Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 13 September 2021. All 169 seats in the Norwegian legislature, the Storting, were up for election.

The election was won by a coalition consisting of the social-democratic Labour Party and the agrarian Centre Party that entered into negotiations to form a government. The election also resulted in a majority for the parties that seek to dissolve the unpopular and controversial Viken county. Jonas Gahr Støre's Labour Party retained its position as Norway's largest party and expanded their lead in seats over the Conservatives, despite a slight drop in its share of votes and the loss of one seat. Incumbent Conservative Party prime minister Erna Solberg conceded defeat. Her party ended up with the second-largest number of representatives. Støre aimed to form a majority government with the Centre Party and the Socialist Left Party, but the latter stated they would remain in opposition, citing disagreements over climate and welfare policies, while remaining open to future negotiations and supporting the government on common ground. On 14 October, Støre became prime minister of a minority government, the Støre Cabinet.

Background 2017 parliamentary election and aftermath

In the 2017 parliamentary election held on 11 September, Erna Solberg of the Conservatives retained her position as prime minister after four years in power. Her premiership additionally received the support of the Progress Party, the Liberals, and the Christian Democrats, who combined secured 88 of the 169 seats in parliament. The opposition, led by Jonas Gahr Støre and his Labour Party, won 81 seats. Other opposition parties included the Centre Party, Socialist Left, the Greens, and the Red Party.

Christian Democratic Party government accession The Christian Democrats voted at a party conference to join Solberg's government on 2 November 2018 and on 16 January 2019, Solberg's Conservatives struck a deal with the Christian Democratic Party. This marked the first time since 1985 that Norway would have a majority government representing right-wing parties in the Storting.

Progress Party withdrawal from government On 20 January 2020, the Progress Party decided to withdraw from the government due to a decision by Solberg to repatriate a woman linked to Islamic State and her children back to Norway. Despite this, Solberg said that she and her party would continue to head a minority government, and the other parties in the coalition (the Christian Democrats and the Liberals) have also stated they would continue to serve in it.

Electoral system

The election used party-list proportional representation in nineteen multi-member constituencies. The number of members to be returned from each constituency varies between 4 and 19. To determine the apportionment of the 169 seats amongst the 19 counties, a two-tier formula is used, based on population and geographic size. Each inhabitant counts one point, while each square kilometer counts 1.8 points. Since the last election changes were made to constituency boundaries and new area was used in the apportionment formula.

+ Boundary changes for 2021 Municipality Fromconstituency Toconstituency Rømskog Østfold Akershus Hurum Buskerud Røyken Lunner Oppland Jevnaker Buskerud Svelvik Vestfold Hornindal Sogn og Fjordane Møre og Romsdal Halsa Møre og Romsdal Sør-Trøndelag Rindal Leksvik Nord-Trøndelag Tjeldsund Nordland Troms

A total of 150 of the seats are regular district seats. These are awarded based on the election results in each county, and are unaffected by results in other counties. Nineteen of the seats (one for each county) are leveling seats, awarded to parties who win fewer seats than their share of the national popular vote otherwise entitles them to. A modification of the Sainte-Lague method, where the first quotient for each party is calculated using a divisor of 1.4 instead of 1, is used to allocate both the constituency and leveling seats. A party must win 4% of the popular vote in order to win compensation seats but may still win district seats even if it fails to reach this threshold. The system for apportioning seats is biased in favour of rural areas since the area of the county is a factor, but the system of compensation seats reduces the effect this has on final party strength.

+ Seats by constituency Constituency Population(as of 1.1.2020) Area (km2)(as of 1.1.2020) Seats Changesince 2017 Østfold 299,447 4,004 9 Akershus 675,240 5,669 19 2 Oslo 693,494 454 20 1 Hedmark 197,920 27,398 7 Oppland 173,465 24,675 6 1 Buskerud 266,478 14,920 8 1 Vestfold 246,041 2,168 7 Telemark 173,355 15,298 6 Aust-Agder 118,273 9,155 4 Vest-Agder 188,958 7,278 6 Rogaland 479,892 9,377 14 Hordaland 528,127 15,438 16 Sogn og Fjordane 108,404 18,433 4 Møre og Romsdal 265,238 14,356 8 1 Sør-Trøndelag 334,514 20,257 10 Nord-Trøndelag 134,188 21,944 5 Nordland 241,235 38,155 9 Troms 167,839 26,198 6 Finnmark 75,472 48,631 5

Electoral reform On 21 June 2017, Solberg's Cabinet established a committee tasked with reviewing the electoral system used in Norwegian parliamentary elections. The 17-member committee, which was led by court judge , published its report on the electoral system on 27 May 2020. The committee agreed that the number of seats should remain at 169. Furthermore, a majority of the committee favoured the retention of the current 19 constituencies, lowering the electoral threshold to 3% and the abolition of the two-tier formula for the apportionment of seats; however, the proposed reforms to the electoral law are planned to be implemented in 2022, meaning that they would only apply from the next parliamentary election in 2025. The reform of the counties and municipalities came into effect on 1 January 2021 and resulted in a reduction in the number of counties from 19 to 11; the 19 constituencies no longer correspond to the county boundaries.

