The most numerous class o f' dissenters is the Lutheran
.Free Church, numbering 8194 members, next to them the Methodists,
8187, and Baptists, 4228, while 1374 belonged to various
communities with a methodist-baptist form. In 1891, there were only
1004 Roman Catholics, and in addition to these, a few hundred
Quakers, Jews and Mormons; while 5095 were entered as belonging
to no religious sect at all.
BLIND, DEAF &. DUMB, ETC.
At the time of the last census, there were in all 2565 blind
persons, of whom 1287 were men, and 1278 women. To this
class are reckoned only those who cannot see to walk about. The
ratio is thus 1.28 in every 1000 inhabitants. Although this proportion,
compared with most other civilised countries, is rather
large — Sweden has 0.83, England and Wales 0.81, Scotland 0.70
— yet it shows considerable improvement ■ since 1845, when the
relative number of blind persons in Norway was 2.07 per 1000
inhabitants. The majority belong to the higher age-classes, the
number only beginning to rise rapidly at about the age of 55.
Of the ages 85—95, there were 40.60 blind persons per 1000 inhabitants,
of a greater age, as many as 64.60 per mille.
In 1891, the deaf and dumb numbered 2139 persons, 1176
males and 963 females. The ratio — 1.07 per 1000 inhabitants
— as compared with that of other countries, is a more favourable
one, it is true, than that of the blind, but several European countries
have a much smaller figure to show, e. g. England and Wales
0.49, Scotland 0.53. Sweden has 1.11 and Austria 1.29.
In 1891, there were 1357 persons of the male sex, and 1074
of the female sex, 2431 in all, who were idiots from birth or
early childhood. Of other mentally diseased persons, there were
5318. The total proportion of mentally diseased persons was 3.88
per mille of the population.
IV. GROWTH OF THE POPULATION.
I t will be seen from the previously recorded (pp. 86 f.) results of
the censuses, that the growth of the Norwegian population, as time
has passed, has been rather unequal. During the period 1801—1815,
the latter half of which was an unhappy and disturbed time for
our land, the population increased by only 0.17 per cent annually,
while the growth during the 20 years that followed until 1835
— was very rapid 1— 1.34 per cent annually. Subsequently it went
down once more, and, was on an average 1.18 per cent during the
years ,1835—1865, but only 0.65 per cent per annum from
1865 to 1890. Of late years the growth has once more increased
considerably, on account of the great falling-olf in the emigration
from Norway. For the whole period 1801—1891 the average annual
increase in the population of Norway'has amounted to 0.90 per
cent, while for the previous century, it has been reckoned to be
about 0.58 per cent, and still farther back, between 0.30 and 0.40.
The percentage of growth has thus increased considerably
during the last century. Its increase will be still more considerable,
if the extraordinarily large number of persons is taken into account,
who, during the latter half of the present century, have emigrated
from the kingdom, and have settled and multiplied in foreign
countries. The number of Norwegian-born persons who, in 1891,
were settled abroad, amounted to about 350,000. To these must
be added their children bom abroad. At the same time, the number
of the country’s own inhabitants has risen since 1801 from 880,000
to more than 2,000,000. Thus the Norwegian race, in the course
of the 50 years from 1840 to 1890 must have about doubled itself,
which is equivalent to an annual growth of about 1.40 per cent.
But although the Norwegian race, as a whole, is strong and
full of vitality, and can compare favourably in this, respect with
almost any other, the actual population of the country, since about
1865, has increased more slowly than in most European countries’,
on account of emigration; whereas, during the period 1815 1865,
the circumstances were reversed. The average percentage of increase
in the whole of Europe about the time 1881 yl890. is
reckoned at about 0.87 per cent annually of the mean population,
Western Europe separately being 0.66 per cent, and Eastern Europe
1.23 per .cent. The population has increased most rapidly in
Servia, namely about 2.00 per cent, and in Russia, 1.35 per cent. The
population in Norway increased, during about the same period, by
0.40, in Sweden by 0.48, in Denmark by 0.96 and in Finland by
1.38 per cent:, while France only increased by 0.23 annually.
In Norway, as elsewhere, there is considerable difference between
the increase of the population in the towns and in the
country, the former growing more rapidly than the latter. This