Until the 1990s the Norwegian Mapping Authority (card sold) measured the length of the national shoreline using paper charts. “On a scale of 1:50,000, the coastline stretched over 57,000 kilometers”, remembers Martin Egger, one of the cartographers of this public institution.

Then came digitization. Suddenly, the observed length increased to around 85,000 kilometers. Until more refined measurements arrive in 2011 at 101,000 kilometers. Then reports at 104,600, according to the latest calculations Public radio website NRK. A sum that, according to Martin Egger, does not take into account the Svalbard archipelago or the island of Jan Mayen (for historical reasons).

The quantified extent of the coastline can be explained not only by the increased accuracy made possible by ever more sophisticated digital techniques, but also by the care and resources that Norway put into improving its maps, Martin Egger specifies. Because unlike a much larger country like Russia, most of Norway’s population lives near the sea and maritime transport is important.

Two and a half times around the world

In fact, it is mainly the countless Norwegian islands that are responsible for the high mileage with a little more than 70% of the total kilometers “less than 30% for the mainland”, shows the cartographer. The country’s coastline now circumnavigates the globe two and a half times, notes NRK, where it was found that the circumference of the earth at the equator is about 40,000 kilometers. With this, the Kingdom consolidates its second place in the field. Only Canada is ahead with around 202,000 kilometers, the location states, citing the World Factbook published by the CIA.

For Martin Egger, the Norwegian coast could expand further. “From a mathematical point of view, it is infinite. It all depends on what you measure.” But he admits “In the long term, sea level rise could be a factor in reducing its length.”

With its shape that looks like a banana, the Scandinavian kingdom has not stretched over time. To get from the southernmost to the northernmost point beyond the Arctic Circle, 1,748 kilometers must always be counted.