Today’s news / Norway may introduce a third legal gender by 2032
Minister of Culture and Equality, Lubna Jaffery, calls the process of introducing a third legal gender complicated. (Archive photo). Photo: Martin Solhaug Standal/Ritzau Scanpix

Norway may introduce a third legal gender by 2032

Norway is contemplating the introduction of a third legal gender category which may be implemented by 2032, announced Culture and Equality Minister Lubna Jaffery. This follows an examination of the possibilities by a committee but entails a substantial delay due to technical reasons. The current system, which assigns gender based on the third digit of the personal identification number, is soon to run out of numbers. In the future, legal gender will be recorded separately in the national registry allowing for the addition of a third gender. The Norwegian government has not yet planned concrete steps to integrate a third gender into official systems, but the minister has shown support for the idea despite the complexity and time required to make the change. The current coalition government commissioned the study in 2021. In contrast, the Danish government remains opposed to introducing a third legal gender, holding the view that there are fundamentally two biological genders.