Norway is a welfare state and one of the richest countries in the world. In 2003, for the third consecutive year, Norway is ranked at the top of the UNDP Human Development Index over national living conditions.
The average life expectancy in Norway is 78.7 years (2001). The population in general exhibits in very good health and the infant mortality rate is extremely low. Literacy is virtually 100% and nearly all members of the population have completed upper secondary schooling. There is no extreme poverty to be found in Norway, and the relative poverty level is low compared to other OECD countries.
The GDP per capita is high and wealth is relatively equally distributed among the population. There is a large degree of gender equality at all levels of society. In keeping with its welfare orientation, Norway has implemented a universal, public health service financed by taxation and a national insurance scheme, applicable to all citizens and residents, that provides a host of social benefits.
Both public and private consumption have increased enormously since 1900, and the wealth of the last few decades is primarily due to the discovery and exploitation of subsea oil and natural gas deposits in the North Sea. Under the mounting pressure of modernization and urbanization, the stable, traditional settlement patterns of the past have been replaced by a trend towards greater mobility, in which people more frequently move and change jobs.
Edited from Aschehoug and Gyldendal's Norwegian Encyclopedia