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For the United Kingdom food retail chain, see Iceland (supermarket).
Republic of Iceland
Lýðveldið Ísland
Motto: none
Anthem: Lofsöngur
Location of Iceland
Capital
and largest city
Reykjavík
Official languagesIcelandic
GovernmentConst. republic
• President
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
Geir Hilmar Haarde
Independence 
From Denmark
• Sovereignty
1 December 1918
• Republic
17 June 1944
• Water (%)
2.7
Population
• January 2006 estimate
300,000 [1] (178th)
• December 1980 census
229,187
GDP (PPP)2005 estimate
• Total
$10.531 billion (135th)
• Per capita
$35,586 (2005) (5th)
HDI (2003)0.956
very high (2nd)
CurrencyIcelandic króna (ISK)
Time zoneUTC+0 (GMT)
• Summer (DST)
None
Calling code354
ISO 3166 codeIS
Internet TLD.is

Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland (Icelandic: Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland IPA: [ˈlið̠vɛldɪð̠ ˈisland) is volcanic island nation in the northern Atlantic Ocean between Greenland, Norway, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the Faroe Islands. [2]

History

Main article: History of Iceland

Iceland was one of the last large islands uninhabited by humans until it was discovered and settled by immigrants from Scandinavia, Ireland and Scotland during the 9th and 10th centuries. [3] Íslendingabók (Template:Lang-la; Template:Lang-en), written in 1122–33, claims that Norwegian Ingólfur Arnarson was the first man to settle in Iceland, in 870. The families were accompanied by servants and slaves, some of whom were Celts or Picts from Scotland and Ireland (known as Westmen to the Norse). Some literary evidence suggests that Papar (Irish monks) may have been living in Iceland before the arrival of Norse settlers, but no archaeological evidence has been found.

Erik the Red, or Eiríkur rauði, was exiled from Iceland for manslaughter in 980, and set sail to explore the lands to the west. He established the first settlements in Greenland around this time, naming the land, according to legend, to attract settlers. Eirikur's son, Leif Ericson (Leifur Eiríksson), finally set foot in the Americas around the year 1000. While some say he was blown off-course, it is most likely that he was deliberately seeking the land spotted by Bjarni Herjólfsson several years earlier. He is believed to have established a colony at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, which lasted only a few years. Despite the short stay, a sizable colony with at least eight buildings including a forge and various workshops was built. Two further attempts at colonization by his brother ended in failure.

The Alþingi (Template:Lang-en, literally all-thing (Þing in icelandic means parliament) or general assembly) was founded in 930, marking the beginning of the Icelandic Commonwealth. It was the predecessor to the modern Icelandic legislature. The Althing is the oldest still-standing, parliament in the world that has written documents to prove its age.

Iceland was a free state, without a king, until the end of the Sturlungaöld civil war in 1262, when it established a personal union with the Norwegian king with Gamli sáttmáli (Template:Lang-en). From 1387 on, Iceland was in practice ruled by Denmark, following the union of the two kingdoms. When that union was dissolved in 1814, through the Treaty of Kiel, which saw Norway entering a union with Sweden, Iceland became a dominion of Denmark colony. Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page)., while Iceland is trying to find replacement tenants, foreign or indigenous.

The economy of Iceland remained dependent on fisheries in the post-war decades, and the country has had several clashes with its neighbours over this vital resource, most notably the Cod Wars with the British. The economy has become more diverse recently, owing to large investments in heavy industry, such as aluminium smelting and deregulation and privatization in the financial sector. [4] Iceland is a member of the Common market of the European Union through the EEA agreement but has never applied for membership of the EU itself. [4]

Administrative Divisions

Main article: Subdivisions of Iceland

Iceland is divided into regions, constituencies, counties, and municipalities.

