Norway Proper as a geographic term in 20th and 21st century usage generally refers to those parts of the Kingdom of Norway that are located on the Scandinavian Peninsula. Before the 20th century the term was often used in English as synonymous with South Norway, the oldest and most densely populated part of the kingdom that historically formed its core territory, and excluded the more recently colonised and sparsely populated Northern Norway. Norway Proper in this original sense included the regions (stiftamt) of Akershus or Christiania, Christianssand, Bergen and Trondheim.