Norway: Syria Second Most Common Birthplace Among Jailed Children

OSLO - Two in three children locked up in Norwegian youth prisons over the past two years were born in Norway. The second most common country of birth is Syria - and almost 70 percent of the jailed children have non-Nordic names.

That is the finding of a new review of hundreds of court rulings by Norway’s public broadcaster NRK.

Under Norwegian law, children under 18 may only be jailed in exceptional cases, as a last resort when everything else has been tried. Even so, the number of children being locked up is rising.

NRK went through every district court ruling between 1 July 2024 and 1 July 2026 where the offender was under 18 at the time of the crime. Of 796 convicted children, 58 had served time in one or more youth prisons.

Data on gender, country of birth and upbringing comes from the Norwegian population register. Boys make up the overwhelming majority - only 5 percent are girls.

READ MORE: Norway’s Labour Government Tightens Demands on Immigrants - Sweden Delays

One in three of the children was born abroad. After Norway, Syria is the most common birthplace. The rest were born in various countries in Europe, Asia and Africa, which NRK does not specify.

Parents’ background not reported

NRK sorted the names into Nordic and non-Nordic, and nearly 70 percent fall into the second group. But the broadcaster says it cannot say anything about the parents’ immigrant background, because that data is not available.

That means the review cannot show how many of the Norwegian-born children have immigrant parents.

Four in ten grew up in eastern Oslo and one in ten in Kristiansand, followed by Stavanger and Bergen.

Almost four in five known to child welfare

At least 60 percent of the children had lived in an institution before ending up in prison. For almost 80 percent, child welfare services had been involved over a long period.

The real share may be even higher, since not every ruling mentions contact with child welfare. According to the rulings, several of the children also have diagnoses such as severe conduct disorders, drug-induced mental illness and mild intellectual disability.

The 58 children would fit in two school classes, so a few individuals can sway the results, NRK notes. At the same time, the figures match earlier surveys of children in Norwegian prisons.