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STRUGGLE FOR POWER: The Labor Party’s leadership in the 1920s. Later Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen far left. Later Prime Minister Oscar Torp number seven from the left. Photo: NTBP SAUSAGE AND POLITICS: Today’s Labor leadership ate hot dogs after the national meeting in May; deputy leader Jan Christian Vestre (from left), party secretary Kjersti Stenseng, party leader Jonas Gahr Støre and deputy leader Tonje Brenna. Photo: Naina Helén Jåma, VG
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STRUGGLE FOR POWER: The Labor Party’s leadership in the 1920s. Later Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen far left. Later Prime Minister Oscar Torp number seven from the left. Photo: NTB
The opinion polls before today’s election indicate that the Labor Party will not become Norway’s largest party. The last time that happened was in 1924.
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Hardly any living Norwegians can remember anything other than that the Labor Party is Norway’s largest party. They have been at every election since 1927. On Monday night, an era may come to an end.
The latest poll in VG gives 25.6 per cent to the Conservative Party and 20.9 per cent to the Labor Party. Nothing has been decided, but the uphill climb looks steep.
The 1924 parliamentary election was the last time the Labor Party was not Norway’s largest party.
What did Norway look like then?
Here are six differences and one similarity between Norway in 1924 and 2023:
1. We lived shorter lives
A boy born in 1924 could expect to stay 68 years old. A boy born in 2023 can expect to be 93 years old. Boys have thus gained 25 extra years of life, according to Statistics Norway.
Girls have “only” gained 20 extra years of life: A girl born in 1924 could expect to live 75 years. A girl born in 2023 can expect to live 95 years.
Tip: Swipe the pictures!
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WELCOME TO THE WORLD! Mother, father and child in the 1920s. Photo: Olai Fauske, via the County Archives in Vestland SAFEGUARDS: Life expectancy is much longer – partly because it is safer to give birth in 2023 than in 1924. Here from Ullevål hospital. Photo: Janne Møller-Hansen, VG
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WELCOME TO THE WORLD! Mother, father and child in the 1920s. Photo: Olai Fauske, via the County Archives in Vestland
2. We died of other things
The most common causes of death in 1925 were senility and tuberculosis.
The most common causes of death in 2022 were cancer and cardiovascular diseasesaccording to the Cause of Death Register.
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SERIOUS: Tuberculosis patient at Ullevål Hospital in Oslo around 1920. Photo: Unknown, via Jorunn Mathisen TRANSPLANTATION: The last operation was not the biggest, it was still 60 years until the first successful heart transplant. Here from Rikshospitalet. Photo: Mattis Sandblad, VG
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SERIOUS: Tuberculosis patient at Ullevål Hospital in Oslo around 1920. Photo: Unknown, via Jorunn Mathisen
3. We worked on other things
Agriculture was the most common occupation in 1924, followed by industrial work, according to Statistical yearbook 1924.
In 2022, it was the most common occupation shop assistantfollowed by healthcare worker, according to Statistics Norway.
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AGRICULTURE: Mowing bin at Gryte, Vestre Slidre. Photo: Unknown, via Valdres folkemuseum HEALTHCARE WORKERS: One of the country’s largest occupational groups today – and a group that will be even more needed in the coming decades. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB
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AGRICULTURE: Mowing bin at Gryte, Vestre Slidre. Photo: Unknown, via Valdres folk museum
4. We had other names
Solveig, Ruth and Gerd topper the name statistics for girls born in 1925.
Girls born in 2022 any name Nora, Emma or Olivia.
Among boys was Arne, Odd and Dear peaked in 1924.
Boys born in 2022 are welcome Jakob, Noah or Emil.
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RUTH AND GERD: A girls’ class at Møllergata school in Oslo in 1925. Photo: NTB archive… while there are completely different names that are trending in 2023. Photo: Illustration photo: Gorm Kallestad, NTB
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RUTH AND GERD: A class of girls at Møllergata school in Oslo 1925. Photo: NTB archive
5. We wandered out, not in
In 1924 emigrated 8492 people to overseas countries – America for the vast majority. Exact figures for immigration are not found in the Statistical Yearbook, but “the assumed immigration” was around 1300 persons. Many of them were people who moved back home from America.
In 2022 emigrated 3063 people from Norway to other parts of the world. 19 807 people immigrated from other parts of the world.
And then we became one multicultural society: Most foreign-born people in Norway in the 1920s were Swedish guest workers. Today there are close to 880,000 immigrants or Norwegian-born with an immigrant background. People from the Nordic countries, the EU, England and the USA make up 380,000 of them, while almost as many have backgrounds from Asia and Africa.
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AMERIKABÅT: DS Stavangerfjord arrives in Oslo, presumably sometime in the 1920s. Photo: Unknown, via the state archive in Stavanger MORE DIVERSE: Here from the Melafestivalen in front of Oslo City Hall. Photo: Vegard Wivestad Grøtt. NTB
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AMERIKABÅT: DS Stavangerfjord arrives in Oslo, presumably sometime in the 1920s. Photo: Unknown, via the state archive in Stavanger
6. We were half as many
It lived 2.75 million people in Norway in 1925, vs 5.5 million now.
And before Ap started winning elections, 42 percent of the population lived in cities and towns. In the 100 years that have passed since, this proportion has increased to over 80 per cent.
Oslo was called Christiania, but was still Norway’s largest city – together with Aker, which today is part of Oslo, there were just over 310,000 inhabitants in the early 1920s. Today, over 700,000 live in the capital.
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17 MAY 1924: Castle Square in Oslo Photo: Hermann Christian Neupert, via Norsk Folkemuseum17. MAY 2023: A significantly longer children’s train. Plus the castle and the president of the Storting. Photo: Frederik Ringnes, NTB
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17 MAY 1924: Castle Square in Oslo Photo: Hermann Christian Neupert, via Norwegian Folk Museum
… but one thing was the same:
We were good at skiing. In history’s first Winter Olympics in Chamonix in 1924, Norway became the best nation, with 4 of the 16 gold medals. Finland was the next nation.
In the previous Olympic Games in Beijing, Norway was again the best nation, with 16 golds and a total of 37 medals. Germany came in second on that statistic.
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GOLDEN BOY: Thorleif Haug took three of Norway’s four golds in Chamonix. Photo: Presse Sports/NTBGULLJENTE: Therese Johaug ended her Olympic career in Beijing with three individual golds. Photo: Bjørn S. Delebekk, VG
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GOLDEN BOY: Thorleif Haug took three of Norway’s four golds in Chamonix. Photo: Presse Sports/NTBInfo
What about the 1925 election?
In 1925 there were municipal elections, and it is actually unclear which party was the largest nationally in this election.
The vote numbers in municipal elections at this time cannot be combined for the whole country as we do today.
Many municipalities had their own variants of labor lists and bourgeois lists, and it was unclear which could be said to belong to the Labor Party or the Conservative Party.
“The statistics on the municipal elections cannot give an exhaustive expression of the size of the political parties and the relative strength of each other”Statistics Norway concludes in its official statistics from the 1925 election.
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Published: 11.09.23 at 11:15
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2023-09-11 09:15:24
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