45 Facts About Iceland, and Why Each One Matters

Iceland has 396,500 people, no mosquitoes, no standing army and no McDonald’s, and its money is the króna rather than the euro. The 45 facts below are the ones that actually change how a trip here works, grouped by subject, and each one says what it means for you rather than stopping at the fact itself.

Iceland is a volcanic island in the North Atlantic, two-thirds of whose population lives within half an hour of the capital and most of whose surface nobody lives on at all. That combination explains almost everything else about the place.

The country and its people

1. Iceland‘s population is 396,500. Statistics Iceland put the figure at that level at the end of June 2026, so the whole country holds fewer people than a mid-sized European city. What that means in practice is that supply is small: hire cars, refuge beds and popular tours sell out in summer in a way they would not in a country with twenty times the population.

2. Nearly two-thirds of Icelanders live in the capital region. At the end of June 2026, 253,230 people lived in the Reykjavík metropolitan area and 143,270 in the whole of the rest of the country. Drive an hour out of Reykjavík and the density drops to almost nothing, which is why fuel stops and supermarkets need planning rather than assuming.

3. About 80% of Iceland is uninhabited. People live around the coastal ring; the interior highlands are empty, roadless outside the summer F-road season, and have no services at all.

4. Iceland is the only NATO member with no standing army. It has a Coast Guard, a police force and a NATO air-policing arrangement, and no soldiers of its own. It joined NATO in 1949 without one and has never raised one since.

5. Iceland elected the world’s first woman president by direct vote. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, a former director of the Reykjavík Theatre Company, won the presidency in 1980 and served sixteen years. She was the first democratically elected female head of state anywhere.

6. It also had the world’s first openly gay head of government. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir became Prime Minister in 2009 and was open about being a lesbian throughout. She led the government, not the state: Iceland has a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government, which trips up a lot of write-ups.

7. The president today is Halla Tómasdóttir, in office since August 2024 and the country’s second woman president. Older guides still name Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who left the post in 2016.

8. Reykjavík once elected a comedian as mayor. Jón Gnarr, a stand-up with no political background, founded the satirical Best Party and ran the city from 2010 to 2014, through the aftermath of Iceland’s banking collapse.

9. There is a national genealogy database and an app to search it. Íslendingabók records the ancestry of most Icelanders back for centuries, and the phone app lets two people check how closely they are related. The “anti-incest app” headlines it generated overstate the case; it is a genealogy tool that happens to answer that question.

10. Violent crime is close to nonexistent, and you will see the proof on the pavement. Parents leave babies asleep in prams outside cafés, shops and restaurants while they sit inside. It is normal, it is considered good for the child, and it is the single most disorienting thing a visitor sees in the first hour.

Fire, ice and land

11. “The Land of Fire and Ice” is a description, not a slogan. Iceland has roughly 130 volcanic mountains across about 30 active volcanic systems, and glaciers cover close to a tenth of its surface. The two interact: a volcano under an ice cap produces a jökulhlaup, a glacial outburst flood, which is why some bridges on the ring road are deliberately built to be cheap to replace.

12. Iceland is in an active volcanic period right now. The Reykjanes peninsula, southwest of Reykjavík and the peninsula the international airport sits on, has erupted repeatedly since 2021 after roughly eight centuries of quiet. Eruptions there have closed roads and the Blue Lagoon at short notice and forced the evacuation of the town of Grindavík. Flights have kept running, but check the Icelandic Met Office before you plan anything on that peninsula.

13. Vatnajökull is Europe’s largest ice cap by volume, and it is shrinking. It covered around 7,500 km² (2,900 sq mi) as of 2023, roughly 7% of Iceland, and it has lost close to 15% of its volume over the past century. Older guides give 8,100 km² and 8%; those figures are a generation out of date, which is itself the point.

14. Iceland’s highest point sits on the edge of that ice cap. Hvannadalshnjúkur reaches 2,110 m (6,922 ft) on the southern rim of Öræfajökull, at the southern end of Vatnajökull. It is a guided glacier climb rather than a walk, and a long day.

