Image by Olaf Kellerhoff (CC BY NC 2.0).

The meeting was opened by Paul Cheung, Director of the Statistics Division. Olav Ljones of Statistics Norway chaired the meeting.

Norway lost the steady stream of pilgrims to the relics of St. Olav at the Nidaros shrine, and with them, much of the contact with cultural and economic life in the rest of Europe.

The King is also High Protector of the Church of Norway (the state church), Grand Master of The Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, and symbolically Supreme Commander of the Norwegian armed forces.