Countries of the World (Europe) - Iceland
Ninth European country in my geography series.
Section I - Basic Info on Iceland
Official Name: Iceland
Population: 367,086 (173rd largest in the world, 38th largest in Europe)
Area/Size: 39,769 square miles (a little smaller than Kentucky)
Capital: Reykjavik (216,000 - sister city of Seattle, WA and Winnipeg, Canada)
Spoken Languages: Icelandic (official), English, German, Polish
Religions: Evangelical Lutheran (75%), other Christian (12%), agnostic (8%)
Life Expectancy: 84.2 years Internet Access Rate: 99.8%
Per Capita Income: $78,259 Unemployment: 3.1%
What do they Export?: Aluminum, fishing, orthopedic appliances, vaccines
Export Partners: Netherlands (27%), Germany (11%), U.S. (10%), U.K. (8%)
Import Partners: Norway (11%), Germany (9%), China (9%), Netherlands (8%)
Government Type: Unitary parliamentary republic (regular elections - last one in Dec 2024 - open and free)
Section II - Images of Iceland
6 Key Dates/Periods in Icelandic History
Iceland has a relatively long history (though shorter than most of Europe) but at the same time has only been an independent country for less than 100 years. So this will mostly be an overview of historical periods like the Vikings and Danish colonization, with a quick look at Iceland as an independent country since World War II.
700 - 1100 AD - According to Icelandic sagas, monks known as the Papar lived in Iceland before Scandinavian settlers arrived, possibly members of a Hiberno-Scottish mission. An archaeological excavation has revealed the ruins of a cabin in Hafnir on the Reykjanes peninsula, dating to sometime between 770 and 880. Swedish Viking explorer Garðar Svavarsson was the first to circumnavigate Iceland in 870 and establish that it was an island. Garðar departed the following summer, but one of his men, Náttfari, decided to stay behind with two slaves becoming the first documented permanent residents of Iceland. The Norwegian-Norse chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson built his homestead in present-day Reykjavík in 874. He was followed by many other emigrant settlers, many of whom were Irish or Scottish. The island's present name originated from Flóki Vilgerðarson, the first Norseman to intentionally travel to Iceland. According to the Sagas of Icelanders, Flóki coined the name after he climbed a mountain, despondent after a harsh winter in present-day Vatnsfjörður, and saw an ice cap. The notion that Iceland's settlers chose that name to discourage competing settlements is most likely a myth. By 930, most arable land on the island had been claimed; at this time, about 25% of Iceland was covered with forest, compared to 1% in the present day. The Althing, a legislative and judicial assembly was initiated to regulate the Icelandic Commonwealth, and the lack of arable land also served as an impetus to the settlement of Greenland starting in 986. Christianity was adopted by consensus around 999–1000, although Norse paganism persisted among segments of the population for some years afterward.
1100 - 1500 - The Icelandic Commonwealth faced internal strife during the Age of the Sturlungs (c. 1220–1264). This period was marked by violent conflicts among chieftains, notably the Sturlung family, leading to the weakening of the Commonwealth's political structure. The culmination of the struggles resulted in the signing of the Old Covenant in 1262–1264, bringing Iceland under Norwegian rule. Environmental challenges further impacted medieval Icelandic society, as extensive deforestation occurred as forests were cleared for timber, firewood, and to create grazing land for livestock. This led to significant soil erosion and a decline in arable land, exacerbating the difficulties of sustaining agriculture in Iceland's harsh climate. While early settlers cultivated barley, the Little Ice Age (starting around 1300) brought colder and more unpredictable weather, further shortening growing seasons and making farming more challenging. In 1380, after the death of Haakon VI, his son Olaf II of Denmark succeeded to the Norwegian throne, uniting the crowns of Denmark and Norway under one monarch. In 1397, the Kalmar Union brought Denmark, Norway, and Sweden under a single monarch. The Black Death reached Iceland in 1402–1404 and again in 1494–1495, and is estimated to have killed 50–60% of the population. These pandemics significantly reduced the population, leading to social and economic disruptions.
