ssb-student-stats

Overview

This visualization tracks students enrolled in Natural sciences, crafts and technical fields ("Naturvitenskapelige fag, håndverksfag og tekniske fag") at Norwegian universities and higher education institutions. This category includes:

• Software Engineering & Computer Science
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
• Engineering disciplines
• Natural sciences
• Technical crafts

Data is sourced from SSB (Statistisk sentralbyrå / Statistics Norway) Table 05576 and updated automatically monthly.

Key Insights

The data reveals explosive growth in IT/technical education over the past two decades:

• 2000: 22,601 students
• 2024: 68,059 students
• Overall growth: 201% increase (tripled!)

Growth Phases:

1. 2000-2002: Initial decline from dot-com bubble burst (~22K → ~20K)
2. 2003-2013: Steady recovery and growth (~21K → ~51K)
3. 2013-2016: Plateau period (~45K-51K)
4. 2016-2024: Tech boom era - massive acceleration (~45K → ~70K)

Notable Trends:

• 2011-2013 spike: ~38K → ~51K (37% increase) - likely driven by mobile/app development boom
• 2016-2024 surge: ~45K → ~70K (56% increase) - AI, cloud computing, digital transformation
• 2023 peak: 69,936 students (highest on record)
• 2024: Slight correction to 68,059 (still very high)

Field Composition

This category (SSB Field Code 5) encompasses all students in technical and IT-related programs, making it the closest proxy for software engineering and IT education trends in Norway.

Automation

Automatically updated monthly via Novem job:

• Fetches latest SSB data via JSON-stat API
• Filters for Field Code 5 (Technical/IT fields)
• Aggregates across all genders
• Updates this Bloomberg-style visualization

Last updated: 2026-01-30