Iceland

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For other uses, see Iceland (disambiguation).

The Republic of Iceland (Icelandic: Lýðveldið �sland) is a borderless country in the northern Atlantic Ocean between Greenland, Norway, and the British Isles.

Lýðveldið �sland

(In Detail) (In Detail)
National motto: None
Official language	Icelandic
Capital and largest city	Reykjavík
President	Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
Prime Minister	Halldór �sgrímsson
Area  - Total  - % water	Ranked 107th 103,125 km² 2.70%
Population  - Total (2004)  - Density	Ranked 169th 293,291 2.84/km²
Independence  - Sovereignty  - Republic	1 December 1918 17 June 1944
GDP (2003)   - Total (PPP)   - Total   - GDP/capita (PPP)   - GDP/capita	$9 billion (127th) $15 billion (87th) $35,686 (5th) $52,063 (4th)
Currency	Icelandic Króna
Time zone  - in summer	GMT (UTC+0)
National anthem	Lofsöngur
Internet TLD	.is
Calling Code	+354

History

For more details on this topic, see History of Iceland.

Iceland remained one of the world's last larger islands uninhabited by humans, until it was first settled by Norwegian and Celtic (Scottish and Irish) immigrants and slaves during the late 9th and 10th century. It boasts the world's oldest parliament, Althing, which was established in 930. Some literary evidence suggests that Irish monks may have been living in Iceland before the arrival of Norse settlers but no archaeological evidence has been found.

Iceland remained independent for over 300 years, and was subsequently ruled by Norway and Denmark, formally as a Norwegian crown colony until 1814 when the united kingdoms of Denmark and Norway were separated by the Treaty of Kiel, and Iceland was kept by Denmark as a dependency. Limited home rule was granted by the Danish government in 1874, and protectorate-like independence and sovereignty over domestic matters followed in 1918. Foreign relations and defence remained under the authority of the Danes until the World War II military occupation of Denmark by Germany in 1940. Subsequently, Iceland was occupied by the Allies. The Danish king remained the de jure sovereign of the nation until 1944, when the current republic was founded in the absence of Danish authority.

The new republic became a charter member of NATO in 1949 and signed a treaty with the United States in 1950 to take responsibility for the defense of Iceland. Today the US continues to operate a military base in Keflavík based on this agreement, but Iceland has no armed forces of its own. The economy of Iceland remained dependant of fisheries in the post-war decades and the country has had several clashes with its neighbours over this vital resource, most notably the Cod Wars with the British. The economy has become more diverse recently owing to large investments in heavy industry such as aluminum smelting and deregulation and privatization in the financial sector. Iceland is a member of the Common market of the European Union through the EEA agreement but has never applied for membership of the EU itself.

Politics

For more details on this topic, see Politics of Iceland.

The parliament, Althing, was founded in 1845 as an advisory body to the Danish king. It was widely seen as a reestablishment of the assembly founded in 930 in the Commonwealth period and suspended in 1799. It has currently 63 members, each of whom is elected by the population every four years. The president of Iceland is a largely ceremonial office that serves as a diplomat, figurehead and head of state. The head of government is the prime minister, who, together with his cabinet, takes care of the executive part of government. The cabinet is appointed by the president after general elections to Althing; however, this process is usually conducted by the leaders of the political parties, who decide among themselves after discussions which parties can form the cabinet and how its seats are to be distributed (under the condition that it has a majority support in Althing). Only when the party leaders are unable to reach a conclusion by themselves in reasonable time does the president exercise this power and appoint the cabinet himself. This has never happened since the republic was founded in 1944, but in 1942 the regent of the country (Sveinn Björnsson, who had been installed in that position by the Althing in 1941) did appoint a non-parliamentary government. The regent had, for all practical purposes, the position of a president, and Sveinn Björnsson actually went on to become the country's first president in 1944. The governments of Iceland have almost always been coalitions with two or more parties involved, due to the fact that a single political party has not received a majority of seats in Althing in the republic period. The extent of the political powers possessed by the office of the president are disputed by legal scholars in Iceland; several provisions of the constitution appear to give the president some important powers but other provisions and traditions suggest differently.

The president is elected every four years (last 2004), the cabinet is elected every four years (last 2003) and town council elections are held every four years too (last 2002).

Related topics

• List of political parties in Iceland
• Prime minister of Iceland
• List of Presidents of Iceland

Administrative division

The municipalities of Iceland

Municipalities

For more details on this topic, see Municipalities of Iceland.

There are 95 municipalities in Iceland that govern most local matters like schools, transportation and zoning.

The administrative counties of Iceland

Counties

For more details on this topic, see Counties of Iceland.