1500 - 1900 - Around the middle of the 16th century, as part of the Protestant Reformation, King Christian III of Denmark began to impose Lutheranism on all his subjects. Jón Arason, the last Icelandic Catholic bishop, and two of his sons were beheaded in 1550. Iceland then became officially Lutheran, and Lutheranism has since remained the dominant religion. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Denmark imposed harsh trade restrictions on Iceland, while natural disasters like volcanic eruptions and disease contributed to a decreasing population. In the summer of 1627, Barbary Pirates committed the events known locally as the Turkish Abductions, in which hundreds of residents were taken into slavery in North Africa and dozens killed; this was the only invasion in Icelandic history to have casualties. In 1783 the Laki volcano erupted; in the years following the eruption, known as the Mist Hardships, over half of all livestock in the country died and around a quarter of the population starved to death in the ensuing famine. After the Napoleonic Wars in 1814, Denmark-Norway broke up into two separate kingdoms via the Treaty of Kiel, but Iceland remained a Danish dependency. Throughout the 19th century, the country's climate continued to grow colder, resulting in mass emigration to the New World, particularly to the region of Gimli, Manitoba in Canada. An Icelandic independence movement took shape in the 1850s, including the writing of today's Icelandic national anthem. This eventually led Denmark in 1874 to grant Iceland a constitution and limited home rule.
1900 - 1945 - The Danish–Icelandic Act of Union, an agreement with Denmark signed in Dec 1918 and valid for 25 years, recognized Iceland as a fully sovereign and independent state in a personal union with Denmark. The Government of Iceland established an embassy in Copenhagen and requested that Denmark carry out on its behalf certain defense and foreign affairs matters, subject to consultation with the Althing. During World War II, Iceland joined Denmark in asserting neutrality. After the German occupation of Denmark in Apr 1940, the Althing replaced the King with a regent and declared that the Icelandic government would take control of its own defense and foreign affairs. A month later, British armed forces invaded and occupied Iceland - a year later the occupation government invited the then-neutral United States to take over its defense so that Britain could use its troops elsewhere. In Dec 1943 the Danish–Icelandic Act of Union expired after 25 years. During May 1944, Icelanders voted in a four-day plebiscite on whether to terminate the personal union with Denmark, abolish the monarchy, and establish a republic. The vote was 97% to end the union, and 95% in favor of the new republican constitution. Iceland formally became a republic on June 17, 1944 with Sveinn Björnsson as its first president.
1945 - 2000 - Iceland prospered economically during the Second World War with the infusion of resources from the Allied side and increase shipping. The immediate post-war period was followed by substantial economic growth, driven by the industrialization of the fishing industry and the U.S. Marshall Plan program, through which Icelanders received the most aid per capita of any European country. The nation formally became a member of NATO in 1949, and in 1951 a defense agreement was signed with the United States, returning American troops to Iceland as the Iceland Defense Force (where they stayed until 2006). The 1970s were marked by the Cod Wars, which were several disputes with the United Kingdom over Iceland's extension of its fishing limits to 200 nautical miles offshore. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir assumed Iceland's presidency in 1980, making her the first elected female head of state in the world. Iceland hosted a summit in Reykjavík in 1986 between United States President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, during which they took significant steps towards nuclear disarmament. Throughout the 1990s, the country expanded its international role and developed a foreign policy oriented towards humanitarian and peacekeeping causes. They also joined the European Economic Area in 1994, after which the economy was greatly diversified and liberalized.
2000 - present - After 2001, Iceland's newly deregulated banks began to raise great amounts of external debt, contributing to a 32 percent increase in Iceland's gross national income between 2002 and 2007. However, the switch to an economy based on international investment banking and financial services ran up against the 2008-09 world financial crisis. Iceland was hit especially hard because of the failure of the country's three largest banks, Glitnir, Landsbanki, and Kaupthing. The government took over the banks and in Oct 2008 raised interest rates to 18% as part of the terms of acquiring a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). After the rate hike, the other Nordic countries agreed to lend Iceland $2.5 billion and the coalition government collapsed due to public dissent over the handling of the financial crisis. A new left-wing government was formed a week later and removed the Central Bank governor in the wake of protests outside the Central Bank. Iceland's economy eventually stabilized under the government of Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir in the early 2010s, and in the following years Iceland benefited from a surge in tourism as the country has become a popular holiday destination. Over the past decade, a series of coalition governments has brought together a variety of political party combinations for short periods of time, based on early elections and a variety of scandals. Most recently, in Nov 2024 the centre-left Social Democratic Alliance became the biggest party in a snap election, meaning Social Democratic Kristrun Frostadottir became the newest Prime Minister of Iceland.
