49 Fun Facts About Iceland

Roughly what share of Iceland's population lives within its capital city's limits?

About 35% of Icelanders live inside Reykjavík's city limits, roughly 140,000 of some 390,000 people, while the wider Capital Region holds close to two-thirds.

Iceland's capital holds what distinction among the capitals of sovereign states?

Northernmost of all sovereign-state capitals, Reykjavík sits at about 64°08′ N on Faxaflói bay; Nuuk lies farther north but is not the capital of a sovereign state.

The name Reykjavík translates roughly as what?

Reykjavík means 'Smoky bay': reykja- is 'smoke' and vík is 'bay', the smoke being steam rising from the area's hot springs.

According to the Landnámabók, who became Iceland's first permanent settler in 874?

Ingólfr Arnarson is named in the Landnámabók as the first permanent settler; he reportedly cast his high-seat pillars overboard and settled where they came ashore, at Reykjavík, in 874.

Which Norseman gave Iceland its name after climbing a mountain and seeing an ice-filled fjord?

Flóki Vilgerðarson, called Hrafna-Flóki, named the island Ísland after seeing a fjord full of drift ice; earlier Naddodd had called it Snæland and Garðar Svavarsson Garðarshólmur.

Iceland's parliament, the Althing, was founded in which year, making it one of the oldest in the world?

The Althing was founded in 930 at Þingvellir, where it met each summer and the Lawspeaker recited the laws from memory before they were written down.

In which year did Iceland's Althing last sit at its ancient Þingvellir site?

The Althing last sat at Þingvellir in 1798; the Danish crown abolished it two years later, and when it was revived decades afterwards it convened in Reykjavík instead.

In which year was the Republic of Iceland proclaimed?

The Republic of Iceland was proclaimed at Þingvellir on 17 June 1944 while Denmark was under German occupation; King Christian X nonetheless sent a message of congratulations.

Iceland's 'Cod Wars' of the 1950s-70s were fishing disputes with which country?

The Cod Wars set Iceland against the United Kingdom; Icelandic coast-guard ships towed net cutters that severed the trawl wires of British trawlers, and Iceland prevailed in each dispute.

The final Cod War of 1975-76 followed Iceland extending its fishing zone to how many nautical miles?

The limits crept out from 3 to 4 miles in 1952, then 12, then 50, then 200.

Which two leaders held a 1986 summit at Höfði House in Reykjavík that helped end the Cold War?

Reagan and Gorbachev met at Höfði House in October 1986; the talks broke down over SDI testing, yet the ground they covered led to the 1987 INF Treaty.

Reykjavík hosted the 1972 'Match of the Century' in which game?

Chess was the game: Bobby Fischer beat Boris Spassky 12½–8½ in Reykjavík in 1972, ending 24 years of Soviet hold on the world title.

In 1980, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir of Iceland became the world's first woman to do what?

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was the first woman anywhere to win a national presidential election, taking office on 1 August 1980 and serving four terms until 1996.

Iceland is the only NATO member with no what?

Iceland alone among NATO members keeps no standing army; its Coast Guard handles defence, and the US-run Iceland Defense Force left Keflavík in 2006.

Iceland straddles the boundary between which two tectonic plates?

Eurasian and North American plates pull apart beneath Iceland along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which widens by roughly 2 cm a year and surfaces above sea level at Þingvellir.

What does the Icelandic verb 'geysa', root of 'geyser', mean?

'To gush or rush forward' is the sense of geysa, the Old Norse verb behind the name of the Great Geysir in Haukadalur, from which English took 'geyser'.

Which volcano's 2010 eruption grounded air travel across northern and western Europe for a week?

Eyjafjallajökull erupted in April 2010; meltwater from its ice cap entering the vent made the eruption explosive, and the fine ash carried into the jet stream closed much of Europe's airspace for about a week.

The 1783 eruption of which volcano triggered a famine that killed a quarter of Icelanders?

Laki erupted along a 27-km fissure from June 1783 for eight months; its sulphurous haze hung over Europe, and over half of Iceland's livestock died in the 'Mist Hardships'.

Surtsey, an island that rose from the sea off Iceland's south coast in 1963, is named after what?

A Norse fire giant, Surtr, gives Surtsey its name; the island broke the surface in November 1963, and only scientists studying how life colonises new land may set foot on it.

What gives the Blue Lagoon spa's geothermal water its milky-blue colour?

Silica particles suspended in the water scatter light and give the Blue Lagoon its milky-blue colour; the man-made lagoon is fed by runoff from the Svartsengi geothermal power plant.

Roughly what proportion of Iceland's total primary energy comes from domestic renewables?

About 85% of Iceland's primary energy is domestic renewable, roughly two-thirds geothermal and a fifth hydro; the remainder is imported fossil fuel, mostly for transport and the fishing fleet.

Which is Europe's largest island, ahead of second-placed Iceland?

Great Britain, at about 209,000 km², is Europe's largest island; Iceland, at about 103,000 km², is second in Europe and 18th in the world.

The Arctic Circle does not cross mainland Iceland, but it does pass through which small Icelandic island?

Grímsey, about 40 km off the north coast, is the only inhabited part of Iceland crossed by the Arctic Circle; the mainland lies entirely south of it, its northern tip near 66°32′ N.

Which of these is TRUE of Icelandic surnames?

Most are patronymic, from the father's name: Jón's son is Jónsson and his daughter Jónsdóttir, so the phone book lists people by first name and even the president is addressed by first name.

A new given name in Iceland must be approved by which body?

The Icelandic Naming Committee (Mannanafnanefnd) vets names not already on the approved register; it refused the girl's name Blær as a masculine noun until a court overruled it in 2013.

Icelandic is the only living language whose alphabet keeps which runic letter?

