Local Government Organization at Municipal Level, Time Series, 1996-2021

The Ministry of Local Government and Modernization's organization database (the organization database) is a survey that is distributed to all Norwegian municipalities. Each round of data collection, a similar survey is also sent to the county municipalities. The survey has been conducted eight times: in 1995, 1996, and then every four years - the year after the municipal council and county council elections. Most of the questions in the survey have been asked one or more times before, and there is thus time series data for large parts of the questions in this year's survey.

The survey collects information on how the municipalities are organized as political units, and how the administrative apparatus is structured. In addition, the survey looks at how the municipalities communicate and interact with the inhabitants, how municipal tasks are solved and how the operation is organized.

Data has been collected by the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR) (1996-2016) and ideas2evidence (2020), in collaboration with NORCE and the University of Bergen. ideas2evidence has processed and republished data from the period 1996-2016 in this time series, with NIBRs approval.