Working paper on The Striking Similarities Between Northern Norway and Northern Sweden. Contrary to the view held by many actors, this paper, by using a quantitative and longitudinal analysis in a comparative perspective, show that the demographic development in Northern Norway and Northern Sweden is much more similar than many think. Through the last 60 years there has been a small negative trend in the relative percentage of the national population living in the two regions. The exception is the “knowledge cities” and especially the two university cities, Tromsø and Umeå. Despite Broxian social theories of regional development in Northern Norway and the implementation of a set of generous regional policies there seem to be no cause for claiming a special path for a special Norwegian development in the North compared to Sweden, not in general or for smaller municipalities.

The striking similiarities