Archive for February 22nd, 2012

Norwegians moving house

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

300.000 Norwegians move house every year. The short animation film below represents the pattern they follow, it is nicely done by Even Westvang.

The interesting part is that this is possible by cross referencing 4 million tax records: all data on taxes paid, incomes and fortunes of all tax paying individuals in Norway are made public every year! (consisting of the full name, year of birth, postal code and their attendant financial data)

I remember this being one of the strangest experiences of living in Norway at first, coming from a country where people do NOT talk about their earnings. Now I realize that this kind of openness lets the information become just what it should be; not so relevant really…