The demographics of Iceland include population density, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
As of 2025, the Icelandic population is 408,000. About 81,000 residents (20.1%) are of foreign background.[1]
About 99% of the nation's inhabitants live in localities with populations greater than 200, and 64% live in the Capital Region.
History
The population of Iceland from 1703 to 2017, using data from Statistics Iceland.
The population of Iceland probably wavered between about 30,000 and 80,000 for most of the time since settlement. Official statistics begin in 1703, since when the population has grown from 50,358 to 408,103 (August 2025).[2][1]
Migration
Settlement
Most Icelandic people are descendants of Norwegian settlers, and of Gaels from Ireland and Scotland who were brought over as slaves during the settlement of Iceland in the ninth century AD. Recent DNA analysis suggests that about 66 percent of the male settler-era population was of Norse ancestry and that the female population was 60 percent Celtic.[3][4] Iceland remained extremely homogenous from its settlement era until the twentieth century.
Emigration
Large numbers of Icelanders began to emigrate from Iceland in the 1850s. It has been estimated that 17,000 Icelanders migrated to North America in the period 1870–1914, and that 2,000 of them moved back to Iceland; this net loss, 15,000, was about 20% of the Icelandic population in 1887.[5] According to historian Gunnar Karlsson, "migration from Iceland is unique in that most went to Canada, whereas from most or all other European countries the majority went to the United States. This was partly due to the late beginning of emigration from Iceland after the Canadian authorities had begun to promote emigration in cooperation with the Allan Line, which already had an agent in Iceland in 1873. Contrary to most European countries, this promotion campaign was successful in Iceland, because emigration was only just about to start from there and Icelandic emigrants had no relatives in the United States to help them take the first steps".[5]
Before the 1990s, there was little immigration to Iceland, and most of it was from other Scandinavian countries: about 1% of Icelanders in 1900 were of Danish heritage (born either in Denmark or to Danish parents).[7] In the mid-1990s, 95% of Icelanders had parents of Icelandic origin, and 2% of Icelanders were first-generation immigrants (born abroad with both parents and all grandparents foreign-born).[8][9]
Immigration to Iceland rose rapidly in the late twentieth century, encouraged by Iceland's accession to the European Economic Area in 1994, its entry into the Schengen Agreement in 2001, and the country's economic boom in the early twenty-first century. The largest ethnic minority is Poles, who are about a third of the immigrant population. In 2017, 10.6% of the people were first-generation immigrants.[9]
Iceland is also developing relatively small populations of religious minorities, including Catholics (about 15,000 in 2020, 4.02% of Icelanders),[10][11][12]Baháʼís (about 400 in 2010),[13]Jews (about 250 in 2018),[14]Buddhists (about 1,500 in 2021),[15]Muslims (about 1,300 in 2015),[16][17] and Eastern Orthodox (about 995 in 2024).[18]
Research on the experience of immigrants to Iceland is in its early days.[19][20] There is some evidence that racism is not as acute in Iceland as in neighbouring countries.[21][22][23] But, while it is popularly believed in Iceland that racism does not exist there,[24] there is evidence that in some respects immigrant populations experience prejudice and inequalities.[25] For example, Iceland has a higher dropout rate from upper secondary school among young immigrants than the EEA average.[26]
Iceland does not formally collect data on the ethnicity or racial identification of its citizens, but does collect data of the origin and background group by birth.[27]
Due to a shortage of labor,[32] immigration to Iceland will most likely increase in the future.[33] As of 2024, immigrants made up over 18% of Iceland's total population.[34]
Most Icelandic names are based on patronymy, and consist of the given name(s) followed by the father's first given name (in the genitive case), followed by "son" or "daughter". For example, Magnús and Anna, children of a man named Pétur Jónsson, would have the full names Magnús Pétursson and Anna Pétursdóttir, respectively. Magnús's daughter Sigríður Ásta would be Sigríður Ásta Magnúsdóttir, and would remain so for the rest of her life regardless of marriage. An Icelandic patronymic is essentially only a designation of fatherhood, and is therefore redundant in Icelandic social life except to differentiate people of the same first name– the phone directory, for example, lists people by their given name first, patronymic second. Thus it has little in common with surnames in other countries except for its position after the given name. It is legally possible in Iceland to use a matronymic instead of a patronymic, using the mother's name instead of the father's. Use of the patronymic system is required by law, except for descendants of those who acquired family names before 1913 (about 10% of the population). One notable Icelander with an inherited family name is football star Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen.