There are 23 counties that are mostly a historic division. Currently, Iceland is split up between 26 magistrates that are the highest authority over the local police (except in Reykjavík where there is a special office of police commissioner) and carry out administrative functions such as declaring bankruptcy and marrying people outside of the church.

The regions of Iceland

Regions

For more details on this topic, see Regions of Iceland.

There are 8 regions that are primarily used for statistical purposes; the district court jurisdictions also use an older version of this division.

The constituencies of Iceland

Constituencies

For more details on this topic, see Constituencies of Iceland.

Until 2003, the constituencies for the parliament elections were the same as the regions but by an amendment to the constitution they were changed to the current 6 constituencies. The change was made in order to balance the weight of different districts of the country since a vote cast in the sparsely populated areas around the country would count much more than a vote cast in the Reykjavík city area. The imbalance between districts has been reduced by the new system but it still exists.

Geography

For more details on this topic, see Geography of Iceland and List of settlements in Iceland.

The World Factbook map of Iceland

Iceland is located in the North Atlantic Ocean, just south of the arctic circle, which passes through the small island Grimsey off the north coast of Iceland, but not through Iceland itself. Unlike neighbouring Greenland, Iceland is considered to be a part of Europe, not of America. The island is the world's 18th largest island.

Iceland is located on a geological hot spot on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The combination of being both on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and on a hot spot means that the island is extremely geologically active. It has many active volcanoes, notably Hekla. Around 10% of the island is glaciated. Iceland has many geysers (itself an Icelandic word) and the widespread availability of geothermal power means residents of most towns have hot water and home heat for a low price. Electricity is generally very cheap because of the many rivers and waterfalls which are also used for the generation of electrical power.

The island itself has many fjords along the coastline, also where most towns are situated, because the island's interior, the Highlands of Iceland are a cold uninhabitable desert. The main towns are the capital Reykjavík, Keflavík, where the national airport is situated, and Akureyri. The island of Grímsey, on the Arctic Circle contains the northernmost habitation of Iceland.

Iceland has four national parks: Jökulsárgljúfur National Park, Skaftafell National Park, Snæfellsnes National Park and Ã?ingvellir

Related topics

• Volcanoes of Iceland
• Rivers of Iceland
• Waterfalls of Iceland
• Lakes of Iceland
• Fjords of Iceland
• National parks of Iceland

Military

For more details on this topic, see Military of Iceland.

The Republic of Iceland has no regular armed forces. Defence is provided by a predominantly U.S. manned NATO base in Keflavík. Iceland has a Coast Guard (Landhelgisgæslan) and a SWAT team called Sérsveitin (The Special Operations Task Force). The Special Operations Task Force is similar to Germany's GSG-9 and Britain's SAS, a small and well trained group of operatives. The team handles security of the state, anti-terrorism projects, security of foreign dignitaries, as well supporting the police forces in the country when needed. Member of the Task Force were deployed in the Balkans as a part of an operations lead by NATO. The Special Operations Task Force used to be under the command of the Reykjavík Chief of Police; however, in 2004, a new law was passed that put the Special Operations Task Force directly under the command of the minister of justice (currently Björn Bjarnason). According to this new law, the minister of justice appoints a national chief of police to control and direct the Icelandic police force, including the Special Operations Task Force.

Economy

For more details on this topic, see Economy of Iceland.

A block of ice near Jökulsárlón.

Iceland is one of the ten richest countries in the world based on GDP per capita at purchasing power parity. The economy depends heavily on the fishing industry, which provides over 60% of export earnings and employs 8% of the work force. In the absence of other natural resources (except for abundant hydro-electric and geothermal power), Iceland's economy is vulnerable to changing world fish prices. The economy remains sensitive to declining fish stocks as well as to drops in world prices for its main exports: fish and fish products, aluminum, and ferrosilicon. Although the Icelandic economy is heavily dependant on fishing it is constantly becoming less important as the travel industry, the technology industry and various other industries grow.

The only natural resource conversion is the manufacture of cement. Most buildings are concrete with expensive imported wood used only sparingly and where necessary.

The centre-right government plans to continue its policies of reducing the budget and current account deficits, limiting foreign borrowing, containing inflation, revising agricultural and fishing policies, diversifying the economy, and privatising state-owned industries. The government remains opposed to EU membership, primarily because of Icelanders' concern about losing control over their fishing resources.

Iceland's economy has been diversifying into manufacturing and service industries in the last decade, and new developments in software production, biotechnology, and financial services are taking place. The tourism sector is also expanding, with the recent trends in ecotourism and whale-watching. Growth slowed between 2000 and 2002, but the economy expanded by 4.3% in 2003 and grew by 5.2% in 2004. The unemployment-rate of 2.1% (June 2005) is the lowest in the European Economic Area.

