
The Norway–Sweden border ( no, Svenskegrensa, sv, Norska gränsen) is a long land
national border
Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ...
, and the longest border for both
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 ...
and
Sweden.
History
The border has changed several times because of war. Before 1645,
Jämtland,
Härjedalen
Härjedalen (; no, Herjådalen or ) is a historical province (''landskap'') in the centre of Sweden. It borders the Norwegian county of Trøndelag as well as the provinces of Dalarna, Hälsingland, Medelpad, and Jämtland. The province orig ...
,
Idre
Idre ( sma, Eajra, Elfdalian: ''Iðer'') is a locality and ski resort situated in Älvdalen Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden with 794 inhabitants in 2010. It was also a historical parish and former municipality.
History
The two parishes '' ...
/
Särna
Särna (Elfdalian: ''Sjär’n'') is a locality situated in Älvdalen Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden with 719 inhabitants in 2010.
History
The two parishes ''Särna'' and ''Idre'' were originally part of Norway but were occupied by an expe ...
parish, and
Bohuslän belonged to Norway. The border changes were defined in the
Treaty of Brömsebro (1645), the
Treaty of Roskilde
The Treaty of Roskilde (concluded on 26 February ( OS), or 8 March 1658) ( NS) during the Second Northern War between Frederick III of Denmark–Norway and Karl X Gustav of Sweden in the Danish city of Roskilde. After a devastating defeat, ...
(1658) and the
Treaty of Copenhagen (1660)
The Treaty of Copenhagen ( da, Freden i København, sv, Freden i Köpenhamn) was signed on 27 May 1660, and marked the conclusion of the Second Northern War between the Swedish Empire and the alliance of Denmark-Norway and the Polish–Lithuani ...
.
In 1751 a treaty was signed in
Strömstad, defining the border based on field investigations and negotiations done 1738–1751. The border was based on knowledge among local people, mainly which farm belonged to which
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...
and which parish to which
diocese
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...
. In the unpopulated mountains, the border mainly followed the
water divide
A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a single ...
. There were disagreements on the parishes of
Särna
Särna (Elfdalian: ''Sjär’n'') is a locality situated in Älvdalen Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden with 719 inhabitants in 2010.
History
The two parishes ''Särna'' and ''Idre'' were originally part of Norway but were occupied by an expe ...
,
Idre
Idre ( sma, Eajra, Elfdalian: ''Iðer'') is a locality and ski resort situated in Älvdalen Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden with 794 inhabitants in 2010. It was also a historical parish and former municipality.
History
The two parishes '' ...
,
Lierne
Lierne is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Namdalen region, and it is the largest municipality by area in Trøndelag. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sandvika. Other villages include ...
,
Kautokeino
Kautokeino ( no, Kautokeino; se, Guovdageaidnu ; fkv, Koutokeino; fi, Koutokeino) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino. Other villages ...
and
Karasjok
( se, Kárášjohka ; fkv, Kaarasjoki) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Karasjok. Other villages include Dorvonjárga, Šuoššjávri, and Váljohka.
Th ...
, which had to be solved by give-and-take. Based on that, in 1752–1765 border
cairns were erected between Norway and Sweden including Finland, which mostly remain today. Since the
Sami people lived in mountains and regularly crossed the border, a second treaty, the
Lapp Codicil of 1751 was agreed, giving them the right to freely cross the border with their reindeer.
After the
Treaty of Kiel
The Treaty of Kiel ( da, Kieltraktaten) or Peace of Kiel (Swedish and no, Kielfreden or ') was concluded between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Kingdom of Sweden on one side and the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway on the ...
and the
Convention of Moss
The Convention of Moss (''Mossekonvensjonen'') was a ceasefire agreement signed on 14 August 1814 between the King of Sweden and the Norwegian government. It followed the Swedish-Norwegian War due to Norway's claim to sovereignty. It also bec ...
(1814) the
union between Sweden and Norway
Sweden and Norway or Sweden–Norway ( sv, Svensk-norska unionen; no, Den svensk-norske union(en)), officially the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, and known as the United Kingdoms, was a personal union of the separate Monarchy, kingdoms ...
was established, and the Norway–Sweden border became a border between two union partners. In the
Negotiations in Karlstad which led up to the
dissolution of the union in 1905, Norway was obliged to tear down several fortresses along the border.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, when Norway was
occupied by Germany and
Sweden was neutral, many Norwegians became refugees and were transported or fled over the border. The regulation of Norwegian immigrants was strict between 1940 and 1941; several would-be-refugees were declined.
