Demographics of Iceland

The demographics of Iceland include population density, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
As of 2025, the Icelandic population is 393,160. In 2024, 69,691 residents were immigrants.
About 99% of the nation's inhabitants live in localities with populations greater than 200, and 64% live in the Capital Region.

History

The population of Iceland probably wavered between about 30,000 and 80,000 for most of the time since settlement. Official statistics begin in 1703, since when the population has grown from 50,358 to 389,000.

Migration

Settlement

Most Icelandic people are descendants of Norwegian settlers, and of Gaels from Ireland and Scotland who were brought over as slaves during the settlement of Iceland in the ninth century AD. Recent DNA analysis suggests that about 66 percent of the male settler-era population was of Norse ancestry and that the female population was 60 percent Celtic. Iceland remained extremely homogenous from its settlement era until the twentieth century.

Emigration

Large numbers of Icelanders began to emigrate from Iceland in the 1850s. It has been estimated that 17,000 Icelanders migrated to North America in the period 1870–1914, and that 2,000 of them moved back to Iceland; this net loss, 15,000, was about 20% of the Icelandic population in 1887. According to historian Gunnar Karlsson, "migration from Iceland is unique in that most went to Canada, whereas from most or all other European countries the majority went to the United States. This was partly due to the late beginning of emigration from Iceland after the Canadian authorities had begun to promote emigration in cooperation with the Allan Line, which already had an agent in Iceland in 1873. Contrary to most European countries, this promotion campaign was successful in Iceland, because emigration was only just about to start from there and Icelandic emigrants had no relatives in the United States to help them take the first steps".
In the wake of the 2008 Icelandic financial crisis, many Icelanders went to work abroad.

Immigration

Before the 1990s, there was little immigration to Iceland, and most of it was from other Scandinavian countries: about 1% of Icelanders in 1900 were of Danish heritage. In the mid-1990s, 95% of Icelanders had parents of Icelandic origin, and 2% of Icelanders were first-generation immigrants.
Immigration to Iceland rose rapidly in the late twentieth century, encouraged by Iceland's accession to the European Economic Area in 1994, its entry into the Schengen Agreement in 2001, and the country's economic boom in the early twenty-first century. The largest ethnic minority is Poles, who are about a third of the immigrant population. In 2017, 10.6% of the people were first-generation immigrants.
Iceland is also developing relatively small populations of religious minorities, including Catholics, Baháʼís, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, and Eastern Orthodox.
Research on the experience of immigrants to Iceland is in its early days. There is some evidence that racism is not as acute in Iceland as in neighbouring countries. But, while it is popularly believed in Iceland that racism does not exist there, there is evidence that in some respects immigrant populations experience prejudice and inequalities. For example, Iceland has a higher dropout rate from upper secondary school among young immigrants than the EEA average.
Iceland does not formally collect data on the ethnicity or racial identification of its citizens, but does collect data of the origin and background group by birth.

