
Transport and infrastructure in Norway
Our listing of the primary types of transport compares the infrastructure of Norway with the average of all countries in Europe. Overall, the traffic routes are above average and in good condition.In terms of the length of its rail network, Norway ranks 18th in the world with 0.78 meters per inhabitant. In total, the rail network is 4,200 kilometers long. Freight traffic on the rails most recently totaled 4.31 billion tons and kilometers traveled. Passenger traffic reached 1.78 billion passenger-kilometers in 2021.
The waterways listed refer to inland traffic on rivers and canals. The number of ports includes those located on the 25,148 km of coastline. In 2020, about 835,398 freight containers were transported.
› Airports in Norway
Back to overview: Norway
Road traffic
The network of roads and highways has a total length of 94,902 km. For each of the country's 5.41 million inhabitants, this corresponds to 17.55 meters. This puts Norway in 30th place in the global ranking. However, it is also important to note that the country's population density is very low at around 14 inhabitants per km². In this case, disproportionately long distances generally have to be covered to reach the more remote parts of the country.With an average of 138 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 2019), road traffic in Norway is considered very safe. This corresponds to 2.6 accident fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.3 in the USA and 17.0 worldwide.

Norway | |||
total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
---|---|---|---|
Roadways | 94,900 km | 17,547.41 km | 246.37 m |
Railroads | 4,200 km | 776.58 km | 10.90 m |
Waterways | 1,577 km | 291.59 km | 4.09 m |
Commercial harbors | 1,644 | 303.98 | 0.004 |
Airports | 49 | 9.06 | 0.127 |
Europe | |||
total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
---|---|---|---|
Roadways | 6,708,900 km | 11,154.38 km | 1,111.71 m |
Railroads | 258,600 km | 429.97 km | 42.85 m |
Waterways | 54,800 km | 91.17 km | 9.09 m |
Commercial harbors | 15,273 | 25.39 | 0.003 |
Airports | 573 | 0.95 | 0.000 |
Data sources used
• Global Health Observatory Data Repository (World Health Organization)• UNCTAD
• Internation Union of Railways (UIC)
• CIA Factbook
• OECD Statistics
• Wikipedia (german)