The latest edition of a popular international survey has revealed what foreigners really think of living in Norway. Do you agree?
Norway is not very social and far too expensive. That's the verdict of foreigners living in Norway, according to the 2021 Expat Insider survey from InterNations.
The seventh edition of the Expat Insider survey collates responses from 12,000 people living in 59 destinations around the world. It offers information on foreigners' satisfaction with quality of life, ease of relocation, working life, personal finance and cost of living.
Norway gets mixed reviews
Out of the 59 destinations covered by the survey, Norway is ranked 38th. That's not very impressive compared with other quality of life surveys that sees Norway, along with other Nordic nations, consistently rank well. So, what's up?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, respondents living in Norway were most happy with their working life and general quality of life. The country ranked 11th and 12th respectively for those categories.
But Norway scored badly on personal finance (48th) and ended up in the bottom 10 for the ease of settling in (51st) and the cost of living (57th). Here is a summary graphic from InterNations:
To find out more about the low rankings, we can dig a little deeper into individual categories.
Ease of settling in
The poor ranking in this category fascinates me. I've been in Norway for more than 10 years now, so it's hard to remember much about the settling in experience. It could also be very different today compared with ten years ago.
Survey respondents ranked “language” much better than the other items in this category, suggesting learning Norwegian isn't seen as a major barrier to relocation.
However, “finding friends”, “friendliness” and “feeling at home” were all ranked poorly, bringing the overall ranking for “ease of settling in” crashing down. “Norway is not a very social country, and making friends is hard,” said one citizen of Ghana.
Working abroad
There were also some fascinating discrepancies in other categories. Norway ranked amongst the best countries for “work/life balance” and “economy and job security”.
But a poor ranking in “career prospects and satisfaction” dragged the overall “working abroad” ranking down. Can we read into this that expats can find a job in Norway in which they feel secure, but struggle to progress through the ranks?
A press release from InterNations with additional context may offer some clues: “About one in three expats in Norway moved there for a work-related reason, but a larger than usual share (26%) relocated for love, compared to just 12% worldwide. This might be one reason why some expats are now struggling career-wise.”
Is Norway ‘dull'?
InterNations used the headline “relaxed, peaceful, and safe — but a little boring” to summarise the Norway results.
Read more: Are Norwegians Rude?
Despite excellent feedback on the work/life balance, leisure options were ranked poorly. 24% judge the available options unfaourably, compared to 14% globally. Only 51% rate their own social and leisure lives positively, compared with 67% globally.
The stated difficulty of making friends could be partly responsible here, as could the high cost of living. Norway's reputation as an expensive country is certainly deserved, and it's even more noticeable when you first move here.
One quarter of respondents are not happy with their financial situation, compared with 19% globally. 60% describe the local cost of living as too high, compared to 34% worldwide.
Impact of the pandemic on expat life in Norway
The number of respondents saying the biggest impact of the pandemic was on their personal finances was slightly above the global average. But the biggest difficulties felt by expats have been in travel and transportation.
Other countries in the survey
Taiwan, Mexico, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Portugal, New Zealand, Australia, Ecuador, Canada, and Vietnam are ranked the best destinations for expats in 2021.
According to the survey, the worst countries for expats are Kuwait (59th), Italy, South Africa, Russia, Egypt, Japan, Cyprus, Turkey, India, and Malta (50th).
As the largest international community for people who live and work abroad, InterNations offers global networking opportunities, local events, and expat-relevant information.
My husband and I have been to Norway on different vacations.
We love Norway and the people. People have gone out of their way to make us comfortable and help us. Everyone has been very kind. The first time we spent time in Norway we did find it at times expensive but the trips after not so much. We were never bored but finding new things to do and enjoying the scenery was exciting. Can’t wait to go back.
We have spent time in the top counties and also Italy. We have enjoyed each of them. Four winters in New Zealand and Australia. Mexico probably 20 times. Canada more than I can count. Really like them all. Each one is great.
I like your positivity. But of course, vacationing is very different than actually living in a foreign country.
“Only boring people get bored.” – Mrs. Schultz (my 1st-grade math teacher)
Norway has so much to offer (nature, culture, history, literature, etc.); I’d move there tomorrow if I could, but I don’t think there is any great demand for library assistants from Germany. 😉
Mange hilsener fra Anna
Yes I believed that only boring people get bored, except Norway is exceptionally boring for active not so boring people.
Luckily I’m creative and have a lot of energy and can live in my own world in order to get through the slow, sluggish, extremely boring days – every day.
“Only boring people get bored.” – Mrs. Schultz (my 1st-grade math teacher)
Norway has so much to offer (nature, culture, history, literature, etc.); I’d move there tomorrow if I could, but I don’t think there is any great demand for library assistants from Germany. 😉
I live in Norway 15 years and can agree with every word.
I’m sure one factor in the ratings is the winter. Many immigrants will be coming from countries where the winters are much milder, at best “cooler”, at worst wetter. Here winter is (hopefully!) cold, and if you don’t learn to enjoy the winter season then your feelings about living in Norway are definitely going to be affected in a negative direction!
Is there a reason why my comment was deleted twice?
It wasn’t deleted, it was waiting to be approved. We get 250+ comments every day and around 240 of them are spam, so every comment must be manually reviewed.
Ah, thank you for the explanation! That is an awful amount of spam. 🙁 I like reading the comments so thank you for putting in the extra work to keep everything spam free!
Lived there for five years after moving around for my husband’s job. It was not my favourite posting by any means but having a dog helped to make friends other than international ones. Not much history, repetitive scenery and ice in the winter and expensive. I was happy to leave.
