Report: Demographics
The Demographics report will become part of Placepoint Fusion. The report itself is not finished, but everything it builds on is available today: population, age, households, income, wealth, education and daytime population per grunnkrets (basic statistical unit), plus the catchment area in travel time. This page shows where in Placepoint each question is already answered.
The report is coming, the foundation is here
The report gathers SSB's grunnkrets figures for the property you have open in the Property panel, and sets them against a comparison area you choose yourself. Until it is ready, you do the round below yourself: layer by layer under Demographics in Map layers, with Travel distance in Analysis for the catchment area, or by letting Placepoint AI put the report together for you. The figures are the same in all three cases; the difference is who writes the document.
Population, age distribution, households, income, wealth and education are register-based figures from Statistisk sentralbyrå (SSB), aggregated per grunnkrets, and they are in the map from the first click on a layer. The grunnkrets is still the smallest level SSB publishes at: none of the figures exist per building or per household, the newest figures for a given statistical year arrive from SSB with a delay of six months to a year, and some variables are suppressed in the smallest grunnkretser for privacy reasons, with an interval instead of a figure. That applies to all the layers below, and this page says so too, track by track.
See also: Analysing value and potential on placepoint.no.
Registered residence or daytime population
A location assessment often asks a different question from the one the population register answers. Population is the number of people with a registered residential address in the grunnkrets. That is the figure a housing project, school or kindergarten assessment needs: who lives here, permanently.
A retail unit or a coffee bar asks something else: who is here at eleven in the morning, not who is registered at the address. That answer is in Daytime population, which SSB calculates from employment and student register links: workplace, school and place of study instead of residential address. An office block can have a low resident population and a high daytime population; a dormitory suburb shows the opposite pattern, and the difference between the two figures is often the location analysis itself.
The report below picks up both figures, and the Overview tab sets them side by side. The population figure in the Demographics tab itself is still net registered residence, not daytime population. If the decision rests on who is actually present during the day, it is the daytime population figure or the map layer that applies, not the population figure at the front of the tab.
Who this is for
Chains assessing retail, gym or food service premises, housing developers who need to hit the right target group, and landlords who want to know who is available as a tenant before they prospect. The same basis is used both ways: before a location is chosen, and afterwards, when the figures go into a lease negotiation or a decision to stay or move.
The data basis is the same wherever in the country the property sits: 3.5 million matrikkelenheter spread across more than 330 municipalities. See Placepoint in figures for the full overview.
The checklist
| Track | What to look for | Where in Placepoint |
|---|---|---|
| How many live here | Population per grunnkrets, and density regardless of the grunnkrets boundaries | Demographics: Population, Population grid |
| Who they are | Age profile and the household type that dominates the grunnkrets | Demographics: Age distribution, Households |
| What they earn and own | Average income and wealth per grunnkrets | Demographics: Income, Wealth |
| What they know | Education level and dominant field of education | Demographics: Education Level, Field of education |
| Who is here in the daytime | Daytime population against resident population | Demographics: Daytime population |
| How far people can get | The catchment area as an isochrone, per travel mode | Travel distance in Analysis |
The map layers are switched on from Map layer in the left menu. See How to use map layers if you have not done it before.
How many live here
The starting point is always the simplest question: how many people live in the grunnkrets, and which direction from the property carries the most. Population answers per grunnkrets, with figures from a few hundred to more than three thousand people in dense urban units. If a catchment area from Travel distance is in the map, you read the population straight off the units the isochrone covers.
| Map layer | Answers |
|---|---|
| Population | Population per grunnkrets by registered residential address |
| Population grid 100 m x 100 m | Number of residents in a grid of 100 x 100 metres, regardless of the grunnkrets boundaries |
Grunnkretser vary greatly in area and population. The grid gives a more even basis for comparison when the grunnkrets boundary itself runs through the middle of the area you are assessing.
Who they are
Age and household composition decide which target group a grunnkrets actually has. Age distribution shows the average age per grunnkrets, and the average can vary by more than ten years between neighbouring units even in a uniform urban district. Households shows the number of families and which composition dominates: singles without children, singles with children, couples without children, couples with children or multiple families.
| Map layer | Answers |
|---|---|
| Age distribution | Average age per grunnkrets |
| Households | Number of families and dominant household type per grunnkrets |
The households layer shows the dominant type in the grunnkrets, not the split between them. If the mix is even between two or three types, the dominant type alone is not the whole answer; the filter narrows further on the share for each type.
What they earn and own
A municipal average stops helping right here. Income and Wealth show the average per grunnkrets, not per municipality, and separate units that would otherwise look alike in a municipal figure for a city of several hundred thousand inhabitants.
| Map layer | Answers |
|---|---|
| Income | Average income per grunnkrets |
| Wealth | Average taxable net wealth per grunnkrets |
| Income and wealth statistics | Income, wealth and age in the same layer, with the number of people within each segment |
An average can hide a wide spread within the grunnkrets. Two grunnkretser with the same average income can have completely different distributions, and it is the distribution, not the average alone, that decides whether the customer base actually exists.
What they know
Education level and field of education say something about the skills and purchasing power a grunnkrets carries over time, not just in this year's tax settlement. Education Level shows the share with primary school, upper secondary or higher education; Field of education shows which field dominates, from business and law to health and social care.
| Map layer | Answers |
|---|---|
| Education Level | The population's highest completed education, for residents aged 16 and over |
| Field of education | Dominant field of education per grunnkrets |
Both layers cover people resident in the grunnkrets, not those who work there. For tenant prospecting of an office building it is the daytime population, not the resident population, that is the right population to read the education figures against.
