Shipping to Norway: how to address your shipments correctly

Fjords that reach deep inland. Colorful wooden houses by the water. And in winter, the Northern Lights light up the sky.

Around 5.5 million people live here, spread over an area the size of Germany. Norway is a rewarding market for you as an online retailer. Around 99 percent of the population is online, and around 87 percent regularly shop online. And: Almost 85 percent of Norwegian customers also order from foreign stores.

But if you want to ship to Norway, you need more than just an address and a parcel label. Norway is not an EU country. And the address system has its own rules.

This is how Norwegian addresses are structured

The basic structure is clear. No nested additions, no complicated rules.

Line 1: Recipient name

The first line contains the full name of the recipient.

For business addresses, the company name comes at the top. The contact person follows below, introduced by „Attn:“ or „v/“.

Line 2: Street name and house number

The second line contains the street name, followed by the house number.

Typical street names in Norway:

-gata / -gate = street, typical for urban areas (e.g. Storgata)
-veien / -vegen = road, both through roads and residential roads (e.g. Slemdalsveien)

House numbers can have a letter suffix, e.g. „15 A“ or „25 B“.
The letter is placed directly after the house number, separated by a space.

Line 3: Postal code and city

Norwegian zip codes consist of four digits. This is followed by the place name.

Examples:

0161 Oslo
5003 Bergen
7010 Trondheim

Line 4: Country (for international shipments)

Recommended spellings:

NORWAY (German)
NORWAY (English)
NORVÈGE (French)

The most common is the English name „NORWAY“.

Address examples at a glance

Private address (with street address)

Private address (rural area, without street name)

In rural areas, there are often no official street names. Instead, a local place name takes the place of the street name.

Private address (zip code and town only)

In particularly remote regions, the recipient's name and the zip code with town are sufficient.

Business address

P.O. Box address

For cities with several PO boxes, the corresponding name must appear after the PO box number. If there is only one location, the P.O. Box number is sufficient.

(„Falkum“ here refers to the post office box in Skien).

Norwegian postal codes: Four digits with a system

From Oslo to Båtsfjord, from the south coast to the Arctic. Every corner of Norway can be found with just four digits. There are currently around 4,800 active zip codes. Norge post manages them.

The system is structured geographically: The further north, the higher the number. Oslo has the lowest zip code at 0001, while the highest at 9991 belongs to Båtsfjord in Finnmark, near the Russian border.

The first two digits indicate the region:

00 - 12 = Oslo
13 - 39 = Southeast
40 - 56 = Southwest (incl. mountains)
60 - 79 = center (incl. Trondheim)
80 - 99 = North (Nordland, Troms, Finnmark)

The last two digits indicate the location or delivery area.

When street names are missing: Addresses in the country

In rural areas of Norway, there are often no official street names. Instead, a local place name takes the place of the street. Sometimes only the recipient's name and the zip code with the town are sufficient. This is commonplace in Norway. Posten Norge also delivers without a street name.

Many properties still have traditional farm names („gårdsnavn“). Some Norwegians include this name in the order, even if it is not necessary for postal purposes.

The farm name is irrelevant for delivery. It is not an official part of the postal address.

How your parcel gets to Norway

Pick-up stations are the most widely used delivery method in Norway. Home delivery also remains popular.

Anyone shipping from Germany to Norway uses their usual shipping service provider. Local delivery is then handled by a local partner:

• DHL cooperates with Posten Norge for the last mile.
• DPD and UPS use their own delivery networks or work together with local partners.

The pick-up network is dense: Posten Norge operates over 1,400 post-in-shop points (mostly in supermarkets or kiosks) and around 2,000 parcel machines. PostNord has around 4,000 of its own parcel machines. If a machine is full or the parcel is too large, the system automatically redirects it to the nearest post-in-shop.

Since 2023, Svalbard (Spitsbergen) has been home to the northernmost parcel machine of the world. Only around 1,300 kilometers from the North Pole.

Customs and taxes when shipping to Norway

Norway is not a member of the EU. Customs clearance is therefore required for deliveries from the EU. You need a customs declaration (CN23) and an invoice for customs purposes in duplicate. Both documents must be in English or Norwegian.

The VOEC systemYou register with the Norwegian tax authorities via the Norwegian VOEC scheme (VAT on E-Commerce). You then charge the 25 percent VAT directly at the checkout. The goods pass through customs without additional fees for your customers.

Registration is mandatory for sales of NOK 50,000 (approx. €4,500) or more within 12 months. It applies to goods with an individual value of less than NOK 3,000 (approx. € 270).

VOEC does not apply to goods above this value. They go through regular customs clearance. Your customer then pays VAT and any customs duties on import.

Separate shipping conditions apply for Svalbard and Jan Mayen. Anyone delivering to the Arctic should check the conditions of their shipping service provider in advance.

Your next step

Are you planning to sell to Norway or are you already doing so? Then go through these three points:

Recognize addresses without street names. If an order only comes in with a place name and zip code, this is quite normal in rural areas of Norway. Your address form should be able to handle this.

Check VOEC registration. Registration is mandatory for annual sales of NOK 50,000 or more in Norway. Those who charge VAT directly at checkout save their customers unpleasant surprises at customs.

Check shipping service providers for Norway coverage. Not every parcel service covers Norway equally well. Check whether your service provider uses the Posten Norge or PostNord network and how the last mile works.

You can read how address validation works across national borders in our article International address verification explained in compact form.

Do you also ship to other Nordic countries? Then take a look at our articles on Shipping to Denmark and to the Shipping to Sweden to.

endereco: Address validation for international shipping

Other countries, other address formats. Our Address validation checks customer addresses in real time, directly when they are entered in the checkout. Typing errors, missing zip codes, incorrect place names: Corrections are made before the order goes out. For over 200 countries worldwide.

Want to know what this looks like for your store? Feel free to contact us