SOCIAL CONDITIONS
A MOKG civilised states, there is scarcely any that is. so fortunate
A V with regard to the equality of its social conditions as Norway.
There is no nobility with political or economic privileges,
no large estates, no capitalist class. The cultivable land is divided
among a number of small freeholders, who constitute the most
numerous class of society and its sound nucleus. To make a
livelihood in that rude climate and on that weather-beaten coast,
calls for energy and endurance, and accustoms the worker to self-
restraint.
I t may also be said, that am evenly distributed prosperity is
proved by the number of depositors in the savings-banks established
in nearly every community. There is an average of. 1 savings-bank
to every 5600 inhabitants, and 1 depositor in every 2.8 inhabitants,
with 119 kroner to every inhabitant. With regard to the deposits
in other banks cf. the special article -«Banking».
The highest and lowest strata of society are on the whole no
farther removed from one another than that there is constant
reciprocal action between them,.and transition from the one to
the other. The primary school, which is obligatory, is the common
basis whence the higher educational institutions organically rise to
impart the knowledge required by the various positions,. and to
insure to all that popular education which contributes so, largely
to raise individual self-esteem, and give to our democracy, with its
universal suffrage, the feeling of security in living under the badge
of liberty, equality and fraternity.
The shifting of the strata which the economic development
of the century causes everywhere in the social structure, has therefore
not succeeded here in calling forth the terrible excitement
which in other countries makes social questions such burning ones.
Thè interest-differences are not greater than that hope may always
be entertained of their being adjusted without imminent peril to
the social peace.
As a further illustration of the economic conditions, the population
may be divided into the 4 following classes according to
their incorile :
I. The unmoneyed classes with income up to 700 kr.
II. The middle classes » . » » 3,000 » -,
-III. The well-to-do classes » » ' » » 10,000 •» .
IY. The rich people ' » ’ » over 10,000
which, according to the municipal assessment, gives the following
percentage :
I C l . about 87.3 of the tax-payers with 50.7 of taxes paid
I I 01. » 11.2 » » ' * » ■' » 26.3 » » »
I I I Cl. »• • 1.3 » ; » • » » » 12.7. » » »
■ IV Cl. ; i; 0.2 » 5-',4 * ® 10.3 Ì». » »
Of the total national income, which, for 1898, was calculated
to be rather more than 700,000,000 kr., 326 kr. would be the
annual average per head, reckoning the population to be 2,160,000.
Judging from the recently observed increase in the income, it will
perhaps, at no very distant date, find expression in the formula:
1 krone per head per day. From 1890 to 1898, the income is
calculated to have increased 16 per cent, which is certainly too
low, rather than too high an -estimate. The total national
property, which in 1891 was calculated at rather more than
21/t milliards, has also largely increased during the intermediate
years.
. Divided among the larger groups of occupations, the] annual
income is distributed as follows :
Larger tradesmen . . . . . 1185 kr.
F a rm e r s .............................. ..... . 788 »
Working-men-........................ 533 »
S e r v a n t s .............................. ..... . 326 »■:.
Farm labourers . . . . . . . 324 »
The statistical information recently obtained by public agency
concerning income and property, chiefly shows a surprisingly