Top 10 AMAZING Facts About NORWAY

Welcome to Top10Archive! Viking festivals, great food, humane prisons and the most Winter Olympic medals to boot. What’s not to love about Norway? We’ll dive into 10 Awesome Facts About Norway in this video! Know of any other interesting facts about Norway? Have an idea for a future Top 10? Let us know in the comment section below!

10. Norwegian Cuisine
9. Viking Festivals
8. Inventions
7. Cost of Living
6. No More Wal-Mart
5. Oh, Christmas Tree
4. The Knighted Penguin
3. Luxurious Prisons
2. I can’t believe we ran out of butter
1. Winter Olympic Champions

Voice Over Talent:

[UncleDwalin]

Fun fact about Norwegians: We have a serious recognition complex. You may likely notice how happy Norwegians get every time they're mentioned by other countries, or how proud they can get when people say nice things about their countries. This is very likely because of the fact that Norway had long lacked an identity due to being in union with both Denmark and Sweden. It's only 110 years since Norway became truly independent for the first time in hundreds of years. Because of this, it would seem like the Norwegian population subconsciously feels that there is still something to prove. This is why we absolutely hate being mistaken for Swedes too. Go figure.

[ChristianMoentest]

Facts about norwegians:
We love to brag on youtube videos about norway

[Krisow]

You people that live in other countries for example in England, USA, France etc. must think that Norway/Norwegians and Sweden/Swedish hate each other, but actually is the complete opposite we are actually needed for each other Norway without Sweden and Sweden without Norway would never work here in Norway it is a tradition to take trips to Sweden when we want to save money in case some grocerys are to expensive here in Norway and in Sweden it is a tradition for them to come over to Norway to get well paid jobs and girls since actually many Norwegian Girls find Swedish people attracting so Norway and Sweden could have never lived without each other. 

[StarReel]

You missed a fact, when you showed the Statue Of Libery i thought you were going to mention that is was made by copper from Norway. Yes thats right, France bought the copper from Norway.

[TopArchive]

Attention!! Top10Archive will be gone for about 2 months - until late September. During this time we will be working on videos, but not publishing them. Once we return, we hope to bring you 1 video per day! Sorry about the inconvenience, and thank you for your support and understanding!

[TopArchive]

What other interesting facts do you know about Norway?

[charrizalasanas]

Ahh, I just love Norwegians :">

[ultron]

I started learning Swedish, but then people started calling me a pewdiepie fan boy, so I switched to learning Norwegian

[TheRantMaster]

As a Norwegian, I must say this. FUCK GRANDIOSA PIZZA! 

Everyone I know hates it. Seriously.

[Vikingqueen]

I am from Norway and I am proud of my little but beautiful country. The nature is wonderful and I highly recommend a visit to Norway if you haven't already been there.

[SoraGamer]

Norway is one of my most favorite countries in the world :)
(No I'm not Norwegian and I haven't been there yet :/)

[theonetheonly]

I lost track after #3, the prison cells being more luxurious than hotels. why? I think Norwegians don't hate each other that much. They even treat their criminal inmates with respect and love. And don't forget,  Norway has the highest number of atheists in the world. it looks like the more religious you are the more sadistic you'd become.

[luluferrito]

why do sweeds crawl in the supermarket?












they are looking for low prices

[gyn-]

The way he pronounce pinnekjøtt, I'm dead.

[coldnorwegian]

I feel honored :)
I think it's also worth to mention, that while our prisons are kept to
a high standard, they are also heavily focused on rehabilitation.
As such, the re-incarceration rates are very low.

[DeffoNotToucan]

Can't wait to move to Norway. See you in december, my Scandinavian brothers and sisters <3.

[cameronballard]

So wait... Norway has both a lower crime rate AND more comfortable prison cells than the United States?
Something's not adding up here...

[jeffreyrobshaw]

This video mentions the statue of liberty but doesn't mention that the copper came from a mine in Norway!

[phoenixgrove]

Norway and Finland are the best Scandinavian countries to me. Just saying. 

[kraftsportNO]

Source: Native Norwegian in his late 30's living all his life in Norway.

Many foreigners have an exaggerated romantic impression of Norway. Here's some facts to adjust that picture.

Comments to fact 10:

Grandiosa is very low quality food, and very unhealthy, the sales of grandiosa has plunged as more and more people have realized this. 

While there's wild game in Norway, the majority of people buy food in super-markets, but the focus on healthy foods have increased the latest years.


Comments to fact 9:

The viking festivals. I've barely heard of these my entire life. And I do not know anyone that ever went to those. Besides, viking means "thief", and the original vikings were pure savages that raped, murdered and plundered foreign territory. This is nothing to be proud of. Also, helmets with horns were not used by the original vikings.

