Population Figures: Reykvíkingar Vastly Outnumber Other Icelanders

Men far outnumber women, and those living in Reykjavík far outnumber Icelanders in the rest of the country, the latest population figures attest.

The data, compiled by Statistics Iceland, puts the population of Iceland in the last quarter of 2018 at 357,050 people. Of those, 182,870 were men and 174,180 were women, further refuting the hoax that the Icelandic government will pay foreign men to marry Icelandic women due to some sort of shortage. No data was available regarding those outside the traditional gender binary.

Capital area Icelanders have long outnumbered Icelanders who live elsewhere, and the gap widened even further in 2018. As it is now, there are 228,260 Icelanders living in the greater Reykjavík area, with 128,780 in rural areas.

As in any other country, not everyone born in Iceland stays here forever. In the last quarter of 2018, 470 Icelanders moved out of the country, with Denmark, Norway and Sweden being the most popular destinations. Poles, who comprise the largest immigrant group in Iceland, were also the largest immigrant group to move here last quarter, as 720 of them moved from Poland to Iceland.

In all, 44,310 people of foreign origin now live in Iceland, comprising 12.4% of the population.

As births continued to outnumber deaths, despite more Icelanders moving out of the country than to it in 2018 as a whole, Iceland’s population is on track to continue to rise.