The non-Western immigrant population constitutes 14 per cent of the population in Norway and numbers 768,000 persons. This is a doubling over 15 years and a quadrupling since the turn of the century. According to researchers at Statistics Norway (SSB), this represents a net public-financial burden equivalent to more than the use of petroleum revenues. Last year it was in excess of NOK 450 billion.
According to data from the Ministry of Finance for 2010–2018, the average assessed tax (utlignet skatt) for a non-Western immigrant aged 25–62 was less than half of the assessed tax for another citizen in the same age interval. 49 per cent, to be exact.
The figures were at the time requisitioned by Per Olav Lundteigen of the Centre Party (Senterpartiet). In the figures from the Ministry of Finance, Norwegian-born descendants were included in the remainder of the population.
Receives 26 times as much social assistance
The average employment rate for non-Western immigrants was 57 per cent in full-time or part-time work. This means that at least four out of ten of working age were entirely outside the labour market. Full-time employment, however, was only 36 per cent, which means that more than six out of ten non-Western immigrants of working age were wholly or partly dependent on welfare payments.
On 16 January this year, Statistics Norway (SSB) wrote that 74 per cent of all social assistance in Norway goes to immigrants. As immigrants constitute 18 per cent of the population (including Western immigrants), this means that an average immigrant receives 13 times more social assistance than another average citizen. If Western immigrants are removed from the fraction, the figure becomes 26 times.
In the same publication, Statistics Norway writes: “Another group of social assistance recipients that has experienced greater growth in disbursements is Norwegian-born persons with immigrant parents. This group is quite small, but growing.”
It is known from a number of publications and press reports that non-Western immigrants are major consumers of common resources such as integration grants (integreringstilskudd), housing allowance (bostøtte), extended child benefit (utvidet barnetrygd), basic grants (grunnstipend), interpretation services (tolketjenester), police/judicial system (politi/rettsvesen), child welfare services (barnevern), the prison service (fengselstjenesten), special education (spesialundervisning), health services (helse), public dental health services (offentlig tannhelse), infrastructure and all other tax-financed common goods in society.
If we assume that a non-Western immigrant consumes, not 26 times, but only 2.8 times as much tax-financed common goods as another inhabitant, per capita, and we combine this with the tax contribution as shown by the Ministry of Finance, this explains the entire use of petroleum revenues in the period 2010 to 2018.
This was at the time confirmed to the present journalist by Statistics Norway (SSB).
Appropriates all the petroleum revenues
If we go back to the 2010s, it was popular to say that the oil-adjusted deficit (oljekorrigerte underskuddet) in the state budget shows that we all run a deficit. The logic was that since petroleum revenues were required to balance the state budget, everyone contributes to the deficit that must be covered by petroleum revenues. Kristin Clemet of Civita was an eager proponent of this message, but has since come to her senses.
For there is an actual public-financial difference between a single mother from Somalia, with five children who all have a case file with the child welfare services, and a hard-working craftsman outside Ring 3, with order in the family finances.
The present journalist at the time approached Statistics Norway (SSB) with the following problem:
The oil-adjusted deficit is used by politicians and interest groups as an argument that no one is public-financially profitable in Norway. In this way, uncomfortable questions about the public-financial effects of immigration can effectively be swept under the carpet.
The answer we received was as follows, verbatim: “When this today applies to the average of all inhabitants, it conceals that R0, R1 and perhaps R2 run a surplus, while R3 ‘appropriates the petroleum revenues’ plus transfers from R0, R1 and perhaps R2.”
Explanation:
R0 = Persons with Norwegian-born parents
R1 = Immigrants from Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand
R2 = Immigrants from Central and Eastern European EU countries
R3 = Immigrants from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe outside the EU/EEA and Oceania excluding Australia and New Zealand. Also referred to as “non-Western immigrants”
The individual who made this statement wished to remain anonymous.
Costs more than NOK 450 billion per year
The conclusion is that the popular claim that no one is public-financially profitable is incorrect. The correct statement is that the non-Western immigrant population represents a net public-financial burden equivalent to the oil-adjusted deficit in the state budget, which in 2025 amounted to as much as NOK 452 billion.
But not only that. According to Statistics Norway (SSB), the system is structured such that non-Western immigrants are dependent on transfers and welfare benefits to an extent that also requires the public-financial surplus generated by natives as well as immigrants from the EU and other Western countries.
This means that an inhabitant of non-Western background, in 2025, represented an average net additional public-financial burden of NOK 588,000.
Not only in the form of cash benefits such as social assistance, housing allowance, extended child benefit and basic grants in school, but also in the consumption of interpretation services, public dental health services and overrepresentation in the consumption of child welfare services, police/judicial system, prison system, special education, health services and a range of other tax-financed common goods that employ hundreds of thousands of people who could otherwise have worked with something else, without this overrepresented demand.
Signs of improvement?
If we are to believe the content of the aforementioned Statistics Norway (SSB) publication from January, “More than half of newly arrived refugees receive social assistance” and the trends referred to therein, there are few signs of improvement.
Document does not have figures on assessed tax (utlignet skatt) from the Ministry of Finance, such as we have for the years 2010–2018.
From 2018 to 2025, the expenditure side of the state budget increased from NOK 1,296 billion to NOK 2,029 billion. Expenditure increased particularly during the “pandemic years” 2020 and 2021. Final figures for the state accounts are presented in connection with the revised national budget.
The employment rate among non-Western immigrants has increased from 57 per cent to 63 per cent in 2025. And full-time employment has increased from 36 per cent to 43 per cent. This means that employment has increased somewhat relative to other inhabitants.
If we assume that the relative increase in assessed tax develops proportionally with the relative increase in employment, and exclude the pandemic years from the equation, it remains the case that if an average non-Western immigrant consumes 2.8 times more tax-financed common goods than another average citizen, the entire oil-adjusted deficit in the state budget is still explained, and thereby the use of petroleum revenues.