Health in Norway

Being a first world country with access to modern medicine and health practices, Norway has a life expectancy, infant mortality rate, and nutrition rate comparable to that of other first world nations such as the United States. Norway's relatively tiny population gives it the advantage of effectively using a state run healthcare service for its citizens. This has led it to have one of the highest life expectancys in the developed world, with males expected to live to 80 and females to 84. Norway spends a bit over 9% of GDP on medical costs which breaks down to the equivalent of about six thousand dollars per citizen.

Gender Equality in Norway

Norway is consistently ranked among the most equal countries in the world in terms of gender equality. It's laws put men and women on equal footing and protect them equally from wage and hiring discrimination. However, although Norway is one of the world's leaders in gender equality, there are still improvements to be made in this sector.

Women are still under-represented in Norwegian politics, with most positions of power being held by males, and despite laws outlawing wage discrimination men still out-earn women with men's average income being 407,000 Krone to the average women who earns 313,100 Krone (Huffpost). Although this income inequality can be traced to factors other than wage discrimination (men are more likely to work in higher paying private sector jobs while women are more likely to work in lower paying public sector jobs) it still exists. There is also the fact that women are electing to stay at home longer after child birth than men. The Norwegian welfare system allows for paid parental leave up to 2 years, but men are more likely to take this leave for an average of 10 weeks while women are taking the full 2 years about 86% of the time. Even though this is their choice and public day care is available, this is still hampering the careers of these women.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/mona-elisabeth-brother/gender-equality-norway_b_6809300.html

http://www.nordiclabourjournal.org/nyheter/news-2012/article.2012-10-09.2932693655
 

A Planetary Constraint of Norway

Norway, being one of the world's leaders in green energy, is very conscious of its environmental impact. However, there is one planetary constraint that Norwegians could not have planned for, but their development as a nation has helped to preserve their environment. This is the fact that Norway's population has ceased it's growth and while this does cause other problems, it will preserve Norway's natural lands and forests because new housing and infrastructure is not needed for a stable population.

As can be seen in the figure below, Norway's forests have held steady through the past 25 years.

Extent of forest and other wooded land

FRA 2005 categories	Area (1000 hectares)
	1990	2000	2005
Forest	9,130	9,301	9,387
Other wooded land	2,870	2,699	2,613
Forest and other wooded land	12,000	12,000	12,000
Other land	18,625	18,625	18,625
...of which with tree cover	-	-	-
Total land area	30,625	30,625	30,625
Inland water bodies	1,751	1,751	1,751
Total area of country	32,376	32,376	32,376

The Economy of Norway and How that affects sustainability

Norway, considered a first world nation by all financial statistics, has a strong economy. their gross GDP has climbed steadily over the few years from $496 billion in 2011 to $524 billion in 2015. Because of this industrialized economy, Norway has been able to invest heavily in clean energy. About 99% of all electricity produced in Norway comes from hydroplants around the country, there is also a push within the country to explore wind, wave, and bio energy. Norway is even the world's largest producer of solar silicon (the coating for solar panels) even though Norway itself has little use for solar power. The fact that Norway is such a developed nation has helped with it's push towards sustainable energy, to the point where the oil and gas industries of Norway are slowly being phased out of it's economy.