Over 99% of the country's electricity is produced from hydropower and geothermal energy.

Related topics

• Geothermal power in Iceland
• Iceland and its future hydrogen economy

Demographics

For more details on this topic, see Demographics of Iceland.

The isolated location of Iceland has resulted in limited immigration and limited genetic inflow in its human population over hundreds of years. The resulting genetic similarity is being exploited today for genetic studies.

The language spoken is Icelandic, a North Germanic language, and the religion is predominantly Lutheran.

Important foreign languages include Danish and other Scandinavian languages, English and German.

Religion

Icelanders enjoy freedom of religion as stated by the constitution; however, church and state are not separated and the Church of Iceland, a Lutheran body, is the state church. The national registry keeps account of the religious affiliation of every Icelandic citizen and according to it Icelanders were in 2004 divided into religious groups as follows:

• 85.5% members of the Church of Iceland.
• 3.6% members of the Free Lutheran Churches of Reykjavík and Hafnarfjörður.
• 2.4% not members of any religious group.
• 2.0% members of the Catholic Church.

The remaining 6.5% is mostly divided between a number of other Christian denominations and sects, with less than 1% of the population in non-Christian religious organisations including a tiny group of �satrú followers.

Most Icelanders are very liberal in their religious beliefs and do not attend church regularly.

Culture

For more details on this topic, see Culture of Iceland.

Some famous Icelanders include pop singer Björk; avant-garde rock band Sigur Rós; and novelist Halldór Laxness, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1955. Also, the former world chess champion Bobby Fischer became an Icelandic citizen on March 21, 2005. Russian pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy has been a citizen since 1972.

Iceland's literacy rate is among the highest in the world, and the love of literature, chess, and other intellectual pursuits is widespread.

Iceland has world renowned nightlife. Downtown Reykjavík has many clubs and pubs that often have live bands playing.

An important key to understanding Icelanders and their culture (and which differentiates them from many contemporary Nordic peoples) is the high importance they place on the traits of independence and self-reliance. Icelanders are proud of their Viking heritage and Icelandic language. Modern Icelandic remains close to the Old Norse spoken in the Viking Age.

Icelandic society and culture are very "woman friendly" with women in leadership positions in government and business. Women retain their names after marriage, since Icelanders generally don't use surnames but patronyms or matronyms.

Cliffs at the town of Grímsey, on the Arctic Circle.

Related topics

• Music of Iceland
• List of Icelandic authors
• Artists of Iceland
• Nightlife in Reykjavík

Miscellaneous facts about Iceland

• It is mandatory to keep the headlights on while driving, even in daylight.
• In 2004, British citizens made up the single largest group of tourists to Iceland (60,000) followed by Americans (48,000).
• The glacier Vatnajökull is the largest glacier in Europe; in fact, it is bigger than all non-Icelandic glaciers in Europe combined. It covers 8,100 km² out of the 103,000 km² island the Icelanders live on
• The tallest construction of Western Europe is located in Iceland, it is the 412 metre high Longwave radio mast Hellissandur near Hellissandur.

Miscellaneous topics

• List of Icelanders
• Communications in Iceland
• Transportation in Iceland
• Military of Iceland
• Foreign relations of Iceland
• Stamps and postal history of Iceland
• Naming conventions of Iceland
• List of universities in Iceland
• Icelandic nationalism
• Reporters without borders world-wide press freedom index 2002: rank 1 out of 139 countries (4 way tie)
• Icelandology

External links

Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:

Iceland

• Official Gateway of Iceland
• Iceland.org (Icelandic Foreign Service)
• Webcam in Iceland
• Picture gallery from www.islandsmyndir.is
• Alþingi's website in English
• The government's website in English
• The Trade Council of Iceland
• Kárahnjúkar dam, Iceland's largest hydroelectric project
• Travel information from the Public Roads Administration
• Ã?slenska, a magazine in German about Iceland
• Iceland-Forum, discussions about Iceland
• University of Iceland: Icelandic online (A free, online Course in Modern Icelandic Language and Culture.)
• Icelandic Recipes on CookBookWiki.com
• News from Iceland (monthly updated)

Nordic Council
Denmark | Finland | Iceland | Norway | Sweden
Associate members
Ã…land | Faroe Islands | Greenland

European Free Trade Association (EFTA)
Iceland | Liechtenstein | Norway | Switzerland

Source: en.wikipedia.org
The above document is available under GNUFDL

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