15. At Þingvellir you can walk between two continents. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge runs through the park, where the North American and Eurasian plates pull apart at roughly 2 cm (0.8 in) a year, and the rift walls are visible from the path. Þingvellir is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it is where the Alþingi was founded in 930, which makes it the oldest surviving parliament in the world.

16. Þingvallavatn is Iceland’s largest natural lake, and not its deepest. It covers 84 km² (32.4 sq mi) with a maximum depth of 114 m (374 ft). Several guides give 144 m and call it the deepest lake in the country; both are wrong. The Silfra fissure at its northern end is the famous snorkelling and diving site, in glacial meltwater filtered through lava with visibility over 100 m (328 ft).

17. The English word “geyser” comes from one specific Icelandic hot spring. Geysir means “gusher”, and the Great Geysir once threw water 60 to 80 m (197 to 262 ft) into the air. It is now largely dormant and rarely erupts. The one you will actually see is Strokkur, 50 m away, which goes off every few minutes to about 15 to 20 m (49 to 66 ft). Point your camera at Strokkur.

18. The northern lights are visible from about September to April. What they need is darkness and a clear sky, not cold, which is why they are invisible in summer no matter how strong the solar activity. Get away from Reykjavík’s light and check the Icelandic Met Office aurora forecast the same evening.

19. In June and July the sun barely sets. The midnight sun gives you around 24 hours of usable light at the summer solstice, which doubles the driving and walking you can do in a day and makes a sleep mask genuinely useful.

20. Iceland has no mosquitoes. It is one of very few inhabited places on earth that does not, and the reason is the weather rather than the cold: Iceland’s winter thaws and refreezes repeatedly, which breaks the mosquito life cycle. Midges around Mývatn are a different matter and a head net is worth carrying there.

21. Látrabjarg is the largest bird cliff in Europe. It runs 14 km (8.7 mi) along the westernmost point of the Westfjords, up to 440 m (1,444 ft) high, and holds millions of nesting seabirds including puffins, razorbills and guillemots in summer.

22. Húsavík is Iceland’s whale-watching town. Boats out of Skjálfandi bay see humpbacks and minke whales reliably through the summer, with blue whales and orcas as occasional rather than expected sightings. Do not book a whale trip expecting orcas.

23. Puffins nest in Iceland in summer only. They come ashore to breed from roughly April to August and spend the rest of the year at sea, so a September visit will not show you one. Our guide to where to see puffins in Iceland covers where to go.

24. There is an island in Iceland that did not exist in 1962. Surtsey rose out of the sea in an eruption that ran from 1963 to 1967, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site precisely because it is a blank slate: scientists watch how life arrives on new land. You cannot visit it. Access is restricted to researchers, so it is a fact to enjoy rather than a destination.

25. Most Icelandic homes are heated by the ground. Around nine in ten houses are warmed by geothermal water piped straight from the ground, with no boiler and no furnace. It is also why every small town has a heated outdoor swimming pool, and why the hot tap in your accommodation may smell faintly of sulphur.

26. The tap water is excellent and free. Cold tap water in Iceland comes from springs and needs no treatment, so buying bottled water here is money thrown away. Fill a bottle. The hot water is the geothermal supply, which is why it smells and why you use the cold tap for drinking.

Food and drink

27. Skyr is not yoghurt. It is a soft cheese made from pasteurised skimmed milk with a bacterial culture, strained until it is thick, and it has been made in Iceland for a thousand years. It tastes like yoghurt and is legally a cheese, which is why it is so high in protein and so low in fat.

28. The national fast food is a hot dog, and there is a correct way to order it. Pylsur are made mostly from lamb with some pork and beef. Ask for ein með öllu, “one with everything”, and you get ketchup, sweet brown mustard, raw onion, crisp fried onion and remoulade. Say it exactly like that and the queue moves.

29. Hákarl is fermented shark and it is not a joke food. Greenland shark flesh is toxic fresh, so it is cured and hung for months to break the toxins down. The smell is ammonia. Icelanders eat it in small cubes at midwinter feasts rather than daily.

