The population of Norway is 4,503,440 (2001 estimate). Norway has the lowest population density in continental Europe, with 12 persons per sq km (30 per sq mi). The population is growing very slowly, with an annual rate of increase of only 0.49 percent in 2001. Life expectancy in Norway is among the highest in the world: 82 years for women and 76 years for men. About half of the country’s population lives in the southeast, and more than three-quarters of all Norwegians live within about 16 km (about 10 mi) of the sea. Some 74 percent of Norway’s population lives in urban areas.

In most parts of Norway the nucleus of the population is Nordic in heritage and appearance. Between 60 and 70 percent have blue eyes. An influx of people from southern Europe has been strong in southwestern Norway. Nord-Norge has about nine-tenths of the 20,000 to 30,000 Sami (Lapps, or Laplanders) living in Norway. Only about 2,800 of them still live on the Finnmark Plateau and move their reindeer herds down to the coast for summer grazing. The Sami were Norway's first inhabitants; they arrived at least 10,000 years ago, probably from Central Asia.