Hjemenhet

Hjemenhet is a Norwegian term used in demography, housing, and utilities to denote a single home-based unit. The word is formed by combining hjem (home) and enhet (unit). In Norwegian statistics, a hjemenhet is the basic reporting unit that represents either a dwelling or the household living in it, depending on the data collection context. In housing and urban planning, the term is commonly used to describe a distinct dwelling unit within a building—such as an apartment or townhouse—assigned to one household for the purposes of property records, taxation, and service provision. In social statistics, the preference may be to equate hjemenhet with husholdning, the actual group of people living and sharing resources at the address; differences can exist across datasets.

In practice, identifying a hjemenhet allows public agencies and service providers to deliver tailored services, monitor housing stock, and compute indicators such as occupancy rate, energy consumption, and household income. The concept is closely related to related terms such as bolig (dwelling), husholdning (household), and enhet in administrative registries.

While the term is primarily used in Norwegian contexts, similar concepts appear in other countries under terms like dwelling unit, household, or housing unit. See also husholdning, bolig, boligbygging, and energiadministration.