Last year, a total of 26,400 people immigrated to Norway, representing an annual rise of 3.8 percent – the lowest percentage increase since 2002. In all, the nation of just over five million now has 884,000 inhabitants with immigrant background.

Statistics Norway, which defines people with immigrant background as either having immigrated to the country themselves or to have been born in Norway to immigrant parents, said that although the biggest growth is now seen among Syrians, people with Polish origins remain the largest group with immigrant background, totaling 97,200 people.

“An imaginary municipality solely consisting of Polish immigrants would be the sixth largest municipality in Norway in terms of number of inhabitants,” the statistics agency said.

“The second largest group of immigrants is made up of Lithuanians, with 37,600 persons. Swedes are in third place with 36,300, followed by Somalians, with 28,700,” it said.

The capital, Oslo, had the single largest population of immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents, constituting 33 percent of the city’s 666,800 inhabitants.