Norway Census, 1875 - FamilySearch Historical Records

Title in the Language of the Record (Norwegian)
Folketellingen for kongeriget Norge den 31te desember 1875

Record Description
The census is handwritten on printed forms. It is arranged by county, clerical district, farm number, and residence. The original records are preserved in the regional archives throughout Norway. The records are in Norwegian.

The 1875 census was conducted beginning December 31, 1875, and all the information recorded should pertain to that date even though some information was gathered at a later date. This census includes 99% of the population and contains the persons name, sex, whether resident or temporary resident, those absent from the parish and their location at the time of the census, position in the family, occupation, marital status, year of birth, place of birth, religion if a person did not belong to the state church, and other miscellaneous information.

This census was taken on December 31, 1875.

The Norwegian government created the census primarily as a source of statistical information on Norway’s population.

The 1875 census is fairly reliable, depending on the knowledge of the informant and the care of the census enumerator. Information may have been given to a census taker by any member of the family or by a neighbor. As a result, some information may have been incorrect.

Coverage Table
This collection is a partial index of records for the localities listed below as of April 2010. The table below shows the number of records by locality. Localities not listed may not have any records in this collection.

Record Content
The census includes the following information:


 * Full name
 * Gender
 * Role in the household
 * Position in the family
 * Whether temporary or permanent resident
 * Those absent from the parish and their location at the time of the census
 * Marital status
 * Occupation
 * Year of birth
 * Place of birth
 * Citizenship
 * Religion
 * Crops and animals (if the residence is a farm)
 * Other miscellaneous information

How to Use the Records
Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

As you are searching it is helpful to know such information as your ancestor’s given name and surname, some identifying information such as residence and age, and family relationships. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as your ancestor and that your ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line video at FamilySearch Search Tips.

The 1875 census is a good source to quickly identify a family group since it lists who is in the household and how they are related. Use the place of residence, birthplace, and date of each person to search for other types of records, such as church records.

This index is not complete. Localities that were previously indexed and are available online at Digitalarkivet are not included in this index at this time.

For Help Reading These Records
These records are in Norwegian. For help with reading the records see the following wiki articles:


 * Norway Language and Languages
 * Norwegian Language Information
 * Norwegian Word List

Related Websites

 * The 1801 Census at Digitalarkivet (The National Archives of Norway)
 * Digitalarkivet - WebMeta Database Selector

Related Wiki Articles

 * Norway
 * Norway Census
 * Norway History

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
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A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the wiki article Help:How to Cite FamilySearch Collections.

Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the information published in FamilySearch.org Historical Record collections. Sources include the author, custodian, publisher and archive for the original records.