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Iceland

 Flag of Iceland

Last reviewed: 03 April 2009 

Country information

Map of Iceland

Area: 103,000 sq km (40,000 sq mi)
Population: 309,000 (Apr 2007)
Capital City: Reykjavik (Population 116,466)
People: Icelanders
Languages: Icelandic
Religion(s): Evangelical Lutheran (93%), Protestant, Roman Catholic
Currency: Icelandic Krona (exchange rate £1 = ISK 122 ISK June 2007)
Major political parties: Independence Party (Geir Haarde), Social Democratic Alliance (Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir), Progressive Party (Gudni Agustsson), Left-Greens Movement (Steingrimur Sigfusson), Liberals (Gudjon Kristjansson)
Political System: Constitutional Republic
Government: Centre-Right/Left majority coalition of the Independence Party and Social Democratioc Alliance – since May 2007 (last election May 2007)
National Day: 17 June (Inauguration of the Republic of Iceland 1944 – union with Denmark terminated 16 June 1944)
National Anthem: Ó, Guð vors lands ('O, God of Our Land')
Head of State: President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson (1996, 2000, 2004)
Prime Minister: Geir H Haarde
Foreign Minister: Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir
Membership of international groupings/ organisations: Arctic Council (Chair 2002-2004), Barents Euro-Arctic Council, Council for Baltic Sea States (Chair 2005-06), Council of Europe, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Economic Area, European Free Trade Area, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Civil Aviation Authority, International Criminal Court, International Monetary Fund, International Maritime Organisation, Interpol, Intelsat, International Whaling Commission, NATO, OSCE, OSPAR, Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North East Atlantic, Nordic Council of Ministers (Chair 2004), Schengen, UN, Western European Union (associate), World Trade Organisation.

DID YOU KNOW

  • The Althingi, the world's oldest functioning legislative assembly, was established in the year 930 AD.
  • Icelandic retail group Baugur, food company Bakkavor and Landsbanki, KB and Glitnir Banks, as well as a number of other Icelandic companies, now own or control businesses that provide some 120, 000 jobs in the UK. The most recent high profile acquistions have been West Ham United FC and House of Fraser.
  • The world's first public commercial filling station for hydrogen-powered vehicles opened in Reykjavik in 2003.
  • 90 per cent of the population have their heating and power supplied from hydro-electric and geothermal sources.
  • 79 per cent of Iceland's land area consists of glaciers, lakes and lava fields It is one of the world's most volcanically active regions with more than 200 volcanoes. Over the past 500 years Iceland has thrown up a third of the earth's total lava flow.
  • Volcanic eruptions in Iceland probably caused an unusual rise in deaths in England during the summer of 1783 - a cloud of volcanic gases and particles sweeping south from the Laki Craters event of that year may have killed more than 10,000 people. In Iceland some 9,000 people - about a quarter of the population - were killed due mainly to a famine that took hold after most of the island's sheep were killed by eating grass contaminated with fluorine from the eruptions.
  • Per capita, publication of books and magazines is the highest in the world.
  • Famous Icelanders: Leif Eriksson, Vigdis Finnbogadottir (world's first elected female president in 1980), Nobel Literature Prize winner Halldor Laxness (The Atom Station, Iceland's Bell, Independent People, The Fish can Sing) Bjork, rock group Sigur Ros, opera singer Kristjan Johannsson, Magnus and Sally Magnusson, Crime writer Arnaldur Indridason (Jar City), footballer Eidur Gudjohnsen (Barcelona, formerly Chelsea).
  • Iceland's first and only quadruplets, the four Gudjonsdottir girls, were conceived in Bourn Hall clinic Cambridgeshire in 1991.
  • Icelandic food specialities: Cured skate (pungently laden with ammonia), Dried fish (usually eaten with butter), Rams' testicles (pickled in whey), Svid (charred sheep's head), Shark (putrefied), Slátur (haggis-like concoctions made from sheep's blood and intestines).

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