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Are there many homeless people in Oslo?

The latest official counts for Oslo and Norway, and what they include.

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Short answer

The City of Oslo counted 1,459 homeless households in its own survey in late 2024, using the national definition of homelessness. Across Norway, researchers at OsloMet registered 4,197 homeless adults in one week of November 2025, or 0.75 per 1,000 inhabitants. In the previous national survey, few homeless people slept outdoors.

Oslo a shield icon with a check mark next to a tent and a small no-campfire sign on a green hillside

Why

  1. The national count was made by NIBR at OsloMet on behalf of the Norwegian State Housing Bank (Husbanken) in week 48 of 2025, and the researchers describe it as a minimum figure.
  2. The 4,197 homeless adults counted in 2025 were 26 per cent more than the 3,325 counted in 2020.
  3. Around 500 children were homeless in 2025, more than twice as many as ten years earlier, when the figure was 229.

Details

People count as homeless if they have no home of their own and, for example, sleep rough, are referred to a night shelter, hostel or other temporary accommodation, or stay temporarily with friends or relatives. In the 2020 survey, most homeless people stayed in temporary accommodation or with others, mainly in cities such as Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim. UK travel advice for Norway does not mention homelessness, and its crime warning for Oslo concerns a small risk of petty theft at airports and railway stations.

Tip

If you see someone outdoors who needs urgent help, for example in severe cold, call 113 for an ambulance or 112 for the police.

What may differ

Oslo counts households and the national survey counts adults, and the two counts were made a year apart, so they cannot be compared directly.

People also ask

  • How many homeless people are there in Oslo?

Sources

Information checked on 15 October 2026.

Oslo

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