Geography
In
Dalarna
Dalarna () is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in central Sweden. English exonyms for it are Dalecarlia () and the Dales.
Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Norway i ...
and north of it, the border usually follows the
drainage divide
A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a sing ...
in the
Scandinavian Mountains
The Scandinavian Mountains or the Scandes is a mountain range that runs through the Scandinavian Peninsula. The western sides of the mountains drop precipitously into the North Sea and Norwegian Sea, forming the fjords of Norway, whereas to the ...
between rivers that flow to the Norwegian Sea or Skagerrak and rivers flowing to the Baltic Sea. Exceptions to this are
Rogen and
Lierne
Lierne is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Namdalen region, and it is the largest municipality by area in Trøndelag. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sandvika. Other villages include ...
which are not located on the same of the border as the drainage divide. South of Dalarna, the border in part follows local drainage divides, but also across lakes and along rivers. Some border marks were placed on small lake islands so that they got divided by the border.
In Norway, the border lies along the counties, from south to north, of
Viken
Viken may refer to:
* Viken, Scandinavia, a historical region
*Viken (county), a Norwegian county established in 2020
* Viken, Sweden, a bimunicipal locality in Skåne County, Sweden
* Viken (lake), a lake in Sweden, part of the part of the Göta c ...
,
Innlandet
Innlandet is a county in Norway. It was created on 1 January 2020 with the merger of the old counties of Oppland and Hedmark (the municipalities of Jevnaker and Lunner were transferred to the neighboring county of Viken on the same date). The n ...
,
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 Denmar ...
,
Nordland
Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, ...
and
Troms og Finnmark
Troms og Finnmark (; sme, Romsa ja Finnmárku ; fkv, Tromssa ja Finmarkku; fi, Tromssa ja Finnmark, lit. Troms and Finnmark in English), is a county in northern Norway that was established on 1 January 2020 as the result of a regional reform ...
. In Sweden, the border lies along the counties, from south to north, of
Västra Götaland,
Värmland
Värmland () also known as Wermeland, is a ''landskap'' (historical province) in west-central Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Dalsland, Dalarna, Västmanland, and Närke, and is bounded by Norway in the west. Latin name versions are ...
,
Dalarna
Dalarna () is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in central Sweden. English exonyms for it are Dalecarlia () and the Dales.
Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Norway i ...
,
Jämtland,
Västerbotten
Västerbotten (), known in English as West Bothnia or Westrobothnia, is a province (''landskap'') in the north of Sweden, bordering Ångermanland, Lapland, North Bothnia, and the Gulf of Bothnia. It is known for the cheese named after the pro ...
and
Norrbotten
Norrbotten (), known in English as North Bothnia, is a Swedish province (''landskap'') in northernmost Sweden. It borders south to Västerbotten, west to Swedish Lapland, and east to Finland.
Administration
The traditional provinces of Swe ...
. The northernmost border point is
Treriksröset
The Three-Country Cairn ( fi, Kolmen valtakunnan rajapyykki, se, Golmma riikka urna, no, Treriksrøysa, sv, Treriksröset) is the point at which the international borders of Sweden, Norway and Finland meet, and the name of the monument that ...
(Swedish) or Treriksrøysa (Norwegian), which is also a border to
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...
.
There is a clear-cut zone (
border vista
Border control refers to measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it a ...
) along the border where there are forests.
Control

Both countries are members of the
Schengen Area
The Schengen Area ( , ) is an area comprising 27 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. Being an element within the wider area of freedom, security and ...
, and there are therefore no immigration controls. However, only Sweden is part of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...
(and crucially the
European Union Customs Union
The European Union Customs Union (EUCU), formally known as the Community Customs Union, is a customs union which consists of all the member states of the European Union (EU), Monaco, and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dheke ...
) and there are customs checks between the two countries. These checks are performed by the
Norwegian Customs and Excise Authorities
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
*Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including th ...
and the
Swedish Customs Service
The Swedish Customs ( sv, Tullverket, , Customs Administration) is the customs service of the Kingdom of Sweden. It is a department of the Government of Sweden. It is one of the oldest governmental agencies in Sweden, as it was founded in 1636. ...
. These checks are sporadic along the Norway–Sweden border. Cars are usually not forced to stop. To combat drug smuggling, the use of CCTV surveillance has recently been increased, with systems using
Automatic number plate recognition
Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR; see also other names below) is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates to create vehicle location data. It can use existing closed-circuit t ...
being rolled out in 2016 and 2017.
Both Norway and Sweden emphasise checks against other countries. For flights and ferries between the two countries, there are no formal passport checks at airport and ferry ports and identity cards are normally not needed to board either, but are advised for planes.
