Numbers and statistics

Who’s represented in the Norwegian arts and cultural field?

Numbers are an important tool for equality. Which groups are properly represented in Norwegian arts and culture, and which parts of the population do we see less?

Here you will find a selection of figures and reports describing the current situation and the development over the recent years. The page is updated regularly.

Music

In recent years, there have only been 25 percent female artists on the Norwegian festival lineups (Aftenposten, Vårt land).

SSB's employment statistics in the music industry show a gender distribution where 69 percent are men and 31 percent are women (SSB Kulturstatistikk 2020).

Since its establishment in 1985, only 6 women have been named "Årets Spellemann" (the Artist of the Year) (Spellemanns prisvinnerarkiv 2023).

At GramArt and TONO, 20 percent of the membership is comprised of women. Among new TONO members in 2021, the gender distribution was 28 percent women and 72 percent men. At NOPA, the proportion of women is 25 percent (GramArt 2018, TONO 2022, NOPA 2022).

In 2022, women made up 2 percent of the members in the Platearbeiderforeningen (the organization for music producers and studio technicians).

20 percent of those who studied music production in Norway in 2022 were women (Ballade.no).

In 2019, 8 percent of the most used composers and conductors in the world were women, compared to 1 percent in 2013 (Bachtrack 2020).

19 percent of Norwegian composers are women, but their works are rarely performed. Only 2 percent of the music played by Norwegian orchestras is composed by women (Norsk Komponistforening 2019).

12 percent of composers and songwriters who received the highest TONO payments in 2021 were women. Among TONO members who received TONO payouts in 2021, the proportion of women was 19 percent. Of the top recipients of TONO payments from concerts in 2021, 14 percent were women, and of the top recipients of TONO payments from radio broadcasts in 2021, 22 percent were women (TONO 2022).

In 2019, 59 percent of conductors, composers, musicians, and singers were men, and 41 percent were women, according to SSB's statistics on wage earners (SSB 2020).

Of the total royalties paid to Norwegian artists and songwriters in 2021, 22,25 percent went to women (Gramo 2022).

Among the 100 most played Norwegian songs on Norwegian radio in 2021, 32 percent were of female artists, 44 percent were of male artists, and 24 percent were of mixed-gender groups and collaborations (Gramo 2022).

Out of nearly 600 CEOs in Norwegian concert organizers, only 37 percent are women (Bård Kleppe et al. 2019).

Studies on the field of light and sound technicians show a heavy preponderance of men. In a survey from 2020, 88 percent of the technicians in the survey were men (Flemmen og Nordgård 2020, Kulturrom), and in a 2022 survey, 93 percent of the sample were men (Hjemdal og Jacobsen 2022, Telemarksforskning).

In 2018, the proportion of female performers on stage was 10 percent for student organizers and 41 percent for cultural centers. Among year-round organizers, the proportion of female performers on stage was 19.5 percent (Nasjonal arrangørstatistikk 2018).

Among festivals and year-round organizers in 2018, women accounted for 5 percent of performers on stage during blues concerts, 16 percent during rock and pop concerts, 22 percent during jazz concerts, and 40 percent during classical and contemporary music concerts (Nasjonal arrangørstatistikk 2018).

Numbers from Spotify Global show that female artists are streamed less than men, and that men listen less to music by female artists than what women do.

  • In total, Spotify has 45 prosent female listeners.

  • Female artists or gender-mixed groups recieve only 22,6 percent of streams.

  • Female listeners stream 31,6 percent music of female artists or gender-mixed groups. Male listeners stream 18,3 percent music of female artists or gender-mixed groups.

  • When listeners chose music, 22,5 stream that of female artists. When listeners play their Spotify-curated Discover Weekly playlist, they stream 17,5 percent music of female artists. When listeners play editorial playlists made by Spotify, they stream 23,1 percent female artists.

You can find the full Spotify-study here.

Film and TV

In 2018, the proportion of women in projects receiving production grants from the Norwegian Film Institute was 48 percent overall and 56 percent in feature films.

In a report from 2019, the Norwegian Film Institute (NFI) stated the following:

  • Projects directed by women have significantly smaller budgets compared to projects directed by men. The budgets for female directors accounted for one-third of the budgets for male directors.

  • The representation of female lead roles in Norwegian feature films has been very low, but there was a significant increase in 2018.

  • Female lead roles in children's feature films were 0 percent in 2016, 17 percent in 2017, and 50 percent in 2018.

  • The network analysis conducted by the Norwegian Film Institute shows that both female and male producers tend to work mostly with male directors and screenwriters, and this tendency is stronger among male producers than female producers (Aftenposten 2019).

A report from the Norwegian Film Institute made by Telemarksforskning (2024), analyzed Norwegian films and series from 2012, 2017 and 2022:

  • 1 out of 3 central roles are women.

