What countries border Iceland?
What is the current weather in Iceland?
What is Iceland famous for?
What is the capital of Iceland?
Capital | Reykjavik |
Government Type | unitary parliamentary republic |
Currency | Euro (EUR) |
Total Area |
39,768 Square Miles 103,000 Square Kilometers |
Location | Northern Europe, island between the Greenland Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, northwest of the United Kingdom |
Language | Icelandic, English, Nordic languages, German widely spoken |
GDP - real growth rate | 3.7% |
GDP - per capita (PPP) | $46,600.00 (USD) |
What is the population of Iceland?
Ethnic Groups | homogeneous mixture of descendants of Norse and Celts 94%, population of foreign origin 6% |
Languages |
Icelandic is part of the North Germanic branches of languages, and so is most closely related to Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Faroese Icelandic is based on the Latin alphabet, with the addition of Þ, ð, æ, and the diacritics á, é, í, ó, ú and ö Icelandic developed into a distinct Scandinavian language around the 12th century. |
Nationality Noun | Icelander(s) |
Population | 350,734 |
Population Growth Rate | 0.66% |
Population in Major Urban Areas | REYKJAVIK (capital) 206,000 |
Urban Population | 93.700000 |
What type of government does Iceland have?
Executive Branch |
chief of state: President Gudni Thorlacius JOHANNESSON (since 1 August 2016) head of government: Prime Minister Katrin JAKOBSDOTTIR (since 30 November 2017) cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president upon the recommendation of the prime minister elections/appointments: president directly elected by simple majority popular vote for a 4-year term (no term limits); election last held on 27 June 2020 (next to be held on 1 June 2024); following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or majority coalition becomes prime minister election results: 2020: Gudni Thorlacius JOHANNESSON reelected president; percent of vote - Gudni Thorlacius JOHANNESSON (independent) 92.2%, Gudmundur Franklin JONSSON (independent) 7.8% 2016: Gudni Thorlacius JOHANNESSON elected president; Gudni Thorlacius JOHANNESSON (independent) 39.1%, Halla TOMASDOTTIR (independent) 27.9%, Andri Snær MAGNASON (Democracy Movement) 14.3%, David ODDSSON (independent) 13.7%, other 5% |
Suffrage | 18 years of age; universal |
Citizenship |
citizenship by birth: no citizenship by descent only: at least one parent must be a citizen of Iceland dual citizenship recognized: yes residency requirement for naturalization: 3 to 7 years |
National Holiday | Independence Day, 17 June (1944) |
Constitution |
history: several previous; latest ratified 16 June 1944, effective 17 June 1944 (at independence) amendments: proposed by the Althingi; passage requires approval by the Althingi and by the next elected Althingi, and confirmation by the president of the republic; proposed amendments to Article 62 of the constitution – that the Evangelical Lutheran Church shall be the state church of Iceland – also require passage by referendum; amended many times, last in 2013 |
Independence | 1 December 1918 (became a sovereign state under the Danish Crown); 17 June 1944 (from Denmark; birthday of Jon SIGURDSSON, leader of Iceland's 19th Century independence movement) |
What environmental issues does Iceland have?
Overview | Iceland, the second largest island in Europe (39,706 square miles. Three-quarters of the country is a wilderness of deserts, lava fields, glaciers, and extinct volcanoes. This lunar landscape serve as a training ground for American astronauts preparing for the first moon landings. A distinct beauty is found here in the treeless landscape. The combination of crystal clear air and brilliant sunshine creates vistas that can only be described as breathtaking. This is big sky country, where rivers and waterfalls are abundant. In summer the inhabited coastal area is verdant, its pastures filled with sheep, horses, and cows. In the dark of winter, parts of the same area are windswept, sometimes snow-covered, forbidding, and often inaccessible. |
Climate |
Despite its location close to the Arctic Circle, Reykjavik's climate is similar to that of the northwestern U.S., although cooler and windier. The Gulf Stream helps keep the annual mean temperature at 40°F. Changes between summer and winter are not extreme. It is rarely very cold in winter or warm in summer. Winter temperatures below 20°F are unusual, as are summer temperatures above 60°F. The wind blows year round, however, and a wind chill factor between -15°F and 10°F is common in winter. Cooler weather lasts from October through April. Snow may fall in Reykjavik as early as September and as late as June, but the normal season is between October or November and March or April. Even in midwinter, rain is as likely as snow. A large accumulation of snow is rare. Average annual rainfall is 31 inches in Reykjavik. During winter and spring, winds in the capital can reach hurricane force. Iceland is so far north that the amount of daylight varies considerably throughout the year. An average daily gain of 6 minutes of daylight follows the winter solstice on December 21, and a daily loss of 6 minutes follows