Before 2001, the countries were not part of the Schengen Area, but even then there was no passport check, as both were part of the
Nordic Passport Union
The Nordic Passport Union allows citizens of the Nordic countriesIceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finlandto travel and reside in another Nordic country without any travel documentation (e.g. a passport or national identity card) or a re ...
, which was subsumed into the Schengen Area. Passengers were led to the passport control at international airports, but could pass simply by showing the ticket and/or speaking and looking Scandinavian. There were more road customs stations then, some have been closed for cost reasons.
Shared surveillance
Already in 1957 there were agreements that one country manned certain border crossings and the other one some others, checking in both directions. In 1959 the collaboration was formalised by an agreement on 28 October 1959, ratified in Sweden (K. Prop 1959:180) and finally the ratifications were exchanged between the Swedish foreign minister and the Norwegian ambassador on 30 December. On the Swedish side, the agreement was expressed as a law on 18 December (SFS 1959:590), as a royal decree (SFS 1959:591) and in an instruction from the
Customs Service
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...
on 30 December (TFS 1959:255).
The basic setting was a control zone stretching 15 kilometers on each side of the border where the officers from the other country could act. So the Swedish custom officers could act in behalf of the Norwegian agency according to the Norwegian laws. They were then protected as a Norwegian civil servant. If they committed an infraction, the punishment should be handled by the Swedish authorities. The same was valid for the Norwegian custom officers.
Road border crossings
There are customs control stations at the following places (from north to south):
For most border crossings there is one
customs station on one side of the border, but for some on both sides, one for each direction. A treaty gives the customs officers of one country the right to carry out clearance and checks for both countries.
There are around 30 more roads crossing the border, without customs station (most notably
E16), but they are not allowed to use if having goods needing declaration. Heavy trucks can be allowed to use them by pre-declaration. They are surveilled by video and temporary checks.
Railway border crossings
There are four railway crossings. All four serve both passenger and freight trains. All border stations except
Kornsjø Station
Kornsjø Station ( no, Kornsjø stasjon, sv, Kornsjö järnvägsstation) is a railway station located at Kornsjø in Halden, Norway, on the Østfold Line. The station is located from the Norway–Sweden border and was opened in 1879 for changing ...
are located in Sweden.
Norway has
right hand traffic
Left-hand traffic (LHT) and right-hand traffic (RHT) are the practices, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side or to the right side of the road, respectively. They are fundamental to traffic flow, and are sometimes referred t ...
and Sweden has
left hand traffic
Left-hand traffic (LHT) and right-hand traffic (RHT) are the practices, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side or to the right side of the road, respectively. They are fundamental to traffic flow, and are sometimes referred to ...
on double track railways. All four crossings are single track however, which does not present a problem. After the introduction of
automatic train control
Automatic train control (ATC) is a general class of train protection systems for railways that involves a speed control mechanism in response to external inputs. For example, a system could effect an emergency brake application if the driver ...
in the 1980s, drivers can easily get permission to drive on the other side of the border. Before this the border stations were used for changing train crews.
Riksrøysa/Riksrösen

Stone cairns, known as the no, Riksrøysa and sv, Riksrösen, mark many parts of the border.
Biological exchange
Animals, notably
wolves
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...
and
brown bear
The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is ...
, have been known to wander across the border. Reflecting the fact that the population is shared, a Norwegian–Swedish research project named Skandulv was founded in 2000, and is administered by the
Norwegian Institute for Nature Research
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
*Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
*Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including the ...
,
Hedmark University College
Hedmark University of Applied Sciences ( no, Høgskolen i Hedmark) was a state university college in Hedmark, Norway, established in 1994. It had four campuses, located in Hamar, Elverum, Åmot ( Rena) and Stor-Elvdal. The college had approximat ...
and the
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, or Swedish Agricultural University (Swedish: ''Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet'') (SLU) is a university in Sweden. Although its head office is located in Ultuna, Uppsala, the university has several ...
.
See also
*
Finland–Sweden border
The Finland–Sweden border (or Finnish–Swedish border) is the border between the countries of Finland and Sweden. Almost the entire border runs through water: along the Tornio River and its tributaries, and in the Gulf of Bothnia. Only a few ...
*
Norway–Finland border
*
Norway–Russia border
The border between Norway and Russia ( no, Russergrensen / Russergrensa, russian: Российско-норвежская граница, ''Rossiysko-Norvezhskaya Granitsa'') consists of a land border between Sør-Varanger, Norway, and Pech ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norway-Sweden border
European Union external borders
Sweden
Borders of Sweden
International borders