Drammen facts for kids

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Drammen kommune

Strømsø-Bragernes

Municipality

Coat of arms

Buskerud within
Norway

Nickname(s):

Elvebyen, The River City

Drammen within Buskerud

Country

Norway

County

Buskerud

Administrative centre

Drammen

Area

• Total

137 km² (53 sq mi)

• Land

135 km² (52 sq mi)

Area rank

#366 in Norway

Population

(Second quarter of 2024)

• Total

105,042

• Rank

#7 in Norway

• Change (10 years)

9.7%

Drammenser

• Summer (DST)

NO-3301

Official language form

Bokmål

Website

Data from Statistics Norway

Drammen is a city and municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. It is a port and river city located in the south-eastern part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages like Konnerud, Svelvik, Mjøndalen, and Skoger.

Where is Drammen Located?

Drammen is found west of the Oslofjord inlet. It is about 44 kilometers (27 miles) southwest of Oslo, the capital city. The municipality has over 100,000 residents. The city itself is a main center for an area with about 82,000 people.

Drammen and its nearby communities are growing quickly. The city uses the Drammensfjord for fun activities like recreation and fishing. Many homes are also built along the waterfront.

City Name and Coat of Arms

The old name for the city was Drafn. This was originally the name for the inner part of the Drammensfjord. The fjord was likely named after the river Drammenselva. The river's name comes from an old word meaning 'wave'.

The coat-of-arms for Drammen is quite new. It was approved on November 17, 1960. It shows a silver column on a silver rock. A silver key and sword cross over it, all on a blue background. This design comes from an old seal from 1723 for Bragernes. Bragernes is one of the main parts of Drammen. The old motto for Bragernes was In Fide Et Justitia Fortitudo. This means "in faith and justice is strength". The symbols on the coat of arms show this: the key means faith, the sword means justice, and the column on rocks means strength.

How Drammen is Governed

On January 1, 2020, three municipalities joined together. These were Svelvik, Nedre Eiker, and the old Drammen. They formed the "New Drammen Municipality". This new Drammen is now Norway's seventh largest municipality. It has over 100,000 residents. The main government offices are in the city of Drammen.

Drammen city had about 82,875 people in 2021. It serves as a regional hub for an area with 110,236 people in 2021. The city has won many awards for its environmental and urban development. It has received 21 awards since 2003, including 16 national and 5 international ones.

Drammen's Districts

After the merger in 2020, Drammen municipality was divided into ten main areas:

Mjøndalen
Krokstadelva
Åssiden
Gulskogen
Konnerud
Fjell
Strømsø
Bragernes
Åskollen
Svelvik

Drammen's History

Very old rock carvings have been found in Åskollen and Austad. These carvings are 6,000 to 7,000 years old. They are the first signs that people lived in this area. The largest carving at Åskollen shows a moose.

Drammen started as three small port towns. These were Bragernes on the north side of the Drammenselva river, and Strømsø and Tangen on the south side. These small ports were usually controlled by larger market towns. Bragernes was linked to Christiania, and Strømsø to Tønsberg. This made it hard for them to work together.

In 1662, there was a plan to combine Strømsø and Bragernes into one market town called Frederiksstrøm. But King Frederick III said no. Bragernes got some market town rights in 1715. Finally, on June 19, 1811, Bragernes and Strømsø merged to become a single city.

Drammen's location was great for seafaring, shipbuilding, and trading timber. In the 1800s, paper and pulp factories also grew here. A big fire on July 12–13, 1866, destroyed much of the city. This led to rebuilding the city center, including the unique town square and Bragernes church. The Drammen Line railway opened in 1872, connecting Drammen and Oslo.

In 1909, Drammen got the first trolleybus system in Scandinavia. These buses ran until 1967. For many years, Drammen's center had a lot of traffic. The Drammen Bridge was built in 1970 for the E18 highway. It was made bigger in 2006. In 1999, the Bragernes tunnel opened. This helped move even more traffic away from the city center.

