Norway’s religious map is changing faster than many people notice. The Lutheran Church of Norway is still by far the largest community, but two minorities keep coming up in the same sentence: Catholics and Muslims. Who is building what? Who pays? And who is actually growing?
This post gathers the facts from official statistics and recent reporting — without the slogans.
1. How many mosques are being built?
There is no official national tally of “mosques under construction.” The state counts registered faith communities that receive a grant, not building sites.
Estimates of existing Muslim prayer spaces in Norway sit roughly between 230 and 260. Most are converted premises — shops, basements, former houses of worship — not purpose-built mosques. According to Store Norske Leksikon (Norway’s national encyclopedia), about eight buildings in the country were designed and built from the ground up as mosques. The rest are converted premises.
There is no official national register of mosques under construction. The projects below are taken from municipal decisions and contemporaneous reporting.
What is happening in 2025–2026 is a handful of large projects in different stages:
- Ski (Nordre Follo): framework permit in May 2026 for a new mosque and cultural centre with a minaret up to 15 metres and room for about 700 people. Estimated cost around NOK 60 million. Still in bidding and fundraising. document.news
- Mortensrud, Oslo: municipal approval in April 2026 to expand an existing mosque from 800 to 2,000 m² and add a tower. document.news
- Rabita, central Oslo (Calmeyers gate): a very large planned building (~6,000 m²). Demolition started; construction was paused in late 2025 for lack of money. rights.no
- Bergen Mosque: planning advanced in 2025; estimated NOK 100–150 million. Not confirmed as an active building site. ba.no
- Bodø: neighbour notice for a 12.5-metre minaret on an existing building. document.no
- Other plans stalled or were refused (for example Bjørkelangen). rights.no A large Stavanger project linked to Turkey’s Diyanet has effectively been abandoned. rights.no
2. Is the Catholic Church building anything?
Not on the same scale, and not as many new sanctuaries.
Under way or recently finished (not new churches):
- St. Olav’s Cathedral, Oslo: renovation (gallery and new organ). Masses were temporarily elsewhere. Restoration, not a new cathedral. katolsk.no
- St. Paul’s, Bergen: Norway’s largest Catholic parish. On 28 June 2026 Bishop Fredrik Hansen consecrated the church — a nineteenth-century building finally receiving solemn consecration, not a new build. catholicworldreport.com ewtnnews.com
Planned:
- Hønefoss (St. Teresa): the old church was wrecked by the 2023 “Hans” flood and is to be demolished. A new church is planned at Vesterntangen. As of early 2025 it was still in design, funding and permits. ringeriksavisa.no
- Stavanger: a new parish hall and offices (the old hall must be demolished). Target no later than 2027; budget about NOK 26 million. https://stavanger.katolsk.no/byggeprosjekt
How Catholics have grown their footprint instead of building from scratch:
- In 2024 the Diocese of Oslo bought the former Bredtvet Church from the Church of Norway — now St. John’s. First time the Lutheran Church sold a church building this way.
- The Catholic cathedral in Trondheim (St. Olav) was already consecrated in 2016.
3. Who pays for everything?
Registered faith and life-stance communities outside the Church of Norway — Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, humanists and others — fall under the same trossamfunnsloven scheme:
- You register as member with your national ID number.
- The state pays a flat rate per member (about NOK 1,611 in 2026).
- The grant is for operations (salaries, rent, activity). The community decides how to spend it.
In 2026 the Catholic Church in Norway was the single largest recipient among communities outside the Church of Norway: about 171,000 members → roughly NOK 275 million. Islamic communities together also receive hundreds of millions, because the rule is the same: money follows registered heads.
Big projects (Ski, Rabita, Islam Net) still run fundraising campaigns, including abroad.
Stavanger asked locals for about NOK 5 million toward a NOK 26 million hall. Hønefoss depends on financing as well as permits. Typical mix: **public grant + collections + sometimes selling property**.
The real exception is the Church of Norway (the former state church). Municipalities still put large sums into Lutheran church buildings and cemeteries. Other religions generally fund their own premises. There are also heritage funds for historic churches. That favours old Lutheran fabric.
4. Catholics vs Muslims: who is growing?
Figures below are SSB numbers: members of communities that apply for state support. They are not a census of everyone who identifies as Catholic or Muslim.