30. Brennivín means “burning wine”. It is Iceland’s caraway-flavoured schnapps, the traditional chaser for hákarl, and its nickname is svarti dauði, “black death”, which comes from the old black label rather than from the plague or from the translation of its name. Those two facts get tangled together constantly.

31. Dried fish is the national snack. Harðfiskur is wind-dried haddock or cod, torn into strips and eaten with butter. It is sold in every supermarket, it keeps indefinitely, and it is the most practical thing to have in a car on a long driving day.

32. Beer was illegal in Iceland until 1989. Prohibition came in in 1915; wine and spirits were legalised decades earlier but beer stayed banned until 1 March 1989. That date is now Beer Day, and it is still celebrated.

33. There has been no McDonald’s in Iceland since October 2009. The chain pulled out during the financial crisis with under a week’s notice. A man named Hjörtur Smárason bought the final meal sold, and it still exists: after a year at the National Museum and several years at a Reykjavík hostel, the burger and fries are now on display at Snotra House in south Iceland, where a live stream of them has run on and off for years. They have barely decayed.

34. There is no Starbucks in Iceland either. Reykjavík has a strong independent coffee culture instead, and the coffee in an ordinary Icelandic petrol station is better than it has any right to be.

Language and names

35. Icelanders do not have family surnames. The second name is a patronymic, formed from a parent’s first name plus -son or -dóttir. The footballer Heiðar Helguson takes his from his mother, Helga. Siblings therefore share a second name only if they share the same parent it is built from, and a wife does not take her husband’s.

36. Because of that, the phone book is alphabetised by first name. So is everything else, and so is how people address each other: the president is called Halla, including formally, and a doctor or a minister is called by their first name too. There is no polite equivalent of “Mr” in everyday use.

37. The Icelandic alphabet has 14 vowels and no c, q, w or z. The vowels are a, á, e, é, i, í, o, ó, u, ú, y, ý, æ and ö, and the alphabet also keeps two letters English lost: þ (thorn, the th in “thing”) and ð (eth, the th in “the”). Knowing those two makes place names readable: Þingvellir is Thingvellir.

38. Icelandic builds new words rather than borrowing them. Appelsínusafi is orange juice, literally “orange sap”. A computer is tölva, from the words for number and prophetess. The language has changed so little that Icelanders can read medieval sagas without a translation.

Beliefs, customs and creatures

39. A large minority of Icelanders will not rule out the huldufólk. The “hidden people” are believed to live in rocks and live much as humans do, and this is not purely folklore in practice: road and construction projects have been rerouted or delayed after objections on behalf of elf habitat. Most Icelanders will neither confirm nor deny belief, which is its own kind of answer.

40. Iceland has thirteen Father Christmases, and they are troublemakers. The Yule Lads come down from the mountains one a night from 12 December, each leaving a small gift in a shoe on the windowsill, and then leave one a day after Christmas. They are named for what they steal or do: Stekkjarstaur (Sheep-Cote Clod), Giljagaur (Gully Gawk), Stúfur (Stubby), Þvörusleikir (Spoon-Licker), Pottasleikir (Pot-Scraper), Askasleikir (Bowl-Licker), Hurðaskellir (Door-Slammer), Skyrgámur (Skyr-Gobbler), Bjúgnakrækir (Sausage-Swiper), Gluggagægir (Window-Peeper), Gáttaþefur (Doorway-Sniffer), Ketkrókur (Meat-Hook) and Kertasníkir (Candle-Beggar).

41. The national team sport is handball, not football. It is played indoors, seven a side, with hands, and Iceland has been a serious international side at it for decades in a way that a country of under 400,000 people has no business being.

42. Icelandic horses have five gaits, and they can never come home. On top of walk, trot and canter they have the tölt, a smooth four-beat running walk, and the skeið or flying pace. The other rule is the important one for visitors: once an Icelandic horse leaves the country it may never return, and no horse from anywhere else may be imported, to keep the isolated population free of disease. Used riding equipment from abroad is also restricted, so do not bring your own boots.