Who is here in the daytime
Retail location, office location, public transport planning and lunch or quick service catering do not ask "who lives here", but "who is here now". Daytime population answers with a figure calculated from SSB's employment and student register links: workplace, school and place of study. At district level a city like Oslo appears as a commuter city, with the inner city far above the outer districts; zoom in on the centre and the daytime population in some blocks is many times the resident population.
| Map layer | Answers |
|---|---|
| Daytime population | Estimated daytime population per grunnkrets |
The daytime population is an estimate from register links, not a count of who is actually in the grunnkrets at a given hour. It does not capture visitors, shoppers or people passing through, only those registered with a workplace, school or place of study there.
How far people can get
A municipal figure, or even a grunnkrets figure, does not separate two points that lie a few minutes apart on foot. Travel distance in Analysis draws an isochrone: the area you can reach within a time budget from the point you click, along the road network and the timetables, not as a circle. Walking and cycling are the travel modes that matter most for a gym or a grocery shop; car and public transport belong to larger catchment areas.
| Map layer | Answers |
|---|---|
| Population | The population in the grunnkretser the isochrone covers, read on and off |
A grunnkrets is counted in full when the isochrone touches it, not weighted by area against how much of the unit actually lies inside. For a small isochrone that can make the figure somewhat high.
Travel distance explains the speed assumptions per travel mode and what makes an isochrone smaller than expected.
The report itself
Select Demographics from the report list on a selected property in the Property panel, and the report opens as a panel with five tabs. Every chart compares two selections side by side: pink for the grunnkrets around the property, blue for a comparison area you choose yourself.
| Tab | Content |
|---|---|
| Demographics | Gender and age distribution, life stage profile |
| Demographics Over Time | Historic development in population composition from around 2010 |
| Overview | Compact key figures dashboard for population, housing and financials |
| Statistics | Detailed distribution charts for age, marital status, family, income, wealth and education |
| Housing statistics | Housing conditions, ownership type, housing age, housing area, property price and sales |
Tab: Demographics
The filters select the geographic level and comparison area. Three key figures open the tab: population in the selected grunnkrets, percentage difference against the comparison area, and population in the comparison area. Below them: population by gender, by life stage (employee, primary school, retired, student, kindergarten, upper secondary) and by age group, all as horizontal bar charts for both selections.
Tab: Demographics Over Time
The same breakdown as the tab above, but as development from around 2010: key figures for population and percentage change from the previous year, a line chart for total population per year, one for population by gender, and one for population by age group with buttons to select the age group.
Tab: Overview
A compact dashboard in three sections, pink for the selected grunnkrets and blue for the comparison area:
- Population: number of residents, share of women and men, in and out commuters, daytime population, average age and number of employees.
- Housing: number of dwellings, average housing age, average housing area, average property price and number of holiday homes.
- Financials: total income, total wealth, average income, average wealth and number of cars.
This is the tab that puts resident population and daytime population next to each other, see Registered residence or daytime population above.
Tab: Statistics
Detailed distribution charts with the average value above each chart, as horizontal bar charts in the same pink and blue colours:
- Age distribution: twelve intervals, from under 5 to over 85 years.
- Marital Status: unmarried, married, separated, widowed.
- Family: couple, single, single family, multiple family.
- Income: intervals from under 100,000 kr to over 1.5 million kr.
- Wealth: intervals from under 50,000 kr to over 4 million kr.
- Education: field of education and education level, in the same categories as the map layers in What they know above.
This is the tab that answers what an average alone cannot: two grunnkretser with the same average income can have completely different distributions, and it is the distribution that decides whether the customer base exists.
Tab: Housing statistics
Statistics on the housing composition in the grunnkrets, not on the residents:
- Housing conditions: detached house, semi-detached house, block of flats, terraced house, other housing.
- Ownership: owner-occupier, tenant, housing co-operative owner.
- Housing age: distributed from 1 to over 50 years.
- Housing area: intervals from under 50 m² to over 250 m².
- Property price: intervals from under 500,000 kr to over 6 million kr.
- Sales: number and distribution by price interval.
Build the report today with Placepoint AI
Placepoint AI has access to the same map layers and travel calculations as above, and writes the document from a single prompt. The prompt need be no longer than this:
Create a demographics report for [matrikkel number or address], compared with
[municipality or an area you specify]. Include population and the population grid,
age distribution and household types, income and wealth per grunnkrets,
education level and field of education, and daytime population against resident
population. Also calculate the catchment area for walking and driving at ten
minutes, and state how many people live and work within each isochrone. Show the
deviation from the comparison area as a percentage, not only in absolute figures.
More ready-made examples, including a demographics report for a specific gym with both catchment areas calculated, are on Examples and tips. If the answer is going into your own template, ask for a table instead of a PDF, one row per variable: grunnkrets, value and deviation against the comparison area.
If you are in the map, the Agent does the short lookup without switching tools: "What is the average income and daytime population in the grunnkrets around this point?" gives both figures as text, with a link on to the map layers.
Related surfaces
- Demographic analysis - the full round on a single address, from catchment area to income and wealth per grunnkrets.
- Map layer: Demographics - all eleven layers in the category, with filtering per layer.
- Analysis - the market analyses and Travel distance.
- Catchment area - methodology - the definitions of catchment area, isochrone and radius.
- Report: Market and area analysis - demographics as part of a broader assessment of a whole area, not just the grunnkrets around one property.
- Report: Social statistics - population growth and projections to 2050, for a longer time perspective than this report covers.
Data sources
- Statistisk sentralbyrå (SSB) - population, age distribution, households, income, wealth and education per grunnkrets, municipality and county.
- Geodata AS - the map layers that show the SSB figures in Placepoint.
- Skatteetaten - the annual tax settlement behind the income and wealth figures, aggregated per grunnkrets by SSB before it reaches Placepoint.
- Entur - the timetable behind the public transport calculation in Travel distance.