Today (1 January 2026)
| Catholics | Muslims | |
|---|---|---|
| Registered members | 170,983 (2026) | 201,899 (all Islamic communities combined) |
| Share of population (~5.6 million) | ~3% | ~3.6% |
| Organisations | one national Church, many parishes | 288 Islamic societies |
| Latest annual change (1 Jan 2025 → 1 Jan 2026) | +2,763 (+1.6%) | +4,509 (+2.3%) |
Islam has passed 200,000 registered members for the first time. The Catholic Church remains the largest single faith community after the Church of Norway. Islam is larger only when every mosque association is added together.
Sources: regjeringen.no | ssb.no | Trus- og livssynssamfunn utanfor Den norske kyrkja – SSB | Members of Christian communities outside the Church of Norway, by religious communities.
Twenty years (2006 → 2026)
| 2006 | Now | Growth | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catholics | 46,440 | ~168–171,000 | about 3.6× |
| Muslims | 72,023 | 201,899 | about 2.8× (+180%) |
Over two decades Islam grew faster in percentage terms. Catholics also almost quadrupled in absolute numbers. Both jumps are driven mainly by immigration, not mass conversion of ethnic Norwegians.
- Catholics: Poland, Lithuania, the Philippines, Vietnam, Latin America, and others.
- Muslims: Pakistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Bosnia, Turkey, Afghanistan, and others.
The pace now
Both have slowed.
- Catholics: diocesan voices say the boom years are behind us. The last measured annual rise was small in percentage terms (~0.9% in 2024–25). Even so, the absolute gain from 1 January 2025 to 1 January 2026 was larger than the year before: from 168,220 to 170,983 (+2,763). The Orthodox still grew faster (+8% in 2024–25; +3,916 in the following year).
- Muslims: +2.3% last year — SSB itself calls that weaker than earlier years. Still +14.7% from 2022 to 2026.
Last year’s biggest gain in people was neither group. It was non-religious life-stance communities (humanists and similar): +12,457.
The Church of Norway still has about 3.43 million members (~61%) and declines every year. “Other Christians” together (Catholics + Orthodox + free churches) number 391,292. Islam is the third religious category in the country, ahead of humanists (~159,000).
Registered vs “real”
Both sides are undercounted:
- Many Catholic immigrants never join a parish register. Internal estimates speak of ~200,000 Catholics in the country; some commentators go as high as 250–300,000.
- There are also Muslims who never join a mosque. The government has said the number who identify as Muslim is higher than the official membership list.
On paper, Islam has overtaken the Catholic Church. In lived reality both sit in the same 3–4% band of the population — and Catholicism may still be close to, or even slightly above, Islam if you count the unregistered.
Why unregistered Catholics should register
If you are Catholic in Norway and you have never filled in the parish membership form, this is not paperwork for its own sake.
Do it here: Online Register in The Catholic Church in Norway.
1. The Church only “exists” in the statistics if you are registered.
Public debate, grants, and planning all use SSB and Statsforvalteren figures. An unregistered Catholic is invisible. That quietly shrinks the Church on paper next to Islam, the humanists, and everyone else.
2. The grant follows the member.
The same per-capita rate that funds mosques funds Catholic parishes: priests, catechesis, buildings, schools, charity. Every missing name is missing support for the parish that actually serves you.
3. Registration is how a missionary Church becomes a local Church.
Norway’s Catholic growth has been a gift of immigration. The next task is roots: children in catechism, adults in the register, a parish that can plan a church in Hønefoss or a hall in Stavanger because it knows whom it serves.
4. You can belong to only one registered community for the grant.
If you are still listed in the Church of Norway from baptism and never formally joined the Catholic Church here, the state does not count you as Catholic. Leaving one list and entering the other is part of being received fully in this country.
How: contact your local parish (Oslo Catholic Diocese, Trondheim prelature, or Tromsø prelature). Bring identification. Ask to be innmeldt as a tilskuddstellende medlem. It is ordinary, legal, and the most concrete way to say: the Catholic Church is here. You can also do it ONLINE HERE: Register in The catholic Church in Norway
The numbers above are not a contest of trophies. They are a reminder. Mosques are organising, counting, and building where they can. Catholics have the people. Too many of those people are still uncounted. Registration will not finish the mission. Without it, the mission is harder than it needs to be.
Sources: Statistics Norway (SSB) religious-community statistics updated June 2026; government per-member grant rate 2026; diocesan and municipal reporting on building projects 2025–2026.