43. You must shower naked before getting into any Icelandic pool. This is not a suggestion. Public pools and lagoons are lightly chlorinated because the water is geothermal, so the hygiene rules are strict, there are diagrams on the wall, and in many changing rooms the showers have no doors or curtains. Men and women have separate changing rooms. Do it without fuss and nobody looks twice.

Money and practicalities

44. Iceland uses the króna, not the euro. The currency is the Icelandic króna, written ISK or kr, and the euro is not accepted. In September 2026 the European Central Bank’s reference rate put €1 at about 140 ISK, which makes 1,000 ISK roughly €7, $8 or £6. Iceland is genuinely expensive, so knowing that conversion in your head is worth more than any other fact on this page.

45. You will barely touch cash. Cards are accepted everywhere including on buses, at car parks, in swimming pools and at rural petrol pumps, for amounts of a few hundred krónur. Bring a card with a PIN for unattended fuel pumps, and you can get through a two-week trip without visiting an ATM.

Planning a trip on the back of these facts

Four of the facts above should change what you book. Small population means hire cars and tours sell out, so compare car hire rates and book a vehicle as soon as your dates are fixed rather than on arrival. Two-thirds of the country in one city means you sleep in Reykjavík or you plan your fuel and food stops; compare rooms when you look for somewhere to stay in Iceland.

Iceland is in the EEA but not the EU, which matters less than people expect: EU roaming rules cover Iceland, so an EU or EEA SIM works here at domestic rates within your fair-use limit. Travelling from outside Europe is the expensive case, and so is running past that limit on maps and weather. Check out Airalo for an Icelandic data plan and use the code HARRY5578 for €3 off a first eSIM. And flights are the single biggest cost of the trip, so compare fares across airlines before fixing your dates.

More on the country in our Iceland guide, and on what to eat in our guide to typical Icelandic food.

Frequently asked questions

What is Iceland best known for?

Volcanoes, glaciers, the northern lights and geothermal water, all of which exist because Iceland sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where two tectonic plates are pulling apart. Everything else on this list, from the hot tap that smells of sulphur to the outdoor pool in every village, follows from that one geological fact.

How many people live in Iceland?

396,500, as of the end of June 2026, of whom 253,230 live in the Reykjavík capital region and 143,270 in the rest of the country.

What currency does Iceland use?

The Icelandic króna (ISK). Iceland is not in the eurozone and euros are not accepted. In September 2026 €1 bought about 140 ISK.

Is Iceland expensive?

Yes, and food and alcohol are where you notice it most. Tap water is free and excellent, harðfiskur and skyr from a supermarket cost a fraction of a café, and the hot dog stand is the cheapest hot meal in the country.

Are there really no mosquitoes in Iceland?

There are none. Iceland’s repeated winter thaws break the mosquito breeding cycle. Midges near Lake Mývatn are a separate problem in summer, and a head net is worth packing for that one lake.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

Four of these facts are worth acting on before you go.

1. Point your camera at Strokkur, not Geysir. The Great Geysir that gave the world the word is largely dormant. Strokkur, 50 m away in the same field, erupts every few minutes.
2. Do not build a September trip around puffins. They come ashore to breed roughly April to August and are at sea the rest of the year, so a late-season visit finds empty cliffs.
3. Bring a card with a PIN for the fuel pumps. Rural Icelandic petrol stations are unattended and PIN-only, and this is the one place where a signature-only card strands you.
4. Check the Icelandic Met Office before anything on the Reykjanes peninsula. The peninsula has been erupting on and off since 2021, and closures of roads and the Blue Lagoon have come at very short notice.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the Iceland coverage on this site draws on trips made by her father, the photographer Hans Couwenbergh, who wrote our guides to seeing puffins in Iceland and to driving there. This post was originally produced in partnership with Guide to Iceland; the content and the research behind it are ours. The team covers Iceland for independent travellers, including the tours, car hire and accommodation worth booking, and updates this page when the figures change.