Iceland

EuropeCapital city: ReykjavikCapital metro: ReykjavíkPresident: Halla TómasdóttirPrime Minister: Kristrún Mjöll Frostadóttir
2026 population
395K
Rank #184 globally
Area
103k km² (40k sq mi)
Metros tracked
7
77% of population in metros
Composite score
6.5
Rank #119 globally

population: National quarterly estimate (1 Apr 2026) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 7 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography7 metros

Iceland metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
7 polygons

Hover for rank, click to open the metro page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 7 tracked metros
7 metros
🗂️ Regions

8 entries listed under Iceland. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

8 total
📋 At a glance
Official language
Icelandic
Government
Parliamentary republic
Legislature
Althing
Time zone
UTC±00:00
Driving side
Right
Calling code
+354
Internet TLD
.is
ISO 3166
IS
Established
1944
Highest point
Hvannadalshnúkur (2,110 m (6,923 ft))
National anthem
Lofsöngur

Facts via Wikidata.

📰 In the news1 story
Every story in the latest digest →
💹 Economy and developmentHigh income
Human Dev. Index
#1 / 191
0.972
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#104 / 193
$38.6B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#7 / 193
$98.3k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#11 / 190
$83.4k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#5 / 192
$89.2k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#21 / 194
82.8 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
35.8 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#11 / 194
94%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
1.5%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#190 / 193
4/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#21 / 193
25.1%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#11 / 175
0.98
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#13 / 166
26.8
World Bank · 2019
Internet users
#10 / 193
98%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#128 / 185
4.1%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#173 / 192
9.7 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#6 / 186
100%
Ember · 2024

Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.

Alliances & Organisations5 full memberships

Security

Political & Economic

Subregional

Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer

🏛️ Leadership History13 leaders · click to expand

marks a leader associated with atrocities or defiance of law, systemic subversion of democratic institutions, or a criminal conviction. Convictions arising from political persecution, and annulled convictions, are excluded. denotes a monarch. These are editorial designations, applied per entry rather than derived automatically.

Other

Kristrún Mjöll Frostadóttir✦ Current

2024Present

Prime Minister

Tenure: 1y 6m 12d

Halla Tómasdóttir✦ Current

2024Present

President

Tenure: 1y 11m 2d

Bjarni Benediktsson

20242024

Prime Minister

Tenure: 8m 12d

Katrín Jakobsdóttir

20172024

Prime Minister

Tenure: 6y 4m 10d

Bjarni Benediktsson

20172017

Prime Minister

Tenure: 10m 19d

Guðni Jóhannesson

20162024

President

Tenure: 7y 11m 30d

Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson

20132017

Prime Minister

Tenure: 3y 8m 10d

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson

19962016

President

Tenure: 19y 11m 30d

Iceland

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir

19801996

President

Tenure: 16y 0d

Kristján Eldjárn

19681980

President

Tenure: 12y 0d

Ásgeir Ásgeirsson

19521968

President

Tenure: 16y 0d

Sveinn Björnsson

19441952

President

Tenure: 7y 7m 8d

Kingdom of Iceland

👑 Christian X

19181944

King

Tenure: 25y 6m 16d
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#113 · 0.1%
3%5%8%10%19502000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Iceland · share of world power, 1944–2026

The powerline is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
388k
#179 in the world
Since 1800
6.31×
from 61k
Peak
2023
at its largest now
Share of world
0.01%
0.01% in 1800
101k201k302k402k18001850190019502000
Iceland · people, 1800–2023 · dashed to 2026 is projected

Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Note that people and share of world can move in opposite directions. A country can grow steadily and still become a smaller part of humanity, which is what happened to almost every rich country after 1960.

👥 To 2100

The UN’s probabilistic projection for Iceland: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.

Peak on the median
2049
433k on the UN median
2050
433k
95% band 334k to 567k
2100
363k
95% band 144k to 757k
2100 against 2025
0.91×
median falling from 2050
Deaths outnumber births
from 2045
on the UN medium path; migration decides the rest
199k397k596k795k1950197520002025205020752100

Tap or drag across the chart to read any year: the estimate to 2023, then the UN median, its bands and the scenarios.

estimateUN median80% and 95% bandshigh and low fertilityzero migration

What drives it

Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.

1950
4k born · 1k died · +277 net migration
TFR 3.85 · life expectancy 71.0 · median age 25.5
1960
5k born · 1k died · -269 net migration
TFR 4.26 · life expectancy 74.0 · median age 24.4
1970
4k born · 1k died · -2k net migration
TFR 2.82 · life expectancy 73.8 · median age 23.4
1980
5k born · 2k died · -629 net migration
TFR 2.48 · life expectancy 76.6 · median age 25.9
1990
5k born · 2k died · -971 net migration
TFR 2.30 · life expectancy 77.7 · median age 29.0
2000
4k born · 2k died · +2k net migration
TFR 2.07 · life expectancy 79.5 · median age 31.9
2010
5k born · 2k died · -2k net migration
TFR 2.19 · life expectancy 81.6 · median age 33.9
2020
4k born · 2k died · +2k net migration
TFR 1.72 · life expectancy 82.7 · median age 35.6
Show all 16 decades
2030
4k born · 3k died · +1k net migration
TFR 1.48 · life expectancy 83.9 · median age 38.1
2040
4k born · 4k died · +448 net migration
TFR 1.49 · life expectancy 85.1 · median age 42.1
2050
4k born · 4k died · +322 net migration
TFR 1.51 · life expectancy 86.3 · median age 44.9
2060
3k born · 4k died · +165 net migration
TFR 1.51 · life expectancy 87.5 · median age 47.4
2070
3k born · 5k died · +330 net migration
TFR 1.52 · life expectancy 88.6 · median age 49.1
2080
3k born · 5k died · +209 net migration
TFR 1.53 · life expectancy 89.7 · median age 50.6
2090
3k born · 5k died · +285 net migration
TFR 1.55 · life expectancy 90.9 · median age 51.0
2100
3k born · 5k died · +224 net migration
TFR 1.56 · life expectancy 92.0 · median age 51.5

Every country to 2100 →

Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.

💰 Billionaires1 · $1.0B combined · click to expand
DiversifiedInvestments

Source: Forbes real-time billionaires (via the rtb-api project). Net worth as of the latest monthly snapshot.

🏆 National Teams

Iceland on the international stage. Click a card for the full record.