Fun Facts About Iceland

There are many characteristics that make Iceland different from the usual tourist destination. Here are some fun facts about Iceland that you NEED to know!

FACT 1

More than 60% of the Icelandic population live in the capital city, Reykjavik.   

FACT 2

​​​​​​​According to the Global Peace Index, Iceland is the most peaceful country in the world.      

FACT 3

The Iceland flag colours are symbolic for Iceland: Red represents the volcanic fires, white recalls the snow and glaciers, and blue is for the skies above, the sea and the mountains.

Iceland is a country of extreme geological contrasts, widely known as "the land of fire and ice". For more on this, take a look at our Fire & Ice excusions. 

FACT 4

Being located very close to the Arctic circle, Iceland experiences long winter nights and long summer days, with almost 24 hours of darkness/ twilight in December and nearly 24 hours of daylight in June.

Because of this, Iceland is a great place to see both the Northern Lights and experience the Midnight Sun.  

FACT 5

Iceland was settled by Vikings from Norway sometime in the 800s. This fact makes Iceland a fairly "young" country when it comes to settlement.

The Vikings are the ones who gave both Iceland and Greenland their names, purposely miss-naming them both so that their enemies would hopefully go ice-covered Greenland instead of following them to where they actually settled in Iceland. 

FACT 6

Surprisingly, 11% of Iceland is covered in glaciers. Glaciers are responsible for carving out everything that hasn't been shaped by magma and earthquakes, making for a landscape more unique than any other country. We highly reccomend a Glacier tour on our visit to Iceland.

FACT 7

Forests cover about 25-40% of Iceland at the time of settlement, 1150 years ago. Today, it's down to less than 2%. Iceland was formed by some pretty harsh phenomena; volcanos and glaciers.

Much of the country was carved out by slow-moving glaciers, chewing up the land and gouging deep valleys into it. 

FACT 8

There are 30 Active Volcanos currently, in Iceland. There are approximately 130 total volcanos in Iceland. None are currently erupting (but that can change).

Scientists have gotten so good at predicting volcanic eruptions that the risk to residents and tourists is minimal. This means visitors can even hike some of the volcanoes in Iceland with our Volcano tours.