It is the three northernmost counties of Norway, Nordland, Troms and Finmark, which is defined as northern Norway. This is the most scarcely populated areas of Norway, and there has been a steady decline in population through since the mid 70ties.
The latest population countings from Statistics Norway states that the negative demographic trend is beginning to turn. With the 2196 new northern citizens, there were a total of 465.621 people living in the three northernmost counties on January 1st 2010. The largest county is Nordland with 236.271 inhabitants, while there are 156.494 inhabitants in Troms and 72.856 inhabitants in Finnmark. All three counties had a population growth in 2009, and an important part of the growth is that the birth rate is also growing considerably.
However, it is the most populated municipalities and the city centers which count for most of the population growth. Still the smaller remote communities suffer from depopulation.
