Does Norway have anything you could call a Bible Belt?

In My Humble Opinion
1

(Wasn’t sure if this was a valid FQ, especially since I welcome informed opinions as well as hard facts. I leave it to the moderators to judge.)

On a Facebook page of humorous maps, someone recently posted a map of Norwegian regional stereotypes.

The image quality of the map is so bad , but I’m able to make out such labels as “Fiords And Constant Rain” (SW Coast), “Fishers And Complaining About The South” (most of the narrow, northern part)), “Hillbillies, Farmers, Hunters, and Jovial Dialect” (SE region north of southern coasts), and most surprising of all, a “Bible Belt” (southernmost coastal region).

A Bible Belt? Nobody expects a Bible Belt in Scandinavia. And if there is a Bible Belt, from an American point of view you would expect it to be in the more rural north of the country.

If the southern tip of Norway could be labeled a Bible Belt, what are some of the Bible Belt-y things that go on there?

Someone posting from Sweden commented that the map was spot on.

2

There is a Wikipedia article about it:

And note:

In Sørlandet, Sunday church attendance is observed by 2 in 10 people, compared to slightly less than 1 in 10 in Norway on average.

So it seems it relative terms it is more religious than the rest of the country, but in absolute terms it sounds no more religious than the U.S. as a whole (where 20% or so attend church or synagogue every week).

3

Like many geographical stereotypes, then, not entirely accurate but having a grain of truth nonetheless.

I didn’t even think to check Wikipedia; it didn’t occur to me that there’d be an article.

4

i’m puzzled by the small blue area in the southeast labeled “Harry”, vulgar/tacky. I wonder what that is supposed to mean. Who is Harry and why is he vulgar/tacky?

5

You’ve obviously never met any hardcore Scandinavian Lutherans. Heck, there’s a branch of Lutheranism there so conservative they call themselves Catholic.

6
7

for what it’s worth the Netherlands also has a Bijbelgordel( Bible Belt)

we also have Woke Strook (Woke Band) of liberal cities who did not vote extreme right the last election

8

I’d expect it to be wherever farming is most likely to be viable (in Scandinavia, the northern parts would strike me as less viable), and church-going might be all the social life around.

That’s just a WAG, though, and may not bear any resemblance to reality.

9

In my family, it was a joke that a certain great-grand aunt of mine came from “the hillbilly section of Latvia”. I used to think, what, was this section four square blocks wide? Latvia’s too tiny to have a hillbilly section.