I have lived in Norway for a year because I was asked to work there by my company. I loved it. Norway is far from boring. I liked the balance of that I could chill and relax and if I wanted to to have fun I could do party, going for hiking, I have travelled around the country. When I needed help people were kind and helpful. Never met any issue and I was never bored there. I miss the country, the people. I hope I can go back there again and maybe to move to Norway.
Child of war torn Somalia moved to UK as a refugee. Visited Norway mostly Oslo on four occasions now to see my cousin who also fled the war and sought safety in Norway. And for this I have deep respect and love for the compassion and love they have shown for my community.
I agree with respondents assessment of Norway with the finances standing out more for us. My kids wanted to experience other parts of Norway but we found it’s incredibly expensive to move around which makes it feel like its exclusive for well off tourist. We found basic experiences also to be expensive – same McDonalds meal back in London cost £15 more. I can go to the most exclusive part in London and get a cheaper meal all day long!
I love Norway egalitarianism system but found it inconsistent as the cost of living makes it incredibly challenging for people with low income households access many things like family activities including art culture and entertainment.
It is true wages are higher than most EU countries but higher taxes and expensive life makes hard for people like my cousin achieve better socio economic condition.
It’ll be interesting discussion how can these barriers addressed perhaps with a Norwegian.
Norway is a salary sucker and the quality of life is relatively poor compared to a country for example Poland (where I have also lived).
You cannot operate here as a contractor. Contracting here is essentially being coerced into acting as a temporary worker/employee of a large resource management company with a payroll. So zero rights, high tax burden and no control of your circumstances.
The whole Norwegian system is rigged from its foundations up.
Government monopolies would rather watch people starve than see the cost of goods fall in line with market forces. As an example they are currently pushing/coercing people from butter to margarine, for “their health”…..
I am actually trying to work less to avoid the crippling bracket taxes levied upon the lower middle class upwards. In Norway it is better to be filthy rich or unskilled, anything in the middle and you will be robbed mercilessly.
Accommodation is astronomically expensive, 10,000 NOK per month to live in a noisy damp basement dwelling, and this does not include energy.
If you wish to eat a healthy diet, meat (Beef not the best cuts) is 400 NOK per kilo, and the much lauded cheap (don’t make me laugh) Salmon is farmed making it one of the most deadly toxic foods one can consume (but don’t worry the government corruption actively silences any truthful scientific research on the pesticide content of the farmed Salmon, business connections do work at the top of the political cesspit).
The harder you work, the less you earn, absolutely zero incentive to work hard under the crippling progressive tax regime that is squarely aimed at middle income earners (worker bees for the collective hive).
Once you’ve been taxed/robbed of your income, you have to deal with the cost of living, ten times higher than anywhere else on the planet.
Then, there is access to basic medicine cabinet supplies, Aspirin, is pharmacy access only, so ten times more expensive than it should be (starting to see the pattern?). Paracetamol is a dangerous hepatoxic drug with little medicinal use and is freely available to buy in supermarkets. Oh and if you ask a Norwegian their brainwashed response is, Aspirin is dangerous, clearly they’ve never seen a person die slowly from a Paracetamol overdose. Aspirin thins the blood and helps regulate hormones, paracetamol is just toxic garbage.
Then the cost of public transport, you are coerced into buying monthly tickets (you cannot buy a return ticket so have to pay double to travel return) with a smartphone, no smartphone? Then you are effectively excluded or have to pay twice the price. Local bus services are non existent on weekends and fragmented during the day. If you work overtime in the evening then there will be no bus, so all that overtime pay will be spent on a taxi home with of course the governments obligatory 12% cut (yes, another monopoly).
If you like a drink you are best off investing in a still and learning the art of distillery, unless you want to contribute more of your income to the government monopoly on alcohol!
As for the wages being higher I refer to my above statement, certainly if you are unskilled and have no ambition to improve your lot, but as a professional you will soon find you hit the tax barrier even though you earn 25% less than comparative positions in other countries, as soon as you hit the tax barrier, you will be working at a high level and earning the same as a hairdresser.
I find the government ignorant and stifling, there is no space for the individual and a small select bunch of activist experts can force their backward vision of the world upon the masses with impunity.
The state monopolies are deeply corrupt.
Anything that could be remotely described as fun is taxed into Hades.
And Norway is at the head of the “digital transformation” another totalitarian grab at your privacy and freedom sold as a convenience, and the Norwegians suck up the propaganda like a sponge!
The country is essentially lost, too many foreign immigrants with a high birthrate, they have already surpassed the limit for replacement, now it is just a matter of time. So all those high wage low skilled jobs will be taken in the not too distant future and the quality of life will continue to fall….
Dear John Davies,
Thank you for confirming my suspicions. I am a native Norwegian, and in spite of the massive, uncontested fantasy promoted by the authorities, the schools, universities and all Norweigan mainstream media, I came to your excact conclusions a few years ago. My friends react to my comments as me being deluded. No matter how many facts, statistics, comparisons with other countries I offer, they rest firmly in their beliefs that Norway is the best thing that ever happened to mankind, and that the whole Norwegian system is perfect, save for the occational human error here or there.
The systemic exploitation of the middle class, the contempt for personal achievement, the corruption, the monopolies, the obstacles to personal freedom… I agree with every single point you made.
Had I been younger, I would have emigrated. To Australia, for instance. Thank you for confirming, with your outsiders’s view, what my friends call me deluded for stating.