Iceland Country Info - Europe

Description and Basic Information

Iceland with its capital Reykjavik is located in Europe (Northern Europe, island between the Greenland Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean). It covers some 103,001 square kilometres (slightly smaller than Kentucky) with 304,000 citizens. Icelandic, English, German, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are the languages commonly used by the people in Iceland (consider regional differences).

Iceland is a mountainous island nation in the north Atlantic Ocean, located between Europe and North America. Despite its name, Iceland has surprisingly mild winters for a country at that latitude owing to the warming effect of the Atlantic Gulf Stream, especially when put into comparison with the Russian one. Iceland enjoys a maritime temperate climate and the winters are often compared with those of New England (though the winds in winter can be bitter).

Pictures from Capital (Reykjavik)

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About Iceland

The landscape features mostly plateau interspersed with mountain peaks, icefields and coast deeply indented by bays and fiords. The average density of population is about 2 per km². The climate in Iceland can be described as temperate with moderated by North Atlantic Current, mild, windy winters, damp, cool summers. Potential threats by nature are earthquakes and volcanic activity.

To reach someone in Iceland dial +354 prior to a number. There are 185,200 installed telephones. And there are 349,000 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 900, 1800 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".is". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 220V - 50Hz. The following list are the 8 regions/states in Iceland we know off.

Demographic Statistics

In the year 2010, the total Icelandic population grew at a rate of 0.7% (or by 2,162 citizens). With 2,131 deaths and 4,127 babies born, the natural increase rate lies at 0.65%. 167 persons more in total immigrated to the country than emmigrated.

An overview of age distribution in Iceland: Each pair of bars represents a single age group (male/female). Each group is spanning 5 years. E.g. 0 to 5 years, 5 to 10 etc. and group "0 to 5" being at the left end and "100 +" at the right end of the chart.

Based on content from wikitravel.org. The original article can be found here based on the work of these users.
Geographic information is based on the data provided by geonames.org, CIA factsbook and Unesco.