During the first centuries the settlers lived on fishing, hunting and agriculture.

There are two localities (or urban areas) in Norsjö Municipality:[3] The municipal seat in bold This is a demographic table based on Norsjö Municipality's electoral districts in the 2022 Swedish general election sourced from SVT's election platform, in turn taken from SCB official statistics.

[4] In total there were 3,967 residents, including 3,048 Swedish citizens of voting age.

The vast forests in the area have been the basis for many wood-based industrial sectors, including forest management, forest harvesting and replanting, timber transport, saw mills, manufactured products from wood, and wood as a renewable fuel for electrical and heat energy production.

Norsjö Municipality is only 50 km from the large regional mineral processing plant in nearby Boliden.