applicant is registered. For that reason, the respective authorities were contacted in order to gain a clearer understanding of the assessment of a person’s statelessness.55 Although a definition of a stateless person is provided in NR’s handbook,56 how the definition is applied in practice is unclear, as is the relationship between NR and UDI in this specific context. It has been confirmed that in many cases the registration of UDI will be automatically copied by NR in the CPR,57 but it is unclear in what circumstances the registration by UDI will be questioned by NR, and what happens in the event of inconsistencies. The differences in registration methods become apparent when the statistics published by SSB, which are mostly based on the registrations in the CPR made by NR, are compared to the statistics published by UDI. In the statistics published by SSB, there is a special code for unknown nationality, but until recently, UDI registered persons of unknown nationality as stateless.58 Differences in statistical information are especially apparent in the statistics on naturalized stateless persons in 2011, discussed further below. In addition to the aforementioned sources, information about stateless persons in Norway was sought from other stakeholders, including the Norwegian Centre against Racism (Antirasistisk Senter). To determine the number of stateless persons not covered by the regular administrative registrations, a questionnaire was sent to these stakeholders, in which they were asked, among other things, if they had worked with or on behalf of stateless persons in Norway.59 Most statekeholders noted that they had not come across stateless persons in their work. However, the Health Clinic for Irregular Migrants in Norway reported having worked with stateless persons. Challenges were also faced when considering persons not covered by administrative registrations, and it is difficult to determine their number. Reports and articles have been written about and some estimations made of the number of people living in Norway who are not covered by administrative data,60 known as the “hidden population” of stateless irregular migrants. The existing studies on this topic have used different methods, including door-to-door visits, death and birth records, and data from special regularization programs.61 Other methods include surveys, for example through visits to sites or institutions where the targeted population is likely to be present, or estimations by experts on the number of the target population.62 Governmental authorities or institutions that cover a specific sector can also have information on populations that are not covered by normal administrative data, for example information on the nationality of children enrolled in Norwegian schools, cases of emergency assistance at hospitals, visits to emergency shelters, or information from humanitarian organizations.63 Because of the resources involved in gathering and analyzing such data, an estimate of the number of stateless persons not counted by administrative data was beyond the scope of the current research project. For this report, the numbers provided on the stateless population not covered by 18 55 See Annex II. 56 The Handbook states that a stateless person is a person who is not a national of any country. Skattedirektoratet – Rettsavdelingen, Håndbok i folkeregistering (2011), p. 193, para. 18.4. In Norwegian the wording is the following: “At en person er statsløs, vil si at han ikke har statsborgerskap i noe land.” 57 Email from Thor Emil Granlund at NR to the researcher, dated 20 August 2012. 58 Interview with UDI, 20 August 2012 and Letter from UDI of 8 June 2015. 59 These stakeholders are NGOs that work with homeless persons, foreigners, and women. 60 See, e.g., Solveig Holmedal Ottesen, Papirløse migranter, En undersøkelse av situasjonen formennesker uten lovlig opphold I Norge, og humanitære tiltek for denne gruppen I andre europeiskeland (2008), UDI, Myte: “Det er 30 000 papirløse I Norge, og mange av dem er kriminelle”, available at: http://www.udi.no/globalassets/global/aarsrapporter_i/aarsrapport, see also UDI, Papirløse og Ureturnerbare?, 21 March 2011, available at: http://www.udi.no/globalassets/global/aarsrapporter_i/aarsrapport-2010.pdf. 61 Jandl, M., The estimation of illegal migration in Europe, Studi Emigrazione/Migration Studies, Vol. XLI, March 2004, pp. 141-155 and Pinkerton, C., McLaughlan G. and Salt J. Sizing the the Illegally Resident Population in the UK Home Office Online Report 58/04, Home Office 2004; see also the Clandestino Project Final Report, available from: http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_147171_en.pdf. 62 Zhang, LC., Developing methods for determining the number of unauthorized foreigners in Norway. Statistisk sentralbyrå 2008, p. 4. 63 Ibid, p. 7. M A P P I N G STAT E L E S S N E S S I N N O RWAY