A new census shows that while few people have been born in or moved to Iceland last year, few left as well.
The years following the 2008 crash began what some saw as the start of a troubling trend of people leaving Iceland in droves, presumably in search of better economic opportunities. The matter was worrying enough to prompt fears of an exodus being mentioned by numerous public officials.
That trend, such as it was, appears to have abated, as the population remains more or less stable, RÚV reports.
Statistics Iceland puts Iceland’s population in 2011 at 319,560, with men and women in nearly equal division. In the last quarter of the year, the population increased by 470. Seventy residents left the country, among them 15 with Icelandic citizenship.
Now 20,930 foreign nationals live in Iceland, and 203,570 people live in the capital area alone. Of those who left the country, Scandinavia was the most popular destination among Icelanders, while Poland was the most common choice of foreigners.
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