Regions

Main article: Regions of Iceland

There are eight regions which are primarily used for statistical purposes; the district court jurisdictions also use an older version of this division. [2]

Constituencies

Main article: Constituencies of Iceland

Until 2003, the constituencies for the parliament elections were the same as the regions, but by an amendment to the constitution they were changed to the current six constituencies. The change was made in order to balance the weight of different districts of the country since a vote cast in the sparsely populated areas around the country would count much more than a vote cast in the Reykjavík city area. The imbalance between districts has been reduced by the new system, but still exists. [2]

Counties

Main article: Counties of Iceland

Iceland's 23 counties are for the most part historical divisions. Currently, Iceland is split up among 26 magistrates that represent government in various capacities. Among their duties are running the local police (except in Reykjavík, where there is a special office of police commissioner), tax collection, administering bankruptcy declarations, and performing nonreligious weddings. [2]

Municipalities

Main article: Municipalities of Iceland

There are 79 municipalities in Iceland which govern most local matters like schools, transportation and zoning. [2]

Geography

CIA World Factbook map of Iceland
Iceland, as seen from space on September 9, 2002.
Main articles: Geography of Iceland and List of settlements in Iceland.

Iceland is located in the North Atlantic Ocean just south of the Arctic Circle, which passes through the small island of Grímsey off Iceland's northern coast, but not through mainland Iceland. Unlike neighbouring Greenland, Iceland is considered to be a part of Europe, not a part of North America. Due to cultural, economic and linguistic similarities, Iceland in many contexts is also included in Scandinavia. It is the world's 18th largest island, and Europe's 2nd largest island following Great Britain.

Approximately 10 percent of the island is glaciated. Many fjords punctuate its 3,088 miles (4,970 km) long coastline, which is also where most towns are situated because the island's interior, the Highlands of Iceland, is a cold and uninhabitable combination of sands and mountains. The major towns are the capital Reykjavík, Keflavík, where the national airport is situated, and Akureyri. The island of Grímsey on the Arctic Circle contains the northernmost habitation of Iceland. [5]

Iceland has four national parks: Jökulsárgljúfur National Park, Skaftafell National Park, Snæfellsnes National Park, and Þingvellir

Area

  • Whole country: 103,000 km² (39,768.5 mi²)
  • Vegetation: 23,805 km² (9,191 mi²)
  • Lakes: 2,757 km² (1,065 mi²)
  • Glaciers: 11,922 km² (4,603 mi²)
  • Wasteland: 64,538 km² (24,918 mi²) [6]

Geological and volcanic activity

The volcanic lake of Grímsvötn on the glacier of Vatnajökull.
Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe, is located in northeastern Iceland.

Iceland is located on both a geological hot spot, thought to be caused by a mantle plume, and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This combined location means that the island is extremely geologically active, having many volcanoes, notably Hekla, Eldgjá, and Eldfell. The volcanic eruption of Laki in 1783-1784 caused much loss of life and even affected Europe. There are also geysers (a word derived from the name of one in Iceland, Geysir). With this widespread availability of geothermal power, and also because of the numerous rivers and waterfalls that are harnessed for hydropower, residents of most towns have hot water and home heat for a low price. The island itself is composed primarily of basalt, or cooled lava.

Iceland controls Surtsey, one of the youngest islands in the world. It rose above the ocean in a series of volcanic eruptions between November 8, 1963 and June 5, 1967. [5]

Largest lakes

Deepest lakes

Distance to nearest countries and islands

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Iceland

The original population of Iceland was of Nordic and Celtic origin. This is evident by literary evidence from the settlement period as well as from later scientific studies such as blood type and genetic analysis. One such genetics study has indicated that the majority of the male settlers were of Nordic origin while the majority of the women were of Celtic origin. The modern population of Iceland is often described as a "homogeneous mixture of descendants of Norse and Celts" but several history scholars reject the alleged homogeneity as a myth that fails to take into account the fact that Iceland was never isolated from the rest of Europe and actually has had a lot of contact with traders and fishermen from many nations through the ages.