In recent years, the city center has been improved. New homes, shops, restaurants, and cafes have opened. A public path was also built along the Drammenselva river. In 2011, Drammen celebrated its 200th birthday with many city-wide events. The city's heating system was updated to use water-sourced heat pumps. These pumps use water from the local fjord to help heat homes as the city grows.

Drammen's Geography

Drammen is one of Norway's larger cities. It is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Oslo, the capital. The city center is at the end of a valley. It sits on both sides of the Drammenselva river, where the river meets the Drammensfjord. The Holmen island in Drammen is also Norway's main harbor for importing cars and fruit.

The Drammen area is part of the larger metropolitan region around Oslo. It is the country's fifth largest urban area. It stretches beyond Drammen's own borders into nearby municipalities like Lier, Asker, Øvre Eiker, and Holmestrand. The total population of this wider area was 110,236 people as of January 1, 2021. In 2008, Drammen won a special award for being the best city in Europe for urban development.

Drammen's Climate

Drammen has a humid continental climate. This means it has warm summers and cold winters. It is located in a sheltered spot at the end of a narrow fjord. This makes Drammen one of the warmest cities in Scandinavia during summer. The warmest month ever recorded was July 2018. The average temperature was 22.3°C (72.1°F). The average daily high was 29.3°C (84.7°F). There were 11 days with highs of 30°C (86°F) or more.

The highest temperature ever recorded was 35°C (95°F) on August 3, 1982. This is tied for the national record for that month. The September record high is also a national record. The lowest temperature ever recorded was -28°C (-18°F) in January 1987. This was the coldest month on record. The average date for the first freeze in autumn is October 13.

Climate data for Drammen 1991–2020 (8 m, avg high/low 2010–2019, extremes 1966–2020 includes earlier station)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	13.8 (56.8)	14.6 (58.3)	21.7 (71.1)	24.3 (75.7)	30.5 (86.9)	34 (93)	33.8 (92.8)	35 (95)	28.6 (83.5)	23.2 (73.8)	17.4 (63.3)	14.1 (57.4)	35 (95)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)	−1.6 (29.1)	0.8 (33.4)	6.8 (44.2)	12.4 (54.3)	17.7 (63.9)	21.4 (70.5)	24.1 (75.4)	21.7 (71.1)	17.5 (63.5)	10.6 (51.1)	4.2 (39.6)	0.4 (32.7)	11.3 (52.4)
Daily mean °C (°F)	−3.3 (26.1)	−2.4 (27.7)	1.3 (34.3)	6.1 (43.0)	11.2 (52.2)	15.3 (59.5)	18 (64)	16.4 (61.5)	11.9 (53.4)	5.8 (42.4)	1.7 (35.1)	−2.6 (27.3)	6.6 (43.9)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)	−7.6 (18.3)	−6.1 (21.0)	−2.9 (26.8)	1.1 (34.0)	6.4 (43.5)	10.5 (50.9)	13.1 (55.6)	11.6 (52.9)	8.4 (47.1)	3.2 (37.8)	−1.1 (30.0)	−5.8 (21.6)	2.6 (36.6)
Record low °C (°F)	−28 (−18)	−26.6 (−15.9)	−21.9 (−7.4)	−8.1 (17.4)	−3 (27)	1.4 (34.5)	5.2 (41.4)	3.6 (38.5)	−2.5 (27.5)	−9.2 (15.4)	−17.2 (1.0)	−24 (−11)	−28 (−18)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	59.4 (2.34)	45.7 (1.80)	43.2 (1.70)	46.4 (1.83)	64.9 (2.56)	73.3 (2.89)	72.4 (2.85)	89.3 (3.52)	78.1 (3.07)	89.1 (3.51)	82.7 (3.26)	64.1 (2.52)	808.6 (31.85)
Source 1: eklima.no (extremes) = eklima>
Source 2: yr.no (mean, precipitaiton)

People of Drammen

As of 2022, about 29% of people in Drammen are immigrants or Norwegian-born with immigrant parents. About 25% are Norwegian-born with immigrant parents.

