50 years with personal identification numbers in Norway
Through its development cooperation Statistics Norway has given advice to a number of countries on how to set up and organise population registers and how to produce population statistics based on administrative records. Norway has an advanced population registration systems that serves public and private institutions in numerous areas ranging from taxation, health, education, voting and welfare services.
The article Personal identification numbers: 50 years old and ripe for upgrading (PDF) describes the history, and benefits, of the personal identification number in Norway.
Statistics Norway (SN) has a long tradition of producing population statistics based on administrative registers and has for many years been in the forefront of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) development both nationally and internationally. These experiences are summarised in the report Status Analysis on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS). The report also offers an analysis of the global status of CRVS and how statistical offices can contribute both in building and maintaining register systems as well as producing and disseminating statistics from the system.