Norway now pumps slightly more oil per person than Saudi Arabia: 113 barrels a year each, against 110. The US manages 18.

In 1974 Saudi Arabia pumped 729 barrels a head. Now it is level with Norway.
Saudi Arabia110barrels(2024)Norway113barrels(2024)United States18barrels(2024)

Barrels of oil produced per person per year, 1971 to 2024: total oil output divided by population. Green: Saudi Arabia. Orange: Norway. Dashed dark blue: the United States. Oil includes natural gas liquids.

Why this is happening

How can tiny Norway match Saudi Arabia? Saudi Arabia pumps about six times as much oil as Norway, but it also has about six times as many people (34 million against 5.6 million).
Why Saudi Arabia fell. Its output is up 50% since 1990, but its population has more than tripled, to 34 million including many foreign workers. The same oil is shared among far more people.
It is a thin lead. The gap is under 3%, and moves with OPEC+ output decisions and population estimates. Kuwait (about 194 barrels) and Qatar (about 182) are ahead of both.

The take

Per head, Norway is as oil-rich as the kingdom that defines the word. What differs is what each does with it. Norway saved the money in a fund now worth about $400,000 for every citizen. So when oil is called a curse, the barrels are not the problem; what a country does with the money is.

Source: Energy Institute Statistical Review via Our World in Data (oil production, population) (2026)

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  <img src="https://macrosnaps.app/charts/norway-oil-per-capita.png" alt="Barrels of oil produced per person per year, 1971 to 2024: total oil output divided by population. Green: Saudi Arabia. Orange: Norway. Dashed dark blue: the United States. Oil includes natural gas liquids." width="640" style="max-width:100%;height:auto">
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  Chart: <a href="https://macrosnaps.app/c/norway-oil-per-capita">MacroSnaps</a>,
  <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>. Source: Energy Institute Statistical Review via Our World in Data (oil production, population) (2026).
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MacroSnaps (2026). "Norway now pumps slightly more oil per person than Saudi Arabia: 113 barrels a year each, against 110. The US manages 18." Edition No. 118, 6 November 2026. https://macrosnaps.app/c/norway-oil-per-capita

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The underlying data

MacroSnaps drew this chart. The numbers in it are published by Energy Institute Statistical Review via Our World in Data (oil production, population) (2026). Their terms, not ours, govern the underlying data.