Norway has 5 million inhabitants, spread between 18 counties and 422 municipalities. The public health profiles were developed to give a summary of health data for each municipality to identify and measure areas for improvement in each community. 

Videos presenting the public health profiles and how to use them

• Video presenting the NIPH  information tool set for public health planning in the municipalities; the data sources, the public health profiles, the data banks and the public health report. Senior adviser Heidi Lyshol, NIPH, giving a lecture at Oslo Metropolitan University, 2019. (9 minutes).
• Video presenting the public health profiles and how to use them as a tool for public health planning in the municipalities. Senior adviser Heidi Lyshol, NIPH, giving a lecture at Oslo Metropolitan University, 2019. (8 minutes)

About the Public Health Profiles

According to the Public Health Act of January 2012, Norwegian counties and municipalities are required to have sufficient overview over health conditions and influencing factors in order to:

• Contribute to societal development that promotes public health and reduces social inequalities in health.
• Ensure that municipalities, county authorities and central government health authorities implement measures and coordinate their activities in the area of public health in a proper and adequate manner
• Facilitate long-term, systematic public health work.

As a result, the public health profiles for municipalities and counties were developed and are used actively by the municipalities. The reports are also popular with the media who use them to compare the health of the local population with the rest of Norway.

The last page includes a list of various health indicators with a barometer to compare them to the country average. The municipality/county is positioned based on the results and the colour comes from the statistical significance.

2019 Indicators

Population

1 Proportion children, 0-17 years

2 One-person households, 45 years +

3 Proportion over 80 years, projected

Childhood and living conditions

4 Upper secondary school or higher education, 30-39 years

5 Low income (household), 0-17 years (new def.)

6 Income inequality, P90/P10

7 Cramped housing, 0-17 years

8 Child of single parents

9 Social security, 20-29 years

10 Enjoys school, 10^th grade

11 Is bullied, Ungd. 2016

12 Lowest level reading skills, 5^th grade

13 Lowest level numeracy skills, 5^th grade

14 Drop out from upper secondary school

15 Believe in a happy life, Ungdata 2016

Environment, injuries and accidents

16 Satisfied with local environment, Ungdata 2016

17 Membership leisure organisation, Ungdata. 2016

18 Satisfactory venue to meet, Ungdata 2016

19 Loneliness, Ungdata 2016

20 Good drinking water supply (new def.)

21 Drinking water supply

22 Injuries, hospital treated

Health-related behaviours

23 Physically inactive, Ungdata

24 Screen time over 4 hours, Ungdata

25 Smoking, women

Health condition

26 Life expectancy, male

27 Life expectancy, female

28 Educational difference life expectancy

29 Satisfied own health, Ungdata

30 Mental symptoms/illness, 15-29 years

31 Musculoskeletal disorders

32 Overweight and obesity, 17 years

33 Cardiovascular disease

34 Antibiotics prescriptions

Data sources

Norway is in a unique position with many good quality health registries. Data from these are collected, along with information from Statistics Norway and Norwegian health studies, into the online the municipal statistics bank (English version not available) and the Norhealth statistics bank (English version available).

Data for the public health profiles for municipalities and counties are automatically generated from the municipal statistics bank (English not version available). The data are updated several times a year.

The online municipal statistics bank has indicators at a municipal level, so users can create tailored tables and figures other than those supplied in the standard profiles.

Registries used:

• Cause of Death Registry
• Norwegian Patient Registry
• Cancer Registry of Norway
• Medical Birth Registry of Norway
• Childhood Immunisation Registry
• Norwegian Prescription Database
• Registry of the Norwegian Armed Forces
• Registries at Statistics Norway
• Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration
• Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training

More information about the Norwegian health registries can be found here 

• other municipal data sources

In the 2019-profile several indicators are based on data from the Ungdata survey.

Ungdata is a cross-national data collection scheme, designed to conduct electronic youth surveys in schools at the municipal level in Norway. This means that participation rates are excellent and that data are comparable across municipalities and counties.

The data collection was last performed in 2016, and the 2019 public health profiles include several indicators from the survey.
See also http://www.ungdata.no/English .