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Iceland

 Flag of Iceland

Last reviewed: 16 May 2011

Country information

Map of Iceland

Area: 103,000 sq km (39,769 sq miles)
Population: 323,000 (UN 2009)
Capital City: Reykjavik (Population 120,165 – Oct 2008)
People: Icelanders
Languages: Icelandic
Religion(s): Christianity - Evangelical Lutheran, Protestant, Roman Catholic
Currency: Icelandic Krona
Major political parties: Social Democratic Alliance (SDA) led by PM Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir; Left-Green Movement led by Finance Minister Steingrímur Sigfússon; Independence Party (conservatives) led by Bjarni Benediktsson; Progressive Party (centrist liberals) led by Sigmundur D Gunnlaugsson
Political System: Constitutional Republic
Government: Centre Left coalition of the Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Green Movement – since May 2009 (last election 25 April 2009)
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 (since 1996)
Prime Minister: Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (SDA) (Since February 2009)
Foreign Minister: Össur Skarphéðinsson (SDA) (since February 2009)
Membership of many international groupings/organisations including: Arctic Council, Barents Euro-Arctic Council, Council for Baltic Sea States, Council of Europe, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Economic Area, European Free Trade Association, 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 in 2009), Schengen, UN, Western European Union (associate), World Trade Organisation.

A list of the principal International Organizations of which Iceland is a member is available on the Icelandic MFA‘s homepage.

Interesting Facts:

  • The Althingi (Parliament), the world's oldest functioning legislative assembly, was established in the year 930 AD.
  • 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.
  • Per capita, publication of books and magazines is the highest in the world.
  • Famous Icelanders: Leif Eriksson (Explorer, considered to be 1st European to discover north America), Vigdis Finnbogadottir (world's first elected female president in 1980), Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (world’s first openly gay Head of Government), Halldor Laxness (Nobel Literature Prize winner in 1955 – The Atom Station, Iceland's Bell, Independent People, The Fish can Sing), Björk (Singer/songwriter), Sigur Ros (rock group), Magnus and Sally Magnusson (father and daughter tv presenters and writers), Arnaldur Indridason (crime writer – Jar City), Eidur Gudjohnsen (footballer – Stoke City, formerly Chelsea and  Barcelona) and Jon Pall Sigmarsson (“World’s Strongest Man”).
  • 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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