Population

To better understand Iceland, it’s helpful to compare it to England. England has an area of 50,000 sq miles and a population of 55 million people. Iceland is a comparable size at 40,000 sq miles but has a population of only 330,000 people. Of them, 200,000 live in the capital region which is about 1% of the area. So, imagine double the population of Livingston living in an area that’s 80% of the size of England and you can see how sparsely populated Iceland is.

The main reason for this is that much of Iceland is simply uninhabitable. Over 11% is glaciers and ice cap for example. Much of the interior is highland that is only accessible by snowmobiles and super jeeps during the winter. Over 60% is tundra where vegetation is limited by low temperatures and short growing seasons. It is largely rocky and bare and only supports low growing plants such as moss, heath and lichen. As a result, most people live around the coast and lowland areas.