Population of Iceland 2021
As of 2021, the latest population of Iceland is 350,734, based on AllCityPopulation calculation of the current data from UN (United Nations).
Population Distribution
| Total population | 350,734 |
| Population growth rate | 1.02% |
| Birth rate | 13.70 births per 1,000 people |
| Life expectancy | |
| Overall life expectancy | 81.11 years |
| Men life expectancy | 78.89 years |
| Women life expectancy | 83.42 years |
| Age structure | |
| 0-14 years | 20.40% |
| 15-64 years | 64.85% |
| 65 years and above | 14.76% |
| Median age | 36.00 years |
| Gender ratio (Male to Female) | 1.00 |
| Population density | 3.41 residents per km² |
| Urbanization | 92.80% |
| Ethnicities | |
| 94% Icelanders; Proportion of foreigners 2015: 7.4% | |
| Religions | |
| Evangelical Lutheran 93%; Catholics (Roman Catholic) 1%; Non-denominational 1.4%; Other 1.9% | |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | 0.938 |
| HDI ranking | 6th out of 194 |
People in Iceland
Only 356,000 people live in Iceland. The Icelanders are mostly descendants of the Vikings and Celts who settled the island in the 10th century. 94 percent of Icelanders live in cities. The largest metropolitan area is the capital Reykjavik, where 200,000 people live alone.
Languages in Iceland
In Iceland, people speak Icelandic. Icelandic is one of the Nordic languages along with Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Faroese. Most of the similarity is to Faroese. As in these countries, you basically speak on duo in Icelandic. So we say to all the people you – in Icelandic says þú – and speaks to other by their first names.
The Icelandic language has hardly changed in writing over a millennium, so that old texts are still easy to understand today. This is explained by the country’s isolated location. The Icelanders try to this day to keep their language clear of foreign words. English words are being replaced by new Icelandic creations. For example, for “computer” one says tölva, formed from the Icelandic words for number and fortune teller. This purity limits the language change until today.
The Icelandic alphabet
While our alphabet has 26 letters, the Icelandic alphabet has 32 letters. There are no letters C, W, Q and Z at all. But all vowels are accented and unaccented, so A and Á, E and É as well as Y and Ý are each individual letters. Yes, the Y is also a vowel (vowel) in Icelandic. It is pronounced like our Ü. The Ö is also a separate letter.
And finally there are other letters: The letter Ð / ð is called Eth and is pronounced like th in this, i.e. voiced. The letter Þ / þ is an old rune, i.e. a Germanic character. His name is Thorn and is pronounced like the th in the English word thing (voiceless). There is also the Æ / æ, where A and E are pulled together. But this letter is pronounced like our ei.
Counting in Icelandic
Do you want to count to 10 in Icelandic? It works like this: 1 einn, 2 tveir, 3 þrír, 4 fjórir, 5 fimm, 6 sex, 7 sjö, 8 átta, 9 niu, 10 tíu.
Religions in Iceland
67 percent of Icelanders belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church. It is called the Icelandic State Church here because it is protected and supported by the state. 5.7 percent of the population of Iceland belong to an evangelical free church. 3.9 percent are Catholics. Minorities are Muslims, Buddhists and other small religious groups. 6.7 percent do not belong to any church.