the summer solstice on June 21. December and January days have only about 4 hours of daylight; in February the days rapidly begin to lengthen; and by April they are as long as at midsummer in the U.S. From late May to late July, there is no darkness at all-20 hours of sun (or clouds) and 4 hours of twilight. Following this period of "white nights," the sun slowly retreats, and by October the days begin to shorten as rapidly as they lengthened in the spring. Earthquakes are common in Iceland, but are rarely felt in Reykjavik. Volcanic activity is infrequent but rather spectacular when an eruption does occur. The underwater volcano that created the new island of Surtsey in the Westmann Islands off the south coast began erupting in November 1963 and remained active through mid-1967. In January 1973, a volcanic eruption on Heimaey Island in the Westmann Islands forced the evacuation of all 5,000 residents and destroyed more than 300 homes and buildings. In the Krafla area, near Lake Myvatn, an eruption took place in December 1975, lasting several days; this area subsequently has seen seven lesser eruptions, and further volcanic activity is expected there. The most famous of Iceland's volcanoes, Mt. Hekla, which had been expected to remain dormant for a 100 years or so after its spectacular 1947 eruption, produced eruptions in August 1980, April 1981, and January 1991. A volcano under the Glacier Vatnajokull erupted in November 1996, melting tons of ice and creating destructive flooding. |
Environment - Current Issues | water pollution from fertilizer runoff; inadequate wastewater treatment |
Environment - International Agreements |
party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Kyoto Protocol, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Transboundary Air Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Marine Life Conservation |
Terrain | mostly plateau interspersed with mountain peaks, icefields; coast deeply indented by bays and fiords |
How big is the Iceland economy?
Economic Overview |
Iceland's economy combines a capitalist structure and free-market principles with an extensive welfare system. Except for a brief period during the 2008 crisis, Iceland has in recent years achieved high growth, low unemployment, and a remarkably even distribution of income. Iceland's economy has been diversifying into manufacturing and service industries in the last decade, particularly within the fields of tourism, software production, and biotechnology. Abundant geothermal and hydropower sources have attracted substantial foreign investment in the aluminum sector, boosted economic growth, and sparked some interest from high-tech firms looking to establish data centers using cheap green energy. Tourism, aluminum smelting, and fishing are the pillars of the economy. For decades the Icelandic economy depended heavily on fisheries, but tourism has now surpassed fishing and aluminum as Iceland’s main export industry. Tourism accounted for 8.6% of Iceland’s GDP in 2016, and 39% of total exports of merchandise and services. From 2010 to 2017, the number of tourists visiting Iceland increased by nearly 400%. Since 2010, tourism has become a main driver of Icelandic economic growth, with the number of tourists reaching 4.5 times the Icelandic population in 2016. Iceland remains sensitive to fluctuations in world prices for its main exports, and to fluctuations in the exchange rate of the Icelandic Krona. Following the privatization of the banking sector in the early 2000s, domestic banks expanded aggressively in foreign markets, and consumers and businesses borrowed heavily in foreign currencies. Worsening global financial conditions throughout 2008 resulted in a sharp depreciation of the krona vis-a-vis other major currencies. The foreign exposure of Icelandic banks, whose loans and other assets totaled nearly nine times the country's GDP, became unsustainable. Iceland's three largest banks collapsed in late 2008. GDP fell 6.8% in 2009, and unemployment peaked at 9.4% in February 2009. Three new banks were established to take over the domestic assets of the collapsed banks. Two of them have majority ownership by the state, which intends to re-privatize them. Since the collapse of Iceland's financial sector, government economic priorities have included stabilizing the krona, implementing capital controls, reducing Iceland's high budget deficit, containing inflation, addressing high household debt, restructuring the financial sector, and diversifying the economy. Capital controls were lifted in March 2017, but some financial protections, such as reserve requirements for specified investments connected to new inflows of foreign currency, remain in place. |
Industries | fish processing; aluminum smelting, ferrosilicon production, geothermal power; tourism |
Currency Name and Code | Euro (EUR) |
Export Partners | Germany 18.5%, UK 17.5%, Netherlands 11.4%, US 10.9%, Spain 5.2%, Denmark 4.6%, Portugal 4.3%, Norway 4.2% |
Import Partners | US 10.9%, Germany 10.7%, Denmark 8.5%, Norway 8%, UK 7.5%, Netherlands 6.1%, Sweden 5.9% |
What current events are happening in Iceland?
Source: Google News
What makes Iceland a unique country to travel to?