Iceland has extensive genealogical records about its population dating back to the age of settlement. Although the accuracy of these records is debated, biopharmaceutical companies such as deCODE Genetics see them as a valuable tool for conducting research on genetic diseases.

The population of the island is believed to have varied from 40,000 to 60,000 in the period from initial settlement until the mid-19th century. During that time, cold winters, ashfall from volcanic eruptions, and plagues adversely affected the population several times. The first census was carried out in 1703 and revealed that the population of the island was then 50,358. Improving living conditions triggered a rapid increase in population from the mid-19th century to the present day - from about 60,000 in 1850 to 300,000 in 2006.

In 2004, 20,669 people (7% of the total population) who were living in Iceland had been born abroad, including children of Icelandic parents living abroad. 10,636 people (3.6% of the total population) had foreign citizenship. The most populous nationalities are Polish (1903), Danish (890), ex-Yugoslavians (670), Filipinos (647) and Germans (540).

The island's spoken language is Icelandic, a North Germanic language, and the predominant religion is Lutheran. In education, the use of Icelandic Sign Language for the Deaf in Iceland is regulated by the National Curriculum Guide.

Prominent foreign languages include English, Danish and other Scandinavian languages and German, though Polish is becoming more important.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Iceland
File:Ogrimsson.jpg
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, President of Iceland.
File:Ghaarde.jpg
Geir Haarde, Prime Minister of Iceland.

The modern parliament, called "Althing" or "Alþingi", was founded in 1845 as an advisory body to the Danish king. It was widely seen as a reestablishment of the assembly founded in 930 in the Commonwealth period and suspended in 1799. It currently has 63 members, each of whom is elected by the population every four years. The president of Iceland is a largely ceremonial office that serves as a diplomat, figurehead and head of state. The head of government is the prime minister, who, together with the cabinet, takes care of the executive part of government. The cabinet is appointed by the president after general elections to Althing; however, this process is usually conducted by the leaders of the political parties, who decide among themselves after discussions which parties can form the cabinet and how its seats are to be distributed (under the condition that it has a majority support in Althing). Only when the party leaders are unable to reach a conclusion by themselves in reasonable time does the president exercise this power and appoint the cabinet himself. This has never happened since the republic was founded in 1944, but in 1942 the regent of the country (Sveinn Björnsson, who had been installed in that position by the Althing in 1941) did appoint a non-parliamentary government. The regent had, for all practical purposes, the position of a president, and Björnsson in fact became the country's first president in 1944. The governments of Iceland have almost always been coalitions with two or more parties involved, due to the fact that no single political party has received a majority of seats in Althing in the republic period. The extent of the political powers possessed by the office of the president are disputed by legal scholars in Iceland; several provisions of the constitution appear to give the president some important powers but other provisions and traditions suggest differently.

Elections for the office of presidency, parliament and in town councils are all held every four years, last held in 2004, 2003 and 2006, respectively.

Military

Main article: Military of Iceland

Defense was provided by a predominantly United States-manned NATO base in Miðnesheiði near Keflavík. Iceland has a Coast Guard (Landhelgisgæslan) and a counter-terrorism team named Sérsveit Ríkislögreglustjóra (English: "The Special Operations Task Force of the National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police"), commonly referred to as Víkingasveitin (The Viking Team or Viking Squad) similar to the German GSG 9. [7]. Iceland also posesses an armed expeditionary peacekeeping force called the Icelandic Crisis Response Unit or Íslenska Friðargæslan.

On March 15th, 2006, the United States Department of State announced the closing of the NATO base breaching the treaty it has had with the republic of 64 years. [8] "Effective October 2006, the NATO base will be reduced to little more than a few 'submarine talkers', with U.S. forces withdrawing their four F-15s, their helicopter squadron and the vast majority of their personnel."

