Norway

Norway (ⁱ /ˈnɔrweɪ/; Norwegian:  Norge (Bokmål) or  Noreg (Nynorsk)), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europeoccupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen, the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island (is not subject to the Antarctic Treaty).^{[note 1]} Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres (148,747 sq mi) and a population of about 4.9 million.^[6] It is the secondleast densely populated country in Europe. The majority of the country shares a border to the east with Sweden; its northernmost region is bordered byFinland to the south and Russia to the east; in its south Norway borders the Skagerrak Strait, across which Denmark is situated. The capital city of Norway isOslo. Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is home to its famous fjords.

Norway is a unitary parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy, with King Harald V as its head of state and Jens Stoltenberg as its prime minister. It is a unitary state with administrative subdivisions on two levels known as counties (fylker) and municipalities (kommuner). The Sámi people have a certain amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament and the Finnmark Act. Although having rejected European Union membership in two referenda, Norway maintains close ties with the union and its member countries, as well as with the United States. Norway remains one of the biggest financial contributors to the United Nations,^[7] and participates with UN forces in international missions, notably in Afghanistan, Kosovo,Sudan and Libya. Norway is a founding member of the United Nations, NATO, the Council of Europe, and the Nordic Council, a member also of theEuropean Economic Area, the WTO, the OECD and is a part of Schengen Area.

Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, fresh water, and hydropower. It is the world's largest producer of oil andnatural gas per capita outside of the Middle East,^[8][9] and the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the Gross domestic product.^[10] The country maintains a Scandinavian welfare model with universal health-care, subsidized higher education, and a comprehensive social security system. From 2001 to 2007,^[2] and then again in 2009 and 2010, Norway had the highest human development in the world.^[11]