Migration data

Year	Total Immigration	Total Emigration	Total Net Immigration	Icelandic Citizens Immigration	Icelandic Citizens Emigration	Icelandic Net Immigration	Foreign Citizens Immigration	Foreign Citizens Emigration	Foreign Citizens Net Immigration
1961	1,618	1,689	-71	1,438	1,568	-130	180	121	59
1962	1,728	1,730	-2	1,521	1,557	-36	207	173	34
1963	1,524	1,600	-76	1,308	1,422	-114	216	178	38
1964	1,753	1,673	80	1,459	1,480	-21	294	193	101
1965	1,812	1,781	31	1,488	1,536	-48	324	245	79
1966	1,832	1,727	105	1,469	1,459	10	363	268	95
1967	2,146	1,992	154	1,633	1,582	51	513	410	103
1968	2,358	2,216	142	1,647	1,696	-49	711	520	191
1969	2,198	2,077	121	1,401	1,476	-75	797	601	196
1970	2,326	2,169	157	1,350	1,418	-68	976	751	225
1971	2,136	2,010	126	1,184	1,303	-119	952	707	245
1972	2,213	1,907	306	1,087	1,150	-63	1,126	757	369
1973	2,705	2,087	618	1,163	1,141	22	1,542	946	596
1974	2,802	2,007	795	1,144	1,031	113	1,658	976	682
1975	2,630	1,890	740	1,114	979	135	1,516	911	605
1976	2,736	2,028	708	1,171	1,076	95	1,565	952	613
1977	2,688	1,971	717	1,041	963	78	1,647	1,008	639
1978	2,592	2,080	512	1,022	1,013	9	1,570	1,067	503
1979	2,402	2,146	256	1,005	1,012	-7	1,397	1,134	263
1980	2,437	2,368	69	1,030	1,113	-83	1,407	1,255	152
1981	2,195	2,262	-67	926	1,001	-75	1,269	1,261	8
1982	2,203	2,144	59	976	969	7	1,227	1,175	52
1983	2,073	2,066	7	954	974	-20	1,119	1,092	27
1984	2,239	2,124	115	955	939	16	1,284	1,185	99
1985	2,242	2,243	-1	942	972	-30	1,300	1,271	29
1986	2,401	2,362	39	999	1,039	-40	1,402	1,323	79
1987	2,425	2,484	-59	980	1,050	-70	1,445	1,434	11
1988	2,736	2,753	-17	1,105	1,131	-26	1,631	1,622	9
1989	3,066	2,777	289	1,278	1,182	96	1,788	1,595	193
1990	3,498	2,908	590	1,415	1,229	186	2,083	1,679	404
1991	3,052	2,566	486	1,305	1,087	218	1,747	1,479	268
1992	2,769	2,452	317	1,124	1,011	113	1,645	1,441	204
1993	3,001	2,644	357	1,279	1,137	142	1,722	1,507	215
1994	3,029	2,651	378	1,225	1,126	99	1,804	1,525	279
1995	3,154	2,623	531	1,169	1,040	129	1,985	1,583	402
1996	3,865	3,062	803	1,429	1,137	292	2,436	1,925	511
1997	4,597	3,404	1,193	1,770	1,374	396	2,827	2,030	797
1998	4,412	3,498	914	1,566	1,351	215	2,846	2,147	699
1999	4,266	3,445	821	1,476	1,245	231	2,790	2,200	590
2000	4,089	3,433	656	1,574	1,329	245	2,515	2,104	411
2001	5,002	4,034	968	2,487	2,959	-472	2,515	1,075	1,440
2002	4,215	4,490	-275	2,360	3,380	-1,020	1,855	1,110	745
2003	3,704	3,837	-133	2,351	2,964	-613	1,353	873	480
2004	5,348	4,820	528	2,838	3,276	-438	2,510	1,544	966
2005	7,773	3,913	3,860	3,093	2,975	118	4,680	938	3,742
2006	9,832	4,577	5,255	2,762	3,042	-280	7,070	1,535	5,535
2007	12,546	7,414	5,132	3,228	3,395	-167	9,318	4,019	5,299
2008	10,288	9,144	1,144	2,817	3,294	-477	7,471	5,850	1,621
2009	5,777	10,612	-4,835	2,385	4,851	-2,466	3,392	5,761	-2,369
2010	5,625	7,759	-2,134	2,637	4,340	-1,703	2,988	3,419	-431
2011	9,457	10,571	-1,114	6,163	7,521	-1,358	3,294	3,050	244
2012	9,869	9,781	88	6,536	7,380	-844	3,333	2,401	932
2013	11,166	9,402	1,764	6,778	6,746	32	4,388	2,656	1,732
2014	10,939	9,892	1,047	6,113	6,912	-799	4,826	2,980	1,846
2015	11,629	10,526	1,103	6,077	7,194	-1,117	5,552	3,332	2,220
2016	15,368	10,574	4,794	6,765	6,543	222	8,603	4,031	4,572
2017	19,045	11,140	7,905	6,556	5,977	579	12,489	5,163	7,326
2018	18,538	13,207	5,331	6,062	6,127	-65	12,476	7,080	5,396
2019	16,529	14,065	2,464	5,800	6,146	-346	10,729	7,919	2,810
2020	15,249	13,170	2,079	6,301	5,389	912	8,948	7,781	1,167
2021	15,416	11,288	4,128	5,426	4,679	747	9,990	6,609	3,381
2022	22,209	13,549	8,660	5,220	5,746	-526	16,989	7,803	9,186
2023	21,560	14,771	6,789	4,939	5,154	-215	16,621	9,617	7,004
2024	19,789	15,745	4,044	4,993	5,132	-139	14,796	10,613	4,183

Due to a shortage of labor, immigration to Iceland will most likely increase in the future. As of 2024, immigrants made up over 18% of Iceland's total population.