According to University of Iceland economists Davíd F. Björnsson and Gylfi Zoega, "The policies of the colonial masters in Copenhagen delayed urbanisation. The Danish king maintained a monopoly in trade with Iceland from 1602 until 1855, which made the price of fish artificially low – the price of fish was higher in Britain – and artificially raised the price of agricultural products. Instead, Denmark bought the fish caught from Iceland at below world market prices. Although the trade monopoly ended in 1787, Icelanders could not trade freely with other countries until 1855. Following trade liberalisation, there was a substantial increase in fish exports to Britain, which led to an increase in the number of sailing ships used in fishing, introduced for the first time in 1780. The growth of the fishing industry then created demand for capital, and in 1885 Parliament created the first state bank (Landsbanki). In 1905 came the first motorised fishing vessel, which marked an important step in the development of a specialised fishing industry in Iceland. Iceland exported fresh fish to Britain and salted cod to southern Europe, with Portugal an important export market. Fishing replaced agriculture as the country’s main industry. These developments set the stage for the urbanisation that was to follow in the twentieth century."[35]
A 2017 study looking at individuals going to the capital area for higher education found that "Only about one in three University of Iceland students from regions beyond commuting distance return after graduation, while about half remain in the capital area and others mostly emigrate."[36] Iceland's 10 most populous urban areas:
In 2016, 71.6% of the population belonged to the state church (the EvangelicalLutheran Church of Iceland), approximately 5% in free churches, 3.7% to the Roman Catholic Church, approximately 1% to the Ásatrúarfélagið (a legally recognized revival of the pre-Christian religion of Iceland), approximately 1% to Zuism, 8% in unrecognized or unspecified religious groups, and 9% do not belong to any religious group.[37]
All living Icelanders, as well as all foreign citizens with permanent residence in Iceland, have a personal identification number (kennitala) identifying them in the National Registry. This number is composed of 10 digits, whereof the first six are made up of the individual's birth date in the format DDMMYY. The next two digits are chosen at random when the kennitala is allocated, the 9th digit is a check digit, and the last digit indicates the period of one hundred years in which the individual was born (for instance, '9' for the period 1900–1999). An example would be 120192-3389. While similar, all-inclusive personal registries exist in other countries, the use of the national registry is unusually extensive in Iceland. It is worth noting that the completeness of the National Registry eliminates any need for census to be performed.
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland (official) 58.6%, Roman Catholic 3.8%, Independent Congregation of Reykjavik 2.6%, Independent Congregation of Hafnarfjordur 1.9%, Pagan Worship 1.5%, Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association 1.4%, other or unspecified 18.7%, none 7.7% (2024 est.)
1 2 Karlsson, Gunnar (2000). History of Iceland. p.236.
↑ Guðbjört Guðjónsdóttir. “ ‘We Blend in with the Crowd but They Don’t’: (In)visibility and Icelandic Migrants in Norway.” Nordic Journal of Migration Research 4 (2014): 176–183.
↑ Karlsson, Gunnar (2000). History of Iceland. p.234.
↑ Hanna Ragnarsdóttir, Collisions and Continuities: Ten Immigrant Families and Their Children in Icelandic Society and Schools. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2008.
↑ Skaptadóttir, UD 2004, ‘Mobilities and cultural difference: immigrant’s experiences in Iceland’ in Topographies of globalization: politics, culture, language, eds V Ingimundarson, K Loftsdóttir & I Erlingsdóttir, The University of Iceland Press, Reykjavík pp. 133-149.
↑ Rannveig Thorisdottir, “Armed with a Pen.” In Black Light, White Shadows: Young People in the Nordic Countries Write about Racism. Edited by Leena Suurpää, 85–97. Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers, 1998.
↑ Kristín Loftsdóttir, “ ‘Still a Lot of Staring and Curiosity’: Racism and the Racialization of African Immigrants in Iceland.” In New Dimensions of Diversity in Nordic Culture and Society. Edited by Jenny Björklund, Ursula Lindqvist, 263–78. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016.
↑ Gunnar J. Gunnarsson, Gunnar E. Finnbogason, Hanna Ragnarsdóttir and Halla Jónsdóttir. “Friendship, Diversity and Fear: Young People’s Life Views and Life Values in a Multicultural Society.” Nordidactica: Journal of Humanities and Social Science Education (2015 part 2): 94–113.
↑ Kristín Loftsdóttir, “The Country without Racism: Multiculturalism and Colonial Identity Formations in Iceland.” Social Identities 17 (2011): 11–25.
↑ Hanna Ragnarsdóttir, “Competences for Active Communication and Participation in Diverse Societies: Views of Young People in Iceland.” In Intercultural Competence in Education: Alternative Approaches for Different Times. Edited by Fred Dervin and Zehavit Gross, 73–93. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. p. 75.
↑ Note: Crude migration change% is a trend analysis, an extrapolation based average population change (current year minus previous) minus natural change of the current year (see table vital statistics). As average population is an estimate of the population in the middle of the year and not end of the year.
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