  • 4 percent of the roles are played by actors with a multicultural background.

  • 3 percent of all characters have a disability.

  • Among the 580 characters that were mapped, there was only one character with Sami origin.

  • In 1 out of 3 films, the action takes place in Oslo and 70 percent speak Østland dialect.

  • 4 percent of the characters in the films and series were in queer love relationships. No characters have a gender identity other than male and female.

  • There is an underrepresentation of many occupational groups. Only 35 percent of the grades have a profession other than academic, university and military professions.

In 2020, the Norwegian Film Institute conducted a count of representation on the Norwegian cinema screen. Among the 230 Norwegian films with regular theatrical distribution from 2013 to 2020, the following were found:

  • 2 films with a lead role and 2 films with at least one supporting role representing indigenous or national minorities.*

  • 1 film with a lead role and 2 films with at least one supporting role featuring a non-heterosexual sexual orientation.*

  • No films with a lead role and 1 film with one supporting role featuring a gender identity that deviates from the norm.*

  • 4 films with a lead role and 2 films with at least one supporting role with a disability.*

  • 5 films with a lead role and 9 films with at least one supporting role featuring first-generation immigrants.*

  • 23 films with a lead role and 30 films with at least one supporting role featuring a visible ethnic minority background.* This category includes characters born and raised in Norway but with family backgrounds from countries outside Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

  • Regarding female lead characters, the numbers are better, as there were female lead characters in 102 out of the 230 films, equivalent to 46 percent.*

*The numbers refer to the identities of the characters, not the actors.

In 2017, 27 percent of lead roles in Norwegian feature films were played by women. In 2018, the proportion of women in lead roles in feature films increased to 52.5 percent (Dagsavisen 2019).

In the fall of 2017 and spring of 2018, women accounted for only 17 percent of key positions behind the camera (screenwriting, directing, and production) in Norwegian feature films (Dagsavisen 2018). When considering all films with premieres in 2018, not just feature films, the proportion of women in key positions was 33 percent. This represents a small increase from 2017 when the proportion of women was 30 percent (Dagsavisen 2019).

Gaming

The Norwegian gaming industry is dominated by men. The proportion of women in the applications and grants for development funding for video games amounted to 15.95 percent between 2012 and 2018 (Norwegian Film Institute 2019).

The report "Barn og medier 2022" (Children and Media 2022) reveals that 6 out of 10 girls aged 9-18 play video games. Among boys, it's 9 out of 10. The percentage of girls playing games has decreased by 17 percent since 2020.

The report highlights reasons such as harassment and offensive language. 20 percent of the youngest girls (aged 9-10) say they often feel sad because of offensive comments when they play. 8 percent of boys the same age say the same.

Women who play games with other players are more vulnerable to verbal and visual sexual harassment than men. Insults are particularly prevalent against women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people with disabilities.

Visual arts

In 2019, according to SSB's statistics on wage earners, 67 percent of sculptors, painters, and other visual artists were men, and 33 percent were women. 84 percent of male artists worked full-time (100 percent or more), while 53 percent of female artists worked full-time (SSB 2020).      

Art by the indigenous peoples of the Nordic region is underrepresented in the collection of the National Museum. Out of a total of 3,719 Nordic artists, less than 0.5 percent are Sami/Kven. Among the 58,488 Nordic works, less than 0.3 percent are by Sami/Kven artists (Kunst 2019).  

There are significant differences between men and women when it comes to acquisitions for museums and collections: Data from 2010 shows that in permanent exhibitions in art and cultural history museums, less than 11 percent of the works were created by female artists (Å samle kunst 2018).  

Men earn more than women in the arts (adjusted for other relevant factors), and the gender income gap is greater among artists than in society at large (Telemarksforskning 2015 and Mari Torvik Heian 2018).

83 percent of the turnover from art in the secondary market, created by living artists, is from male artists (Art in Figures 2018).

The average price for secondhand sales of artwork by male artists was 23 823 NOK in 2017, compared to 13 249 NOK for artwork by female artists (Art in figures 2018).

Although the proportion of female visual artists was 72 percent in 2013, the top 10 list of best-selling artists consists only of men (Art in figures 2016).

In general, there are significantly fewer works by female artists than male artists in the permanent collections of Nordic art museums. For example, the National Museum has 81.9 percent of its collection consisting of works by male artists (Data on the representation of women artists in Danish and Nordic art institutions).

This imbalance is also evident in several contemporary art museums. Henie Onstad Kunstsenter and Astrup Fearnley Museet have 14 percent and 22 percent respectively of art by women in their collections (Equality Check).

Although female artists are in the majority among the hired artists, KORO reports that male artists have been pain a larger amount overall than female artists. This may indicate that male artists are assigned larger assignments (Government proposal for state budget 2024).

