Of the total population in Norway (nearly 4.6 millions), only 1.6% live in Finnmark, but it occupies 13% of the landmass.

The traditional source of income in Finnmark, apart from reindeer herding, was inshore fishing. Export of fish and fish procucts accounts for 4% of the nations total export revenue, and it is the third most important export product, after oil and metals (aluminium). Today less than 2000 people are fulltime fishermen in Finnmark, they have more than halfed in 20 years. The policy governed from Oslo is to decrase the quota for the inshore fishermen, and subsidise the retirement of the small fishing vessel fleet. Offically this is to save the meager resources of fish. However, it just leads to the local small inshore fishermen selling their quota to larger industrialized vessels which catch the fish further ashore, where the fish is more vulnarable and of less quality.

Another side of the problem is that more than two thirds of the income made on fish in this region goes to other regions. Less than 20% of the fish caught in the sea outside Finnmark is landed and refined in Finnmark, so the local communities get little or no benefits from the rich sea.