The 'thorn' letter, pronounced like the 'th' in 'thing', appears in Þingvellir.

What is the closest living relative of the Icelandic language?

Faroese, spoken in the Faroe Islands, is Icelandic's closest living relative; both descend from Old West Norse, and written Faroese is largely readable to Icelanders though the spoken languages differ.

How many Yule Lads visit Icelandic children in the nights before Christmas, one per night?

The 13 Yule Lads arrive one per night from 12 December, the last coming on Christmas Eve, and each leaves a small gift in the shoe of a well-behaved child.

In Icelandic folklore, the Yule Cat eats people who have failed to do what before the holiday?

Those who fail to receive new clothes before Christmas are prey for the Jólakötturinn, the giant Yule Cat of the ogress Grýla; the threat spurred households to finish the autumn wool work before Yule.

The 'Jólabókaflóð', literally the book flood, refers to what Icelandic habit?

Buying most of the year's books before Christmas is the Jólabókaflóð: Icelandic publishers release the bulk of new titles in autumn, a catalogue (Bókatíðindi) goes to every home, and books are the classic Christmas Eve gift.

Which Icelander won the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature?

Halldór Laxness won the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature for novels such as Independent People and Iceland's Bell; Reykjavík was later named a UNESCO City of Literature in 2011.

Which of the medieval Icelanders' sagas tells of an epic blood feud and is the most famous of them all?

Grænlendinga saga and Eiríks saga describe the discovery of Greenland and Vinland.

Hákarl, Iceland's notorious fermented national dish, is made from which animal?

Greenland shark flesh is toxic when fresh, so for hákarl it is buried and fermented for weeks, then hung to dry for four to five months until it reeks of ammonia.

Iceland's signature spirit brennivín is a caraway-flavoured schnapps distilled from what?

Potatoes fermented into a mash are the base of brennivín, which is then flavoured with caraway; its potency and stark black label earned it the nickname 'Black Death'.

Skyr, eaten across Iceland, is technically what kind of food?

A soft cheese by classification, skyr is made by curdling skimmed milk with cultures and a little rennet and straining off the whey, though it is eaten like a thick yogurt.

Which sport, in which Iceland took Olympic silver in 2008, is often called its national sport?

Handball is often called Iceland's national sport; the men's team won Olympic silver at Beijing 2008, losing the final to France, and bronze at the 2010 European Championship.

Iceland's 'Viking Thunder Clap' at Euro 2016 originally came from which club's supporters?

Motherwell supporters' clap was picked up by fans of Stjarnan after a 2014 Europa League qualifier against the Scottish club, and Iceland's fans made it famous at Euro 2016.

How many World's Strongest Man titles did Icelanders win between 1984 and 2018?

Nine titles: Jón Páll Sigmarsson won four (1984-1990), Magnús Ver Magnússon four (1991-1996), and Hafþór 'The Mountain' Björnsson took the 2018 crown, the last Icelandic win of that span.

The Icelandic horse can perform which extra gait beyond walk, trot and canter?

The tölt is a smooth four-beat ambling gait, and many Icelandic horses also have a fifth, the flying pace; a horse that leaves the country may never return, to protect the herd from disease.

Björk first found international fame as lead singer of which Icelandic band?

The Sugarcubes' 1987 single 'Birthday' made Björk an international name; she had released a solo album at age 11 and later won Best Actress at Cannes for Dancer in the Dark.

Which Icelandic glacier is Europe's largest by volume?

Vatnajökull covers roughly 8,000 km², about 8% of Iceland, and holds more ice than any other European glacier; the country's highest peak, Hvannadalshnúkur, rises on its southern rim.

Iceland's first census, in 1703, counted roughly how many people?

The 1703 census, one of the earliest complete national censuses anywhere, recorded about 50,000 people (50,358); famine and volcanic disaster later pushed the population below 40,000 in the 1780s.

Who carried out the 1627 raids on Iceland remembered as the 'Turkish Abductions'?

Barbary pirates from Algiers and Salé raided the Westman Islands and the east coast in 1627, carrying about 400 Icelanders into slavery in North Africa; only a few dozen were ever ransomed home.

Iceland's 19th-century emigrants founded 'New Iceland' around Gimli in which Canadian province?

Manitoba's Interlake region became 'New Iceland' when settlers founded Gimli on Lake Winnipeg in 1875; some 15,000 Icelanders emigrated to North America between 1870 and 1914, from a population of about 70,000.

Iceland's Kvennalistinn, which held Althing seats from 1983 to 1999, was what kind of party?

A party formed and run entirely by women, the Women's List (Kvennalistinn) won three Althing seats in 1983 and sat until 1999, when it merged into the Social Democratic Alliance.

Iceland, one of the smallest nations ever at a FIFA World Cup, debuted at which tournament?

2018 Russia was Iceland's World Cup debut; the team, from a nation of about 350,000, drew 1-1 with Argentina in its opening match after reaching the Euro 2016 quarter-finals two years earlier.

Which Icelandic children's show created by Magnús Scheving was sold to over 100 countries?

LazyTown, starring Scheving himself as Sportacus, was shot at studios in Garðabær outside Reykjavík and sold to broadcasters in more than 100 countries after its 2004 launch.

In which year was Iceland's Althing re-established as an advisory assembly in Reykjavík?

The Althing was re-established in 1845 as a consultative assembly meeting in Reykjavík; it regained legislative power in 1874 and from 1881 has met in the stone-built Alþingishús.

Iceland was essentially free of which common insect until October 2025?

Mosquitoes were first recorded in Iceland in October 2025, when three Culiseta annulata were found near Reykjavík; until then Iceland, with only about 1,300 insect species, had been mosquito-free.