Performing arts

In 2019, according to SSB's statistics on wage earners, 60 percent of directors were men, and 40 percent were women (SSB 2020).*

In 2019, there were an equal number of male and female wage earners with the job title of actor. 66 percent of female actors worked full-time (100 percent or more), while 78 percent of male actors worked full-time (SSB 2020).*

In 2019, 72 percent of choreographers and dancers were women, and 28 percent were men, according to SSB's statistics on wage earners (SSB 2020).

In ballet, one of the most female-dominated activities, the stories being told are largely created by men. In the past decade, no new works by women have been created for the Main Stage at the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet (Talent Norway 2019).

According to Klassekampen's review of assigned roles at the seven largest theaters in Norway in 2020, 30 out of 639 roles were assigned to what the newspaper describes as Black actors, which corresponds to 5 percent (Klassekampen 2020).

* SSB 2020 does not specify in which field directors and actors work in, thus the numbers are not limited to performing arts, but can also apply to e.g. film and TV.

Literature

In 2019, 59 percent of persons working as authors were female and 41 percent were women (SSB 2020).

Helene Uri examined the winners of 47 Norwegian literary prizes – a total of 1,714 prize winners. On average, there are 69 percent male award winners (Helene Uri 2019). Some examples:

  • Tidenprisen has been awarded to 89 percent men.

  • Rivertonprisen has 85 percent male winners.

  • 63 percent of winners of Sultprisen have been men.

  • The P2 listeners novel prize has 73 percent male award winners.

In 2018, Morgenbladet counted the number of names with ethnic minority origins among employees listed on the websites of the publishing houses Gyldendal, Aschehoug, Cappelen Damm, Flamme, Samlaget and Oktober. Their counting showed that 6 out of 601 employees (1 percent) had names with ethnic minority origins (Morgenbladet 2018).

Cultural history and libraries

At the National Library, the management positions in 2022 were occupied by 46 percent women and 54 percent men. The pay gap between women and men in the business increased slightly from 2021. Then female employees earned 97 percent compared to their male colleagues, while in 2022 female employees' salaries amounted to 95 percent of men's (Government's proposal for the state budget 2024).

The management positions in the National Archives are held by 48 percent women and 52 percent men. Female managers have, on average, a higher salary than their male managerial colleagues, while the opposite is true for other positions. For all positions taken together, male employees have a higher average salary. The pay gap has increased somewhat since 2021. Female employees earned close to 95 percent of what their male colleagues earned in 2022, compared to 96 percent in 2021 (The government's proposal for the state budget 2024).

Of the 39 permanent and 4 temporary employees in the Norwegian Audio and Braille Library in 2022, there were 30 women and 13 men. There were 67 percent men in the management group (Government's proposal for the state budget 2024).

In the museums that received grants under Chapter 328 in the state budget in 2022, the proportion of women and men in permanent positions was 58 percent and 42 percent respectively. The museums' boards, including deputy members, had the following gender composition: 49 percent women and 51 percent men. Of the chairmen, 32 percent were women (Government's proposal for the state budget 2024).

Cultural sector

Seven percent of managers and board representatives in cultural industries are immigrants. Most of them are from countries in Europe. For comparison, 16 percent of the population are considered immigrants in Statistics Norway's statistics (Statistics Statistics Norway 2024).

In 2008, the Norwegian parliament decided to include more people with minority backgrounds in the boards of theatres and museums. Today, only 2 of 98 board members in government-funded cultural institutions have non-Western backgrounds (Klassekampen 2019).

The proportion of employees with a foreign background in the state cultural institutions in the Nordic countries is increasing, but not at the same rate as the overall population. In 2015, only 5 percent of the leaders in state cultural institutions had a foreign background (Kulturanalys Norden 2017).

Disabled people are underrepresented in Norwegian cultural life. The report Tilgjengelige kunstnerskap? (2023) show that artists with disabilities experience an almost normalized exclusion in the art field, where neither art educations nor institutions have sufficient accessibility and opportunity for facilitation. There’s a lack of knowledge and interest in art by people with disabilities.

A Fafo survey from 2018 revealed that close to 1 in 3 in cultural life experience sexual harassment during their career. Many people fail to report for fear of consequences for further careers and job opportunities. Among those who had experienced sexual harassment, 7 out of 10 chose not to report it.

The report shows that those who have a loose connection to the workplace have a greater risk of being exposed to unwanted sexual attention. Younger women are most at risk, but men also report sexual harassment (FAFO 2018).

International numbers

Are you looking for international numbers? See for example Inclusion in the Recording Studio? Gender and Race/Ethnicity of Artists, Songwriters & Producers across 1200 Popular Songs from 2012-2023, Facts, figures and graphics (National Museum of Women in the Arts), FACTS (The female:pressure) and What we know so far (Keychange Manifesto).