Iceland Now 10% Immigrant

Over 10% of Iceland’s population was born in another country, but the country still ranks relatively low in terms of its overall immigrant percentage.

According to an article in FiveThirtyEight, Iceland is in 89th place out of a total of 232 countries in terms of who has the highest percentage of foreign-born residents. More people immigrate to Moldova, Grenada and Armenia than to Iceland, but the country has edged out Denmark, at 10.4% versus 9.9% immigrant, respectively.

The country with the highest level of immigration is the Vatican, which is comprised 100% of immigrants. Barring this special case, the top immigration countries are the United Arab Emirates (83.7%), American Samoa (75.9%), and Qatar (73.8%). The countries with the lowest levels of immigration – all 0.1% comprised of immigrants – were Indonesia, Vietnam and Cuba. Yes, even North Korea has a higher level of immigration than these countries, at 0.2% immigrant.

The United States, which 538 correctly points out is often touted as “a nation of immigrants”, actually ranks in 68th place, with an immigrant percentage of 14.3%. In fact, a great many more immigrants to North America are likely to go to Canada instead, which in 51st place is 20.7% immigrant.