<chapter name="Population">

POPULATION

The population of Norway consists preponderatingly of Norwegians, a branch of the North-European Germanic race. In the western districts of the country, particularly from Jæren to Sunnmør, there are still strong traces of another race; the individual is of smaller stature, has dark hair and dark eyes, the head form is rounder — brachycephalic — than is usual in Germanic people. Anthropologists are of opinion that the darker race has been a longer period in the country than the fair one, and that it is due to the immigration from Mediterranean countries and the south of Europe. There does not, however, exist any definite proof of this theory. In the western districts, and to some extent also in other parts of the country, the two races are greatly intermingled, and intermediate types are in strong evidence. In the great inland valley districts and in Eastern Norway the race is almost purely Teutonic. In the North, especially in Finmark, there is a numerically small race of Mongolian or Asiatic