The Sami culture is the oldest culture in large areas of the Northen part of Norway, Sweden, and Finland and the Kola Peninsula.

In the far north of Europe, unique craftwork traditions live side by side with modern technology.

Single people in four countries

The Sami people live in four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. The total population in these four countries is at approx. 80,000, of whom around half live in Norway. Slightly under half of these people talk Sami.

In Norway, the Sami people live in almost all parts of Northern Norway, and in Trøndelag and Femundsmarka in Hedmark.

The language

The Sami people speak a language that is a member of the Uralic linguistic group along with languages such as Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian. Norwegian and other Indo-European languages are not related to the Sami`s tongue.

Reindeer herders

Around 2,600 Sami people in Norway make their living from herding reindeer, and the majority of the region of Northern Norway is used for raising reindeer.

Traditionally, most Sami people have supported themselves through fishing, livestock farming, and hunting, along with the coast, on the fjords and alongside the large rivers farther inland.

Today, a large proportion of the Sami people live outside the traditional Sami areas and have moved into the towns of Northern Norway or to the Oslo area.

Even more, still live in traditional Sami settlement areas, but earn their living in the modern service sector, industry, travel and the public sector.