In 2023, nearly 97% of employer firms in Norway had between 1 and 49 employees, with those employing 1 to 9 people accounting for about 80%. The definition of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Norway differs from that used in most EU countries. To enable cross-country comparison and ensure that the Scoreboard indicators are also relevant to Norway, Statistics Norway analysed the Norwegian SME population using two thresholds: firms with fewer than 250 employees and those with fewer than 50 employees, in line with the indicators covered in the OECD Scoreboard.
The outstanding stock of SME loans in Norway increased by around 31% over the past five years, from NOK 652 billion in 2020 to NOK 856 billion in 2024. In 2024, SMEs accounted for nearly 39% of total business lending. More than 82% of SME loans in Norway are long-term, indicating a strong focus on investment and growth financing rather than short-term liquidity.
As with SME loans, venture and growth capital investments also recorded a strong increase over the same period, rising from NOK 102 billion in 2020 to NOK 179 billion in 2024 - an increase of approximately 75%. However, compared to the previous year, this represented a decline of around 10%.
Newly established enterprises are defined as those founded within the past two years. Between 2016 and 2024, the share of venture and growth capital allocated to new SMEs remained within the range of 16% to 21%.
Bankruptcies averaged 1 931 per year during the 2020–2024 period, with the highest number recorded in 2024 (2 622) and the lowest in 2021 (1 449).
In the fall of 2024, The Government launched the first Norwegian white paper on entrepreneurs and start‑ups. The white paper provides an update on the status of entrepreneurship in Norway and addresses policy areas and framework conditions relevant to entrepreneurs. These areas include the capital market, skills, social security schemes, competition policy, EU policy tools and the design of the policy instrument system. The white paper lists over 50 policy measures to improve further the conditions that help start-ups succeed.