Important Facts On Iceland

This post is specially made for the people of Iceland and interested people of the world who wants to know more important facts about
country Iceland. So, stay in touch for more general knowledge.

• The weather in Iceland is not as cold as you might think. (Winter is a heck of a lot colder in Minnesota than it is in Iceland!) The climate is relatively mild because of the influence of the Atlantic Ocean’s Gulf Stream. Average winter daytime temperature in Reykjavik is 31 degrees F. (-1 degrees C.)
• More than 13% of Iceland is covered by snowfields and glaciers.
• Iceland is very green, because there is so much water and the climate is mild. (There are not many trees however.) People like to say that Iceland should be named Greenland and Greenland should be named Iceland. I used to tell my Icelandic friends that they should change the name of their country from Iceland to Waterland.
• Because of its bountiful water supply and many rivers, Iceland has vast reserves of hydroelectric power. Electricity is so inexpensive that aluminum ore (bauxite) is shipped in to the country, made into aluminum, and the aluminum ingots are shipped out again. (Smelting aluminum requires vast amounts of electricity.)
• Iceland lies just south of the Arctic Circle. Winter nights and summer days are long. On December 21 in the capital, the sun rises at 11:30 a.m. and sets at 3:30 p.m. On June 21 the sun sets about midnight and rises at 3:00 a.m. It never gets darker than twilight at night during the late spring and early summer.
• During a recent survey, Icelanders ranked the highest of all European countries in expressing general satisfaction with their lives.
• The English word geyser comes from Icelandic (perhaps the only Icelandic word imported into English). Geysir is the name of a famous geyser in Iceland (which, sadly, no longer erupts).
• The Icelanders speak the Icelandic language, which is used only in Iceland and among Icelandic expatriates—chiefly in Scandinavia and North America. Icelandic is very similar to old Norwegian of about 1,000 years ago.
• There are only about 270,000 Icelanders in the country. About half of them live in the capital Reykjavik and its suburbs.
• Iceland has vast amounts of water—because it rains so much. Icelandic water is so clean and pure that it is piped into the city and to the kitchen taps in the home without any treatment (no chlorination needed).
• Urban Icelandic homes do not need a water heater or a furnace for heating. Steam and hot water are piped into the city from natural geysers and hot springs for use in homes and buildings.
• Icelanders rank near the top of world nations in the per capita rate of connection to the Internet.
• Iceland is the world’s oldest democracy. Its parliament (Althingi) was founded about 1,000 years ago.
• Iceland has no army, navy, or air force. It does have a Coast Guard.
• Icelandic women don’t take the husband’s name when they marry, chiefly because the husband doesn’t have a family name to take.
• Because they don’t have surnames, Icelanders are listed in the telephone directory alphabetically by first name.
• Because they don’t have surnames, it is not appropriate to call an Icelander by Mr. or Ms. Almost all Icelanders use the first name with everyone—including the president of Iceland.
• The most common names in Iceland are “Jón” like John, “Anna” like Anne!
• Icelanders made it to The Guinness Book of Records for drinking Coke. Icelanders consume more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.
• Icelanders go to the movies more often per capita than any other nation.
• Iceland was the first country in the world to have a female president.
• Most nightclubs open at around 21:00 after midnight and close up around 8-9 in the morning!
• Beer was banned in Iceland until 1989.
• 60% of Iceland’s population lives in the capital, Reykjavík .
• Reykjavík means “Smoke-bay”’ that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are named after the Norse Gods: Tyr, Odin, Thor and Frey .
• Iceland has twice as many sheep as people.
• Boxing wasn’t allowed in Iceland until 2002.
• Icelanders learn Danish and English from the age of 11.
• Icelanders have the cleanest water in the world! They heat their houses with thermal water as well as their outdoor swimming pools.
• Icelanders can read scripts that are more than thousand years old, and that they are even taught in High school as Icelandic literature.
• Iceland has twice as many sheep as people.
• Life expectancy is 81.3 years for women and 76.4 for men– one of the highest in the world.
• Iceland was the last European country to be settled—sometime during the 9th or 10th centuries when Scandanavian sailors discovered it.
• 10. Iceland’s first inhabitants were Irish monks, who regarded the island as a sort of hermitage until the early 9th century.
• Iceland’s main industry is fishing.
• Icelander’s are extremely proud of their Viking heritage and have preserved it in art, music and festivals.
• In 1980, Icelanders elected Vigdis Finnbogadottir as the world’s first female head of state.
• Icelandic language has been virtually unchanged for the past 1000 years.
• Icelanders value literacy and hold the world record for number of books per capita.