and ten as "City Regions" (''Byregioner''). The classification comes from ''Storbymeldingen'' (The Greater City Report) from the

Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development ( no, Kommunal- og regionaldepartementet) is a Norwegian ministry established in 1948. It is responsible for the housing and building, regional and rural policy, municipal an ...

. This report was composed in 2002–2003 to create a coherent policy for the development of metropolitan areas within Norwegian society. It was presented by then

Minister of Local Government and Regional Development The Minister of Local Government and Modernisation ( no, Kommunal- og moderniseringsministeren) is a Council of State (Norway), Councillor of State and Chief of the Norway, Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development (Norway), ...

Erna Solberg Erna Solberg (; born 24 February 1961) is a Norwegian politician and the current Leader of the Opposition. She served as the 35th prime minister of Norway from 2013 to 2021, and has been Leader of the Conservative Party since May 2004. Solberg w ...

on 12 March 2003. The Greater City Regions contain cities with numbers of inhabitants ranging from around 60,000 to 1.4 million, while the City Regions range from around 45 to 175 thousand. This is out of a national population of around 5.2 million citizens. The three most populous regions are the

Greater Oslo Region Greater Oslo Region ("Stor-Oslo-regionen" in Norwegian) is a statistical metropolitan region surrounding the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The region includes the city of Oslo (population: 658,390), the entire county of Akershus (population: 573,326) ...

, the Greater Bergen Region, and the Greater Stavanger Region.

Greater City Regions

Six Norwegian cities are considered Greater Cities (''Storbyer''). This classification is the result of an overall evaluation of these cities' population and their importance as regional centres. The six cities are

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporation ...

and

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Tromsø (city), city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies ...

. According to ''Storbymeldingen'', these regions contained the following number of municipalities and inhabitants as of 1 July 2009 (the right-hand column shows the number of inhabitants in the main city, within the boundaries of its municipality):

City Regions

In addition to these six regions, there are ten lesser regions referred to as City Regions (''Byregioner''). The City Regions of

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken (county), Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and village ...

and

Moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

are for many purposes considered part of the Greater Oslo Region, bringing the number down to eight. The City Regions, according to the same report, are the following (these regions do not all contain one, main city, so here this category is not included):

References

{{Reflist

Norway geography-related lists Lists of populated places in Norway

Greater City Regions

City Regions

See also

References