Language

Official language
Icelandic 93%

Other languages
Polish 2.71%, Lithuanian 0.43%, English 0.32%, German 0.31%, Danish 0.31%

T-index
0.025%

T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.

Demography

Capital: Reykjavik
Currency: Icelandic króna
Population: 372,52 thousands
Population density: 4/km2

Economy

GDP: 25.6 billion USD (2021)
GDP per capita: 68,727.6 USD ‎(2021) ‎
Exports: $5.18 billion (2020)

Statistics

Internet users: 99% penetration, 340.9 thousand
Unemployment rate: 6% (2021)
Urbanisation: 93.86% (2018)
Literacy: 99% (2020)

Conventions

Numbering system
Arabic numerals with comma as decimal separator

Date format: dd-mm-yyyy
Time: 24h time system
Country code:  00354

Economy

Imports
$5.71 billion (2020).  Aluminium Oxide ($455M), Refined Petroleum ($304M), Carbon-based Electronics ($283M), Cars ($272M), and Packaged Medicaments ($187M), importing mostly from Netherlands ($621M), Denmark ($565M), Norway ($490M), Germany ($485M), and United Kingdom ($371M).

Ease of doing business
It is very easy to conduct business (rated 79 out of 100) ranked 16th out of 44 OECD high income countries in ranked 30th out of 190 countries worldwide (2022, World Bank)

Economic freedom
‘Mostly free’ (77 out of 100) ranked 9th out of 45 European countries ranked 13th out of 186 countries worldwide (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal)

Exports
$298 billion (2020). Raw Aluminium ($1.74B), Fish Fillets ($984M), Non-fillet Fresh Fish ($336M), Non-fillet Frozen Fish ($283M), and Processed Fish ($264M), exporting mostly to Netherlands ($931M), Spain ($796M), United Kingdom ($517M), Germany ($460M), and United States ($372M).

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 20th out of 39 European countries, 12th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Media

Media language Icelandic, English

Information channels
National public radio and TV is provided by the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RUV), which is owned by the state. The RUV is tasked with promoting the Icelandic language and culture. It is funded from a licence fee and advertising revenue. Media ownership is highly concentrated. The 365 company runs the main private TV and radio stations and the highest-circulating newspaper, Frettabladid. The constitution guarantees “absolute” press freedom, but the situation for journalists has worsened in recent years because of poor relations between politicians and the media, says Reporters Without Borders. Legislation passed in 2010 aims to give more protection to journalists and whistleblowers than any other such law in the world. Around 50% of Icelanders get their news online, a media consumption poll found in 2018. It said very few young people use traditional media to follow current events. By the end of 2017, 99% of Icelanders were online (Internetworldstats).

The press

Frettabladid – daily, distributed free-of-charge
Morgunbladid – morning daily
DV – evening daily
Vidskiptabladid – business
Baejarins besta – West Fjords local news
icelandreview.com– English-language site with news
Stundin – news site, known for investigative reporting
Kjarninn – website known for news analysis

Television

Icelandic National Broadcasting Service – operates public network Sjonvarpid
Stod 2 – main private station
Skjar einn – private

Radio

Icelandic National Broadcasting Service – public radio, operates two national networks and four regional stations
Bylgjan – main private station

Internet Data

Internet users
99% penetration, 340.9 thousand

Share of web traffic by device
36.76% mobile phones, 61.02% computers (laptops and desktops), 2.20% tablet devices, others 0.02%

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 139%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 92.7%

Most popular web search engines
Google (94.14%), Bing (3.51%), Duckduckgo (1.09%), Yahoo (0.77%), Yandex (0.22%), Ecosia (0.17%)

Most used social media
Facebook (78.05%), Instagram (7.32%), Twitter (5.64%), Pinterest (6.15%), Reddit (1.23%), YouTube (0.98%)

Social statistics

Life expectancy
83 yrs (2020)

Average age of the population
44.9 yrs (2020)

Healthcare expenditure
8.64% of GDP (2018)

Glass Ceiling Index
78.7 out 100, ranked 2nd out of 29 countries.

The glass-ceiling index measures the environment for working women combining data on higher education, labor-force participation, pay, child-care costs, maternity and paternity rights, business-school applications, and representation in senior jobs.