In 2022, about 20,507 people were immigrants from non-Western countries or their children. This was about 22% of Drammen's population. About 9,333 people were immigrants from Western countries or their children. This was about 9% of the population.

**Minorities (1st and 2nd generation) by country of origin in 2021**
Ancestry	Number
Poland	3,419
Turkey	2,689
Iraq	1,662
Afghanistan	1,425
Pakistan	1,263
Lithuania	1,194
Somalia	1,101
Kosovo	1,029
India	959
Iran	923
Vietnam	908
Bosnia & Herzegovina	824
Syria	710
Eritrea	706
Sweden	663

	2022
	Persons
3005 Drammen
Immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents
Total	29 840
Nordic countries except Norway, EU/EFTA, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand	9 333
Europe except EU/EFTA/UK, Africa, Asia, America except USA and Canada, Oceania except Australia and New Zealand, polar regions	20 507
Immigrants
Total	22 249
Nordic countries except Norway, EU/EFTA, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand	8 120
Europe except EU/EFTA/UK, Africa, Asia, America except USA and Canada, Oceania except Australia and New Zealand, polar regions	14 129
Norwegian-born to immigrant parents
Total	7 591
Nordic countries except Norway, EU/EFTA, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand	1 213
Europe except EU/EFTA/UK, Africa, Asia, America except USA and New Zealand, polar regions	6 378

Fun Places to Visit in Drammen

Aass Brewery

Øvre Sund Bridge

Drammen Museum

Drammen Theater

Drammen seen from Nordbykollen

Aass Brewery

Aass Brewery is the oldest brewery still running in Norway. It is known for its beer and its well-kept building. It started in 1834. The brewery mainly makes soft drinks, beer, and aquavit.

Bridges of Drammen

Øvre Sund Bridge (Øvre Sund bru) – This bridge crosses the Drammenselva river in the middle of Drammen.
Drammen City Bridge (Drammensbrua bybro) – This was a concrete bridge that connected the two parts of the city. It was built in 1936 and taken down in 2022. A new city bridge will open in autumn 2025 in the same spot. A temporary bridge for walkers crosses the river next to the new bridge being built.
Drammen Bridge (Drammensbrua) – This is a large motorway bridge on E18. It crosses the Drammenselva river and was built in 1971.
Ypsilon Bridge (Ypsilon bru) – This is a special cable-stayed bridge just for people walking. It crosses the Drammenselva river and was built in 2007.
Holmen bridges (Holmenbruene) – These are two railway bridges on the Drammen Line.
Nedre Eiker Bridge – (Nedre Eiker bru) This bridge crosses the Drammenselva river further up. It connects the towns of Krokstadelva and Mjøndalen.
Mjøndalsbrua – This is an old bridge between Mjøndalen and Krokstadelva. It was built in 1910 for horse-drawn carriages.

Drammen Museum

The Drammen Museum of Art and Cultural History has several parts. It includes Marienlyst, a large house from around 1770. There is also a museum building from 1930 with permanent exhibits and collections. The Lyche pavilion from 1990 has a gallery, temporary exhibits, and a cafe. The Halling yard has 5 old buildings, with the oldest from the 1760s. The museum also looks after two large preserved farms in Drammen: Gulskogen Manor and Austad farm.

Drammen Spiral Tunnel

The Drammen Spiral is a unique road tunnel. It goes up a mountain called the Skansen Ridge, which is 180 meters (590 feet) above the town. It opened in 1961. It was built where an old quarry used to be.

Drammen Theater

Drammen Theater in Bragernes was built in 1869. It was designed by architect Emil Victor Langlet. This theater was the first modern theater in Norway. It had a detailed Renaissance style with matching fronts and round-arched windows. In December 1993, the Drammen Theater was completely destroyed by fire. A new theater was built to look just like the original. It was finished in February 1997.

