Geography of Norway

Norway is a country located in Northern Europe in the northern and western parts of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The majority of the country borders water, including the Skagerrak inlet to the south, the North Sea to the southwest, the North Atlantic Ocean (Norwegian Sea) to the west, and the Barents Sea to the north. It borders Sweden to the east, and in the northeast it has land borders with Finland and with Russia.

Norway has an elongated shape, one of the longest and most rugged coastlines in the world, and there are a total of 320,249 islands and islets (239,057 islands and 81,192 islets) along its much-indented coastline, according to Kartverket (the official Norwegian mapping agency). It is one of the world's northernmost countries, and it is one of Europe's most mountainous countries, with large areas dominated by the Scandinavian Mountains. The country's average elevation is 460 metres (1,510 ft), and 32 percent of the mainland is located above the tree line. Its country-length chain of peaks is geologically continuous with the mountains of Scotland, Ireland, and, after crossing under the Atlantic Ocean, the Appalachian Mountains of North America. Geologists hold that all these formed a single range before the breakup of the ancient supercontinent Pangaea.