Sta­tis­tics Nor­way (Sta­tis­tisk Sen­tral­by­rå) recent­ly published new figu­res on the popu­la­ti­on of Sval­bard. Accor­ding to the­se figu­res, 2556 peo­p­le were offi­ci­al­ly living in the Nor­we­gi­an sett­le­ments (Lon­gye­ar­by­en, Ny-Åle­sund) on 1 Janu­ary 2025, a decrease of 61 peo­p­le com­pared to the pre­vious year’s figu­res.

The Nor­we­gi­an govern­ment will hard­ly be plea­sed that Nor­we­gi­ans are over-repre­sen­ted among tho­se who have left: A full 50 out of 61 (around 82%) have a Nor­we­gi­an pass­port. Accor­ding to the latest figu­res, the popu­la­ti­on in Lon­gye­ar­by­en and Ny-Åle­sund, total­ling 2556 peo­p­le, includes 1626 Nor­we­gi­ans (63.6 %). And the Nor­we­gi­an share of the popu­la­ti­on is likely to decrease even fur­ther when mine 7, the last Nor­we­gi­an coal mine in Spits­ber­gen, clo­ses in the sum­mer, as Nor­we­gi­ans are also dis­pro­por­tio­na­te­ly repre­sen­ted among the miners. The govern­ment will not be hap­py with this, as a hig­her pro­por­ti­on of Nor­we­gi­ans on Sval­bard is an expli­cit poli­ti­cal goal.

The­re were offi­ci­al­ly 2556 peo­p­le living in Lon­gye­ar­by­en and Ny-Åle­sund on 1 Janu­ary 2025.

An inte­res­t­ing deve­lo­p­ment can also be seen in the non-Nor­we­gi­an popu­la­ti­on: while Thais (curr­ent­ly 113) were in second place after Nor­we­gi­ans for many years, they have now been over­ta­ken by Fili­pi­nos (127). In fourth place are Ger­mans (94) and in fifth place Rus­si­ans (67).

Spea­king of Rus­si­ans: 297 peo­p­le lived in Barents­burg and Pyra­mi­den in Janu­ary, the lowest num­ber sin­ce popu­la­ti­on sta­tis­tics began in 2013. Among the­se 297 are also a num­ber of Ukrai­ni­ans.

The­re were offi­ci­al­ly 2556 peo­p­le living in Lon­gye­ar­by­en and Ny-Åle­sund on 1 Janu­ary 2025

The news of mine 7’s future as a muse­um was an April Fool’s joke (and cle­ar­ly reco­g­nisable as such, I hope, isn’t it?) – this pro­ba­b­ly sounds like an even more absurd April Fool’s joke, but it’s not: the tariffs that the US govern­ment is said to have intro­du­ced also affect Sval­bard and Jan May­en.

But not becau­se they auto­ma­ti­cal­ly fall under the tariffs becau­se they belong to Nor­way, but becau­se they have their own tariffs. While Nor­way is sub­ject to a 15% tariff, exports from Sval­bard and Jan May­en to the US are sub­ject to a 10% tariff, accor­ding to NRK.

The good news is that, com­pared to many other count­ries, the export eco­no­my in Lon­gye­ar­by­en and Olon­kin­by­en (the sta­ti­on on Jan May­en) gets off rela­tively light­ly.

The­re is sim­ply no export eco­no­my in the­se or other places on the islands. Svalbard’s only export so far has been coal, which has not been sold to the US in recent histo­ry. And the­re is no civi­li­an popu­la­ti­on on Jan May­en any­way, just a sta­ti­on, and the­r­e­fo­re no eco­no­my at all.

On Jan May­en the­re is just as much export eco­no­my as you can see in this pic­tu­re: none at all.

Sval­bard and Jan May­en are not the only remo­te islands wit­hout an export eco­no­my that the US govern­ment has impo­sed tariffs on. Accor­ding to Spie­gel online, they include the sub-Ant­ar­c­tic islands of Heard and McDo­nald, as well as Nor­folk Island near Aus­tra­lia.

Com­ment

If anyo­ne has an expl­ana­ti­on as to why this might make sen­se (lea­ving asi­de the fun­da­men­tal sen­se or non­sen­se of tariffs), I would be inte­res­ted to hear it. I have no idea.

Just a few impres­si­ons of the beau­tiful arc­tic win­ter, wit­hout many words.

A trip to Dunérbuk­ta on the east coast. Icy cold, about -25 degrees. And a litt­le remin­der of why you should always have a sho­vel with you in the snow (the second reason being the dan­ger of ava­lan­ches, of cour­se).

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

And ano­ther trip to beau­tiful Elve­ne­set in Sas­senfjord. You don’t always have to go far…

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Make this page nicer

And more news from the ‘Make this page nicer’ sec­tion:

• Faks­evå­gen in Lom­fjord: the beau­tiful moun­tain hike on the edge of Hin­lo­pen Strait.
• Hingst­s­let­ta, also in Lom­fjord. It used to be a polar bear para­di­se a while ago, as the pic­tures will show.
• Sig­rid­hol­men, a litt­le pearl of natu­re in Kongsfjord.

And what else

And what else? Oh yes, the stocks are being rep­le­nis­hed. The enti­re sel­ec­tion of Sval­bard kit­chen slats from Lon­gye­ar­by­en is now back in stock.

Kit­chen boards from Lon­gye­ar­by­en:
now all available again in the spitsbergen-svalbard.com shop 🙂

Just last week, the clo­sure of mine 7, Norway’s last coal mine on Spits­ber­gen, which was ori­gi­nal­ly plan­ned for next sum­mer, was the sub­ject of dis­cus­sion not only in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, but also in poli­ti­cal cir­cles in Oslo.

After geo­lo­gists recent­ly dis­co­ver­ed the foot­prints of a pan­t­o­don in the mine, the aut­ho­ri­ties reac­ted quick­ly to the sen­sa­ti­on: they plan to app­ly for mine 7 to be lis­ted as a UNESCO World Heri­ta­ge Site and to turn the mine into a muse­um so that the sen­sa­tio­nal find can be per­ma­nent­ly dis­play­ed to the public.

Incon­spi­cuous at first glan­ce, but a sen­sa­ti­on for geo­lo­gists:
Traces of a Pan­t­o­don in mine 7.

The pan­t­o­don, a mammal from the Palaeo­ge­ne (ear­ly Ter­tia­ry), the coal age of cen­tral Spits­ber­gen, is the oldest evi­dence of a mammal in this part of the Arc­tic. Remains of tree trunks, roots and bran­ches can also be seen in the area.

Wea­ve of bran­ches and roots in mine 7.

So mine 7 has a future bey­ond this sum­mer that ever­yo­ne, inclu­ding oppon­ents of coal mining, can look for­ward to.

Fos­si­li­sed tree trunk from the Palaeo­ge­ne era.