Drammensbadet (Swimming Pool)

Drammensbadet is a public swimming and training center. It is located in Marienlyst, Drammen. When it opened on September 1, 2008, it was one of the biggest in Norway. It has five indoor pools and four outdoor pools.

Bragernes Torg (Town Square)

Bragernes Torg is the largest town square in Norway. It is also one of the longest in the Nordic countries.

Sports Clubs

The stadium for Strømsgodset Toppfotball

Strømsgodset IF and their top football team Strømsgodset Toppfotball. They started on February 10, 1907. They have won five Norwegian Cups in football (1969, 1970, 1973, 1991, 2010). They also won the Norwegian football league in 1970 and 2013. They have won six Norwegian championships in bandy.
Drammen golfklubb. This golf club started in 1988. It has an 18-hole course in the southern part of Drammen, near Sande.
Drammen HK This handball club played in the Men's European Champions League in 2007/2008.
IF Hellas
IF Sturla
Konnerud IL This sports club is best known for its cross-country skiing facilities.
SBK Drafn This club started on September 15, 1910. They have won 21 Norwegian Championships in bandy. They also reached one football cup final in 1927. Hans Bjørnstad, a World Champion ski jumper in 1950, was from this club. Ole Olympic Gold medallist, Thorleif Haug, won three gold and one bronze medal in 1924.
SBK Skiold
Drammen Bandy plays in the highest division.
Drammen FK. This football club started on August 23, 2008.

Famous People from Drammen

Main category: People from Drammen

Public Service & Business

Betzy Kjelsberg, 1935

Thorbjørn Jagland, 2016

Niels Treschow (1751 in Strømsø – 1833) – A philosopher, teacher, and politician.
Jørgen Herman Vogt (1784 in Bragernes – 1862) – He was the First Minister of Norway from 1856 to 1858.
Christen Smith (1785 in Skoger – 1816) – A doctor, economist, and botanist.
Erik Børresen (1785 in Bragernes – 1860) – He owned the first Norwegian ships to sail to China.
Bent Salvesen (1787–1820) – A ship's captain and privateer who sailed from Drammen.
Bernhard Pauss (born 1839 at Tangen – 1907) – A theologian, teacher, author, and humanitarian.
Henriette Wulfsberg (born 1843 in Drammen – 1906) – A school owner and writer.
Gustav Jensen (1845 in Drammen – 1922) – A priest, hymn writer, and teacher.
Anthon B. Nilsen (1855 in Svelvik – 1936) – A businessman, politician, and author.
Urban Jacob Rasmus Børresen (1857 in Drammen – 1943) – A rear admiral and industrialist.
Betzy Kjelsberg (1866 in Svelvik – 1950) – A politician and activist for women's rights.
Johan Aschehoug Kiær (1869 in Drammen – 1931) – A paleontologist and geologist.
Johan Berger Mathiesen (born 1872 in Drammen – 1923) – A surgeon.
Arnold Maria Hansson (born 1889 in Drammen – 1981) – A New Zealand forestry expert.
Konrad Knudsen (1890 in Drammen – 1959) – A painter and journalist who hosted Leon Trotsky.
Henning Bødtker (1891 in Svelvik – 1975) – A lawyer and Attorney General of Norway from 1945 to 1962.
Odd Dahl (1898 in Drammen – 1994) – An engineer, nuclear physics researcher, and explorer.
Arnfinn Vik (1901 in Drammen – 1990) – A politician and Mayor of Oslo from 1945 to 1947.
Henry Wilhelm Kristiansen (1902 in Drammen – 1942) – A politician.
Asbjørn Bryhn (1906 in Drammen – 1990) – Head of the Norwegian Police Security Service.
Thorstein Treholt (1911 in Skoger – 1993) – A politician.
Lars Korvald (1916 in Mjøndalen – 2006) – A politician and Prime Minister of Norway from 1972 to 1973.
Astrid Bjellebø Bayegan (born 1943) – The first female dean in Norway, in Drammen since 1989.
Svein Rennemo (born 1947 in Drammen) – A businessperson and chairman of Statoil.
Thorbjørn Jagland (born 1950 in Drammen) – Prime Minister of Norway from 1996 to 1997.
Per-Erik Burud (1962 in Drammen – 2011) – A Norwegian businessman who led the grocery chain Kiwi.

