King Haakon VII was already married, before he came to Norway (in 1905). His wife, Princess Maud, became Queen Maud. Their son, Prince Alexander of Denmark, became Crown Prince Olav and followed after his father as King Olav V in 1957. Olav and his wife, Crown Princess Märtha, had three children; Princess Ragnhild, Princess Astrid and Prince Harald (later Crown Prince Harald and in 1991 he followed his father as King Harald V).
King Harald is the first king born in Norway in over 600 years. He has two children; Princess Märtha Louise and Crown Prince Haakon Magnus.
The Government has Norwegian soldiers working in Syria (as of 2017) and Afghanistan, together with soldiers from other countries that belong to NATO.
Exports include :
natural gas, oil, hydroelectric power, and fish.
Other natural resources are agriculture, forests, and minerals.
The government collects much money from various sources, and has policies intended to spread this wealth among Norwegians. This spread of wealth, is done both directly and indirectly.
[Including year 2020], the fishing industry is catching between 2.5 million tons and 3 million tons fish from the ocean per year; from fish farms around 1.5 million tons are slaughtered per year.
At the end of 2020, immigrants and people who were born in Norway, but who had two parents who were immigrants, they were 18.5 percent of the population; from those (two categories), 11.8% came from Poland.
Most people in Norway are ethnic Norwegians. Norwegians speak a language that is related to German and English. Swedish and Danish are so close to Norwegian that most Norwegians understand them. Across Norway, many different dialects are spoken. Norwegians disagree on how to make one correct written language. Therefore, there are two standard languages, Bokmål and Nynorsk. Nynorsk is used in writing in most of the western areas and in the central mountains. Bokmål is written by most people in the rest of the country.
A native population of Norway, the Sami people, has its home in the northern parts of the country. Their language is not at all related to Norwegian. In some parishes in the far north, they make up the majority of people. Many Sami now live outside the Sami homeland, mostly in Oslo and other big cities. Earlier, Sami people were forced to speak Norwegian in school. Now Sami is taught as the first language in school for Sami children, and Norwegian is the first foreign language.
Many immigrants have come to Norway in the last 30–40 years. They mostly live in and around Oslo, and in the other big cities. Many immigrants come from nearby countries, like Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland and Russia. There are also many from countries far away, such as Pakistan, Somalia, Iraq and Vietnam.
Traditionally, all Norwegians were Lutherans, a variety of the Protestant faith. Still, more than 80% of Norwegians are Lutherans. Other important faiths include Islam, other Protestant groups and Catholicism.
Among tourists to Norway, more come from Germany than from any other country. There are also many Swedes, Danes, British, Dutch and Italians visiting Norway. The Swedes and Danes often come in winter to go skiing. The others mainly come in summer. Many people visit Norway to see the Northern Lights, also known as the 'Aurora Borealis'.
The largest national newspapers in Norway are Verdens Gang (VG), Aftenposten and Dagbladet.
Norwegian culture can be compared to English culture in the way that it is considered a bad thing to show off, as opposed to the US, where this is more acceptable. This is a big aspect of Norwegian culture, and it is related to the philosophy of egalitarianism. Because of this, people will understate things, for example if a Norwegian says something is good or nice, it can mean that it's really great.
Items from the Viking Age (in Norway), are shown in museums: One item is the Gokstad ship.
Museums in Norway includes The Ibsen Museum - named after Henrik Ibsen.
The farmers' culture ("bondekulturen") was brutal.
Unwanted babies were "placed in the forest" ("sette barn på skogen") to die, until the nineteenth century; in the end, the [rural] police authority - consisting of individuals called lensmann - were able to control [and stop] these crimes.
Modern, cambered skis were invented in the Norwegian province of Telemark in the early 19th century.
In Norway power is shared among three branches: The justice sector, the government and the parliament (Stortinget). Norway also has a king, Harald V, but he does not have any real power and acts as a symbol and ambassador. This form of government is called a constitutional monarchy. Elections are held every four years, and the winner of the election is the party or coalition of parties that gets the most votes and seats in the parliament. After the elections are done, the winners work together to find out who the prime minister should be, as well as who the other ministers should be.
Here is a short summary of the biggest political parties in Norway, from left to right on the political axis:
The Conservative Party and the Progress Party are currently working together in a coalition government, after getting elected in the 2013 elections. It's also a minority government, so it has to work together with the other parties in the parliament to make change.
The city with the most people living there (or inhabitants) is Oslo. The city of Bergen has 272,000 people living there; the city of Trondheim has 182,000 people in its population.
Some claim that Bergen and Trondheim, each had their time as Norway's capital during the Middle Ages.
Albania
Albania ( ; ), officially called the Republic of Albania is an independent republic in Southeastern Europe, with an area of . The capital is Tirana, and other important cities are Durrës, Elbasan and Vlora. Over 3 million people live in Albania. The majority of Albanians are Muslims with 55%, 23% Eastern Orthodox and 15% Roman Catholics.
Albania is next to Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and North Macedonia and Kosovo. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea in the west, and a coast on the Ionian Sea in the southwest. The official language is Albanian. The national anthem is "Hymni i Flamurit".
Albania was the southern part of "Illyria" during the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages the Albanians were ruled by many foreign countries, including the Byzantine and Venetian Empires and during the 16th century resistance to the Ottoman Empire's rule was led by the Albanian national hero "Skanderberg" but his real name was Gjergj Kastrioti. After four centuries of Turkish domination, finally in the 20th century an independent Albania was created. In 1939 Albania was conquered by fascist Italy and was part of the Kingdom of Italy until 1943. After World War II Albania became independent again, under communist rule. It was ruled by Enver Hoxha, who died in 1985. Ramiz Alia took over and also later became President when, in 1992, Albania returned to democracy, and it now has friendly relations with the European Union, which it has applied to join.
Albania is divided into 12 counties. These counties include 36 districts and 373 municipalities
This is a list of the largest cities in Albania.
The Albanian Armed Forces were first formed after independence in 1912. Albania reduced the number of active troops from 65,000 in 1988 to 14,500 in 2009. The military now is mostly a small fleet of aircraft and sea vessels.
Albania has a total area of 28,748 square kilometers. Albania's coastline length is . It goes along the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. On the coast there are mild, wet winters and warm, sunny, and rather dry summers.
70% of the country is mountains. The highest mountain is Korab.
Albania is bordered by Greece, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo. A short stretch of sea separates Albania from the far southeast of Italy.