Date As the 2017 election was held on 11 September, the 2021 election was to be held on 13 September. According to the Constitution of Norway, parliamentary elections must be held every four years. The Norwegian parliament may not be dissolved before such a parliamentary four-year term has ended, which in practice makes snap elections impossible.

Political parties

Name Ideology Position Leader 2017 result Votes (%) Seats Ap Labour PartyArbeiderpartiet Social democracy Centre-left Jonas Gahr Støre 27.4% H Conservative PartyHøyre Liberal conservatism Centre-right Erna Solberg 25.0% FrP Progress PartyFremskrittspartiet Conservative liberalism Right-wing Sylvi Listhaug 15.2% Sp Centre PartySenterpartiet Agrarianism Centre Trygve Slagsvold Vedum 10.3% SV Socialist Left PartySosialistisk Venstreparti Democratic socialism Left-wing Audun Lysbakken 6.0% V Liberal PartyVenstre Social liberalism Centre Guri Melby 4.4% KrF Christian Democratic PartyKristelig Folkeparti Christian democracy Centre to centre-right Kjell Ingolf Ropstad 4.2% MDG Green PartyMiljøpartiet De Grønne Green politics Centre-left Une Aina Bastholm 3.2% R Red PartyRødt Communism Left-wing to far-left Bjørnar Moxnes 2.4%

Opinion polls

Debates 2021 Norwegian general election debates Date Time Organizers Present   Invitee  Non-invitee ApHFrpKrFSpVSvRMdGRefs Civita (think tank)PJonas Gahr StørePErna SolbergNSylvi ListhaugNKjell Ingolf RopstadNTrygve Slagsvold VedumNGuri MelbyNAudun LysbakkenNBjørnar MoxnesNUne Bastholm 20.00 Verdens GangPJonas Gahr StørePErna SolbergNSylvi ListhaugNKjell Ingolf RopstadPTrygve Slagsvold VedumNGuri MelbyNAudun LysbakkenNBjørnar MoxnesNUne Bastholm 21:20 NRKPJonas Gahr StørePErna SolbergPSylvi ListhaugPKjell Ingolf RopstadPTrygve Slagsvold VedumPGuri MelbyPAudun LysbakkenPBjørnar MoxnesPUne Bastholm TV 2PJonas Gahr StørePErna SolbergPSylvi ListhaugPKjell Ingolf RopstadPTrygve Slagsvold VedumPGuri MelbyPAudun LysbakkenPBjørnar MoxnesPUne Bastholm 21:20 NRKPJonas Gahr StørePErna SolbergNSylvi ListhaugNKjell Ingolf RopstadPTrygve Slagsvold VedumNGuri MelbyNAudun LysbakkenNBjørnar MoxnesNUne Bastholm TV 2PJonas Gahr StørePErna SolbergPSylvi ListhaugPKjell Ingolf RopstadPTrygve Slagsvold VedumPGuri MelbyPAudun LysbakkenPBjørnar MoxnesPUne Bastholm 20:00 NRKPIngvild Kjerkol, Eva Kristin HansenPLinda Hofstad Helleland, Elin AgdesteinPSivert BjørnstadPØyvind HåbrekkePOla Borten Moe, Marit ArnstadPJon GunnesPLars Haltbrekken, Siv furunesPHege Bae NyholtPAsk Ibsen Lindal 19:40 NRKPJonas Gahr StørePErna SolbergPSylvi ListhaugPKjell Ingolf RopstadPTrygve Slagsvold VedumPGuri MelbyPAudun LysbakkenPBjørnar MoxnesPUne Bastholm