The Arts

Peter Nicolai Arbo, 1874

Katharina Nuttall, 2010

Hanna Winsnes (1789 in Bragernes – 1872) – A poet, novelist, and cookbook writer.
Martinus Rørbye (1803 in Drammen – 1848) – A Danish Golden Age painter.
Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831 in Drammen – 1892) – A painter known for history and Norse mythology art.
Christian Cappelen (1845 in Drammen – 1916) – A Norwegian organist and composer.
Hans Heyerdahl (1857–1913) – A realist painter who grew up in Drammen.
Johan Halvorsen (1864 in Drammen – 1935) – A Norwegian composer, conductor, and violinist.
Barbra Ring (1870 in Drammen – 1955) – A novelist, short story writer, and theater critic.
Herman Wildenvey (1885 at Mjøndalen – 1959) – A famous Norwegian poet.
Lalla Carlsen (1889 in Svelvik – 1967) – A Norwegian singer and actress.
Kai Fjell (1907 in Skoger – 1989) – A painter, printmaker, and stage designer.
Jens Gunderssen (1912 in Drammen – 1969) – A singer, songwriter, actor, and theater director.
Eivind Lund (1914 in Drammen – 1984) – A Norwegian painter.
Solveig Christov (1918 in Drammen – 1984) – A writer of short stories, novels, and plays.
Sverre Holm (1931 in Drammen – 2005) – A Norwegian stage and film actor.
Triztán Vindtorn (1942 in Drammen – 2009) – A poet and performance artist.
Lars Klevstrand (born 1949 in Drammen) – A singer, guitarist, composer, and actor.
Herodes Falsk (born 1954 in Drammen) – A comedian, actor, author, and songwriter.
Katharina Nuttall (born 1972 in Drammen) – An artist, film composer, and music producer.
Todd Terje (born 1981 in Mjøndalen) – A Norwegian DJ, songwriter, and record producer.

Sports Stars

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, 2007

Thorleif Haug (1894 in Lier – 1934) – Won three gold medals in Nordic skiing at the 1924 Winter Olympics.
Charles Mathiesen (1911 in Drammen – 1994) – Won a gold medal in speed skating at the 1936 Winter Olympics.
Johan Haanes (1912 in Drammen – 2000) – A tennis player, ski jumper, and track and field athlete.
Finn Helgesen (1919 in Drammen – 2011) – A speed skater who won a gold medal at the 1948 Winter Olympics.
Arne Bergodd (born 1948 in Drammen) – A rower who won a silver medal with his team at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Arne Dokken (born 1955 in Drammen) – A footballer with many club games and 24 games for Norway.
Svend Karlsen (born 1967 in Drammen) – A former strongman, powerlifter, and bodybuilder.
Johann Olav Koss (born 1968 in Drammen) – A speed skater who won four Olympic gold medals.
Glenn Solberg (born 1972 in Drammen) – A handball coach and former player with 122 games for Norway.
Heidi Tjugum (born 1973 in Drammen) – A team handball player who won two Olympic medals.
Ole Einar Bjørndalen (born 1974 in Drammen) – A retired biathlete with 13 Winter Olympics medals.
Adnan Haidar (born 1989 in Drammen) – A footballer with over 150 club games and 36 for Lebanon.
Martin Ødegaard (born 1998) – A footballer with over 300 club appearances. He is the captain of Norway and the captain of Arsenal.
Kristian Krogh Johannessen (born 1995) – A professional golfer who played for Norway at the 2021 Olympics.
Andrè Faye Solvang (2003 in Drammen – Present) – A powerboat racer who was the 2019 UIM GT30 World Champion and the 2024 UIM F4 World Champion.