Norway is a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy outside the European Union but inside the EEA and NATO. It funds a universal welfare state from oil revenues held in a sovereign wealth fund and has strong state ownership of energy.
In the 12 Axes register, Norway leans hardest on Irreligious – Religious: Irreligious 68%; the register median is Religious 68%.
Take the test and this line shows how close your twelve scores are to Norway, and the axis where you differ most.
Where Norway sits on each of the twelve axes, in four categories. The label is our estimate; the line under it says why.
Unitary
Unitary state with fifteen counties
Representative Democracy
Proportional parliament, minority governments
Liberal
Strong press freedom and civil rights
Non-Interventionist
NATO member, outside the EU
Neutral
Conscription for men and women; NATO founding member
Centrist
Integration programmes, active immigration policy
Mixed Economic
Sovereign wealth fund, high public spending
Balanced
Large state ownership in oil and energy
Free Trade
EEA member, EU single market access
Agnostic
Church separated from state in 2017
Progressive
Same-sex marriage legal since 2009
Neutral
No distinct state stance
Set against the median of all 195 countries in the register.
Irreligious – Religious
On Irreligious – Religious, Norway is at Irreligious 68%. The register median is Religious 68%.
Federal – Unitary
On Federal – Unitary, Norway is at Unitary 68%, almost the register median of Unitary 68%.
Closeness is 100 minus the root-mean-square distance on all twelve axes.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org · freedomhouse.org
Map: MSClaudiu, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped and resized.
Last updated: 2026-10-15
The tiers on this page are our estimates from public positions and policies. They are not an official statement by the person or the government concerned. Two independent passes scored every axis and a third settled the differences. How the register works. Found a mistake? Write to [email protected].