Results

Voter demographics Cohort Percentage of cohort voting for Ap H Sp FrP Sv R V MDG KrF Others Total vote 26.25% 20.35% 13.50% 11.61% 7.64% 4.72% 4.61% 3.94% 3.80% 2.18% Gender Females 27.5% 19.6% 12.9% 8.2% 10.7% 5.4% 5.2% 3.7% 3.9% 2.9% Males 25% 21.1% 14.1% 14.8% 5% 4.1% 4% 4.1% 3.6% 4.2% Age 18–30 years old 15.1% 14.5% 13.2% 12.6% 17.6% 5% 9.4% 10.7% 1.3% 0.6% 30–59 years old 27.1% 20% 14.5% 11% 6.3% 4.7% 4.8% 3.5% 4% 3.1% 60 years old and older 29.4% 23.6% 12.2% 12.2% 5.6% 4.8% 2.1% 1.9% 4.5% 3.7% Work Low income 23.6% 13.9% 16.4% 15% 9.4% 6.7% 3.6% 3.9% 2.2% 5.3% Average income 30.6% 19.2% 11.9% 11.2% 7% 4.1% 3.4% 4.1% 5.1% 3.4% High income 23.7% 28.5% 12.3% 8.7% 6.4% 3.6% 7% 4.2% 3.4% 0.2% Education Primary school 29.7% 13.7% 18.3% 21.1% 3.4% 2.9% 1.1% 1.7% 1.7% 6.4% High school 21.1% 23.8% 15.2% 14.9% 6% 5.4% 3.3% 3% 3.3% 4% University/college 27.9% 20.3% 11.5% 6.8% 10% 5.1% 6.3% 5.3% 4.3% 2.5% Source: Norwegian Institute for Social Research

By electoral district Below is the percentage of vote each party earned in each electoral district. Electoral districtApHSpFrpSVRVMDGKrFPFØstfold30.618.714.212.85.9 4.5 2.8 2.9 3.3 –Akershus26.027.78.910.66.63.96.64.6 2.1 –Oslo23.023.6 3.16.013.38.310.08.5 1.8 –Hedmark33.310.628.38.5 6.7 3.3 2.2 2.0 1.6 –Oppland35.212.526.28.6 5.3 3.7 2.3 2.2 1.6 –Buskerud28.522.116.212.35.5 3.4 3.5 2.9 2.3 –Vestfold27.025.210.012.56.0 4.4 4.0 3.8 3.5 –Telemark31.015.716.612.8 5.94.6 2.2 2.7 4.5 –Aust-Agder24.620.313.613.4 5.4 3.7 3.1 2.9 8.8 –Vest-Agder20.821.410.413.3 5.2 3.23.5 3.013.9 –Rogaland22.424.010.516.94.93.7 3.4 2.48.1 –Hordaland22.824.69.912.78.84.64.2 3.84.9 –Sogn og Fjordane26.513.928.7 9.4 5.6 4.03.3 2.3 3.9 –Møre og Romsdal20.216.317.622.36.1 3.3 2.8 2.3 5.4 –Sør-Trøndelag30.016.515.18.79.05.6 4.3 4.7 2.2 –Nord-Trøndelag33.7 10.629.1 8.1 5.5 3.9 2.0 1.7 2.3 –Nordland29.015.421.312.36.9 5.4 2.4 2.2 2.0 –Troms27.213.719.114.110.6 4.7 2.4 2.9 2.2 –Finnmark31.6 6.818.310.9 5.9 4.9 1.4 2.2 1.612.7Total26.320.513.611.77.54.74.53.83.80.2

Below is the number of district seats for each party, with the party winning the most votes coloured in. The party earning the leveling seat in each district is marked by (*). Electoral districtAPHSpFrpSVRVMDGKrFPFTotalØstfold32211* – – – – –9Akershus56*221111 – –19Oslo45 –1323*2 – –20Hedmark3121* – – – – – –7Oppland2121* – – – – – –6Buskerud32111* – – – – –8Vestfold22111* – – – – –7Telemark2111 –1* – – – –6Aust-Agder1111* – – – – – –4Vest-Agder1111 – –1* –1 –6Rogaland342211* – –1 –14Hordaland4422111* –1 –16Sogn og Fjordane111 – – –1* – – –4Møre og Romsdal21221* – – – – –8Sør-Trøndelag322111* – – – –10Nord-Trøndelag2 –2 – – – 1* – – –5Nordland31211 1* – – – –9Troms21111* – – – – –6Finnmark2 –11* – – – – –15Total483628211388331169

By municipality

Aftermath After the announcement of the results, Conservative Party prime minister Erna Solberg conceded defeat to opposition leader Jonas Gahr Støre. Solberg thanked her supporters and said she was proud of the government's achievements throughout eight years of centre-right rule. On her way to the podium to deliver her concession speech, Solberg told reporters that she had called Jonas Gahr Støre, the head of the Labour Party, to congratulate him on his victory. Addressing a crowd shortly after Solberg conceded, Støre said: "We have waited, we have hoped and worked so hard, and now we can finally say, we did it."