The Norwegian health care system is often cited as one of the most efficient, accessible and patient-oriented nationwide health services available. In 2024, the Scandinavian country’s universal health care structure earned a number five ranking in the World Index of Healthcare Innovation, a measure the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity uses to assess health care quality for 32 high-income nations.

With world-class infrastructure and prestigious credentials, Norway’s exemplary health care system offers a template for socialized coverage that neighboring countries often look to adopt. Despite its strengths, Norway’s health care system faces challenges that could leave its aging population in the margins. Fortunately, Norway’s ever-advancing welfare technology offers promising solutions. Here are the upcoming challenges older Norwegians face in securing adequate health care and how this relates to old-age poverty in Norway. 

How Norway’s Health Care System Works

Norway’s decentralized health care system allows for a higher degree of municipal management, providing a regionally tailored experience for patients across the country. National and municipal taxes fund Norway’s health care infrastructure: a system of four Regional Health Authorities that cover residents’ health insurance and oversee the country’s 20 hospital trusts.

In 2023, 11% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) accounted for health care spending. As of 2025, around one in 10 Norwegians receives private health insurance. The 2012 Public Health Act reflects Norway’s policy-forward approach to health care by making health a priority in all public service management. A well-integrated blend of national and local oversight for health care services leaves Norwegian residents with a considerable social safety net; however, recent concerns have arisen surrounding the rising costs of sustaining such a system. In particular, elderly poverty in Norway will disproportionately affect the elderly who face low socioeconomic status. 

Strained Health Care Services

As in many other developed countries, Norway’s increasing life expectancy places a significant strain on assisted living facilities that are already understaffed. From 2007 to 2017 alone, demand for nursing services jumped by 18% Per projections, demand could increase in the coming years, as 250,000 more Norwegians older than 80 will add to the country’s population in the next two decades.

Notably, the past decade saw a 37.9% increase in the number of Norwegians ages 67 to 79, a landmark figure. All the while, in the short span from 2015 to 2018, the country’s nursing home availability decreased by 2%. Old age often brings increased vulnerability to isolation and stigma, which can deter individuals from seeking care—heightening risks to both health and financial stability. Unfortunately, discrepancies exist in which Norwegians are most likely to experience these injustices as they age. 

Access to Health Care

Older Norwegians with differing educational attainment and income levels, which are often interdependent, see notable discrepancies in available health care. For example, a difference in life expectancy of up to seven years exists between Oslo’s districts. A 2024 study, highlighting higher mortality rates for elderly patients discharged to under-resourced municipalities, speaks to the social gradient that Norwegian elderly experience. Rural municipalities with populations of 10,000 or fewer, where 17% of Norwegians live, are particularly underserved. Furthermore, a higher educational degree can add four years to the life expectancy of Norwegians 65 or older, compared to those with a lower degree.

Norwegians without a high socioeconomic status may lack the financial stability to afford the costs of living in municipalities with more abundant health care services. Even when they can, only two in five patients living in municipalities with populations of 50,000 or more register for a nursing home within 15 days of requesting one. Clearly, intra-municipality competition for aging services exacerbates regional inequalities in nursing home availability. With such sparse resources, the existing social safety net may not sufficiently protect the country’s aging population from old-age poverty. 

What Elderly Poverty Means for Aging Norwegians

With current levels of competition for nursing home services, elderly poverty in Norway is at risk of increasing in the coming years. As older Norwegians are discharged early from hospitals to underserved municipalities, they may be more likely to require future care. Consistent transitions in and out of hospitals can accumulate costs over time, while the proactive care nursing homes could provide often remains out of reach for elderly people without the means to finance it.

A 2022 study also noted cases in which Norwegian employees took sick leave to care for their elderly parents. Thus, elderly poverty can become generational if aging parents depend on their children to provide the services that municipal health care doesn’t have the bandwidth to. While Norway’s nursing home services are not at a capacity to sustain current and future demand, technological advances in in-home care have the potential to address this shortcoming.

The Path Forward

The future of equal health care and prevention of old-age poverty in Norway is complex, with elderly health care needs differing between rural and urban municipalities. With 38.5% of Norway’s elderly aged 65 and older living alone, local health care services are looking to welfare technology to sustain in-home care as an alternative to nursing homes. Home installments designed to detect signs of distress and enhance autonomy enable older Norwegians to maintain a sense of independence and forgo the transition to a nursing home environment as they age.

While relieving pressure on crowded, assisted living facilities, Norwegian elderly will be able to preserve their financial resources and social networks, promoting personal resilience to otherwise life-disrupting events. In-home aging technology may still be out of reach for some older Norwegians due to socioeconomic discrepancies, but this innovation will play a central role in reducing current and future elderly poverty in Norway.

– Isla Hansen

Isla is based in Spokane, WA, USA and focuses on Good News and Politics for The Borgen Project.

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