At today’s exchange rate, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (Statens pensjonsfond utland). is worth roughly C$3.21 trillion—an extraordinary figure for a country with a population of about 5.675 million, very close to the population of British Columbia.

That amounts to about C$565,603 for every Norwegian.

In May of this year, IN-SIGHTS reported on the value of this fund. In just three months, its value has increased by C$1.42 billion—the equivalent of C$25,000 for every man, woman, and child living in Norway.

Among affluent countries, Norway has one of the world’s most equal distributions of income, particularly when measured by disposable household income after taxes and government transfers. Canada’s income inequality is about 18% higher than Norway’s.

Norway treats the wealth generated by natural resources as a public inheritance, belonging to citizens today and to generations yet to come. Canada takes a different approach. Apart from modest licence fees and royalties, most of the profits flow to corporations, many of them multinational.