Other Non-Political Issues
Section III - Issues of Iceland
General Information on Iceland:
“Economy - Iceland", The World Bank, Jan 2026, https://data360.worldbank.org/en/economy/ISL
“Iceland", One World Nations Online, Jan 2025, https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/iceland.htm
“Iceland", Wikipedia, Jun 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland or https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland
"Iceland", National Geographic Kids, Dec 2025, https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/geography/countries/article/iceland
"Visit Iceland" (national tourism site), Business Iceland, 2026, https://www.visiticeland.com/
History Links on Iceland:
"50 years ago, the women of Iceland took a day off—and inspired the world", National Geographic, Oct 2025, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/icelandic-womens-strike
"June 8: The eruption that shook the world" (podcast) - An interesting U.S. connection to the 1783 Laki volcano eruption (mentioned above), Dakota Datebook Podcast (from Prairie Public Newsroom), Jun 2026, https://news.prairiepublic.org/podcast/dakota-datebook/2026-06-08/june-8-the-eruption-that-shook-the-world
"Lessons from the Icelandic Financial Crisis", Center for Financial Stability, 2017, https://centerforfinancialstability.org/iceland/benediktsdottir_paper.pdf
"The Reykjavik Summit", The Reagan Vision for a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World, 2026, https://www.thereaganvision.org/the-reykjavik-summit-the-story/
“Þingvellir National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site)", UNESCO, 2026, https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1152
"Thingvellir – Northern Europe’s First Parliament" (blog article), Library of Congress, May 2016, https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2016/05/thingvellir-northern-europes-first-parliament/
Current Events Stories on Iceland:
"As glaciers melt, scientists study potential for more violent volcanic eruptions" (video w/story), PBS NewsHour, Aug 2025, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/as-glaciers-melt-scientists-study-potential-for-more-violent-volcanic-eruptions
"Iceland could become EU member in 2028, minister says", Reuters, Mar 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/iceland-could-become-eu-member-2028-minister-says-2026-03-18/
"Icelandic volcano erupts again, prompting evacuations at nearby town and Blue Lagoon (The volcano in southwestern Iceland was previously dormant for 800 years)", ABC News, Jul 2025, https://abcnews.com/US/icelandic-volcano-erupts-prompting-evacuations-nearby-town-blue/story?id=123799133
"Iceland, Rattled by Trump, Weighs Joining the E.U.", New York Times, May 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/world/europe/iceland-eu-membership-trump.html AND https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/insider/iceland-eu.html
"Social Democrats win Iceland’s snap elections as incumbents punished", Al-Jazeera, Dec 2024, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/1/social-democrats-win-icelands-snap-election-as-incumbents-punished
Other Interesting Links Related To Iceland:
"Discover Iceland: My 13 Favorite Places You Shouldn't Miss (A Travel Guide For First-Timers)", BucketListly Blog, updated Mar 2026, https://www.bucketlistly.blog/posts/best-places-to-visit-in-iceland
"Famous Black Sand Beach in Iceland Disappears Almost Completely in Weeks", People Magazine, Feb 2026, https://people.com/famous-black-sand-beach-in-iceland-disappears-amid-weeks-of-severe-storms-11905786
"Food in Iceland: The Ultimate Guide to Icelandic Food Culture", Guide to Iceland, updated Jun 2026, https://guidetoiceland.is/history-culture/food-in-iceland
"Iceland Explained in 16 Minutes | History, Geography, Culture" (video), Opentiera, Jan 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrFs0KhAqRY
"Iceland’s Chief ‘Lava Cooler’ Is Bracing for the Next Eruption", New York Times, Mar 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/world/europe/iceland-lava-volcano-eruption-grindavik.html
"Whales, myths, and Arctic lakes: Explore Iceland’s new road trip", National Geographic, Jan 2021, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/epic-new-road-trip-on-the-arctic-coast-way
Section IV - Resources About Iceland
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