Comments to fact 7:
Studies at university is not free of charge. At first sight it might seem so, but it's state financed through the numerous taxes that you have to pay throughout your lift. In addition you can finance your studies with a loan from "Lånekassen", but most of that needs to be paid back with interest. So while education system is quite good, it's not free as in free beer.

Comments to fact 6: 

Norway is not a good protector of the environment. The government is just like any other government, this means that money is prioritized over anything else. Please google the latest debacle about search for oil in the delicate northern areas of Norway.


Comments to fact 5:


This is for strategical and economical reasons.

Comments to fact 4:

The knighted penguin? This is a complete non-event. Never heard of it, and seeing it mentioned as a fact about Norway is very weird. Also the rest of the names that's presumably knighted seems to have taken place in Scotland/England.  For example Bill Gates was knighted in England by Dronning Elizabeth.  In Norway nobody cares about these titles, and if you came and flaunted one, most people would just shrug their shoulders. Elton Jon was also knighted by Queen Elisabeth II, this also in England. The penguin, Nils Olav, lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was knighted by british general mayor Euan London in 2008. The only association this penguin has to norway is that it is "adopted" by the norwegian army because lieutenant Nils Egelien took a personal interest in the penguins at the Edinburgh Zoo. I don't see how this fit's into a "facts about Norway video", as barely anyone in Norway has ever heard about this.

Comments to fact 3:

Luxury prisons. Those calling a prison glamouros and luxurious are misguided and uneducated. Prison sentence is about removing your freedom, and there are different levels of sentencing. Some has more freedoms than others, but in general, the focus is on rehabilitation, so when the prison sentence is done, ideally the prisoner should re-enter the society as a useful resource. This is best done by education and helping the prisoner to reform. Norway has a much larger success for reformation than the US. It's true there's no death penalty, but as for life sentences, these are usually 21 years, and sometimes prisoners are released before that because of good behaviour, however there are some prisoners that are kept for prolonged time as long as they are deemed a threat to society, so in that regard the life sentence is effective.

Comments to fact 2:

Butter shortage. Exaggerated media storm.  Was barely noticed for most people. 

Comments to fact 1:

While Norway has many good winter sportsmen and women, it's an undisputable fact that due to Norway's resources and the miniscule size of many winter sports, Norway do have an unfair advantage. 

As for anyone holding Norway in high regard, yes there are many great things about Norway, but if you start digging, you will learn that there are many things that's not that great as well. One very serious shortfall is that of political correctness, for instance it's considered tabu to critisize multiculturalism. Norwegians in general also are shy and are hesitant to speak up in fear of social condemnation and retribution. They're often quite uptight and serious and is easily offended. Because of the weather, the general attitude and mood usually does not soften up until summertime.

Norway is also the most corrupt country among the nordic countries:

The state bueracracy is staggering, and you're set for a very hard time and not necessarily fair treatment if you're lucky enough to be the victim of a state agency. The arrogance of said bueracracy is mind-boogling, and even when it makes a wrong it most often claim it's not.

The planning of making roads and building anything noteworthy takes a very long time. Sometimes 20-30 years only to plan making a road. The health care system, the child protection service system, the legal system, and the welfare system all come with their unique challenges and problems, which you hopefully never will experience.

Norway is also known for having a rather inhuman policy in regards to asylum seekers. As often humans who have made roots and even had children and made themselves ingrained in a local society are expelled after having their case tried for years and years, and then they often do not even have time to plan, and are sent to a foreign country on short notice.

The police is a chapter for itself. They're like a state in the state, and as an ordinary citizen you need to comply or else face the consequences. The police have a free card to do in essence whatever they want. There are no checks and safeguards in place. Normal everyday crimes are not priortized, and this is a huge problem, esp in the citites.

The multiculturalism experiment is not successful and has led to continued social unrest and conflict.

As a citizen, the government will not listen to you. The only way to be heard is to start a pressure group or organization and make connections with the "right" people, and then broadcast your message over and over again. If you contact a governmental agency by e-mail or normal letter, expect months before you receive an answer, and more often than not, the answer just refers you to another state agency. Ie. bureacracy.

When state employees makes mistakes, even those in very high positions, there are very seldom consequences. Usually, if the offence is severe, they're simply put somewhere else in the same organization, and as in most other countries, it's about who you know, not what you know in regards to positions. Officially this will be denied, but reality and official policy is not always the same.

Most municipalities fails horribly on service to the inhabitants:

Although it's the full time job of all municipality employees to serve inhabitants, most do not take their job seriously, as when you get a municipality job, you're mostly set for life, you're elevated above the citizens and you can work as little as you want with barely no consequences for your job.

Take care, enjoy Norway!