Economy

Main article: Economy of Iceland

Iceland is the 5th richest country in the world based on GDP per capita at purchasing power parity. It is also ranked number two on the 2005 United Nations Human Development Index. The economy historically depended heavily on the fishing industry, which still provides almost 40% of export earnings and employs 8% of the work force. In the absence of other natural resources (except for abundant hydro-electric and geothermal power), Iceland's economy is vulnerable to changing world fish prices. The economy remains sensitive to declining fish stocks as well as to drops in world prices for its main material exports: fish and fish products, aluminium, and ferrosilicon. Although the Icelandic economy still relies heavily on fishing it is constantly becoming less important as the travel industry and other service, technology, energy intensive and various other industries grow. [4]

The centre-right government plans to continue its policies of reducing the budget and current account deficits, limiting foreign borrowing, containing inflation, revising agricultural and fishing policies, diversifying the economy, and privatising state-owned industries. The government remains opposed to EU membership, primarily because of Icelanders' concern about losing control over their fishing resources.

Iceland's economy has been diversifying into manufacturing and service industries in the last decade, and new developments in software production, biotechnology, and financial services are taking place. The tourism sector is also expanding, with the recent trends in ecotourism and whale-watching. Growth slowed between 2000 and 2002, but the economy expanded by 4.3% in 2003 and grew by 6.2% in 2004. The unemployment rate of 1.8% (3rd quarter of 2005) is among the lowest in the European Economic Area.

Over 99% of the country's electricity is produced from hydropower and geothermal energy. [4]

Iceland's agriculture industry consists mainly of potatoes, green vegetables, mutton, dairy products and fish. [4]

Religion

Main article: Religion in Iceland

Icelanders enjoy freedom of religion as stated by the constitution; however, church and state are not separated and the National Church of Iceland, a Lutheran body, is the state church. The national registry keeps account of the religious affiliation of every Icelandic citizen and according to it, Icelanders in 2005 divided into religious groups as follows:

The remaining 6.5% is mostly divided between a number of other Christian denominations and sects, with less than 1% of the population in non-Christian religious organisations including a tiny group of state-sanctioned indigenous Ásatrú adherents in the Íslenska Ásatrúarfélagið. Most Icelanders are either very liberal in their religious beliefs or uninterested in religious matters altogether, and predominantly do not attend church regularly or even at all. [9]

Culture

Cliffs at the island of Grímsey, on the Arctic Circle.
Main article: Culture of Iceland

Some famous Icelanders include alternative rock band The Sugarcubes; its singer Björk; rap-rock group Quarashi; artist collective GusGus; avant-garde rock band Sigur Rós; and novelist Halldór Laxness, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1955. Although raised and educated in Scotland, TV presenter Magnus Magnusson was born in Reykjavík.

Iceland's literacy rate is among the highest in the world, and a love of literature, art, chess, and other intellectual pursuits is widespread.

An important key to understanding Icelanders and their culture (and which differentiates them from many contemporary Nordic peoples) is the high importance they place on the traits of independence and self-reliance. Icelanders are proud of their Viking heritage and Icelandic language. Modern Icelandic remains close to the Old Norse spoken in the Viking Age.

Icelandic society and culture has a high degree of gender equality, with many women in leadership positions in government and business. Women retain their names after marriage, since Icelanders generally do not use surnames but patronyms or (in certain cases) matronyms. See Icelandic name for further discussion.

One of the most popular activities in Iceland is visiting the geothermal spas and pools that can be found all around the country. They are popular with tourists as well.

Cuisine

Iceland offers wide varieties of traditional cuisine. Þorramatur (food of the þorri) is the Icelandic national food. Nowadays þorramatur is mostly eaten during the ancient Nordic month of þorri, in January and February, as a tribute to old culture. Þorramatur consists of many different types of food, e.g. pickled ram's testicles, putrified shark, scorched sheep heads, scorched sheep's head jam, blood pudding and dried fish (often cod or haddock) with butter.

Miscellany

  • The southwest corner of Iceland is the most densely populated region and the location of the capital Reykjavík, the northernmost capital in the world.
  • It is mandatory to keep headlights on while driving, even in daylight. Most cars commercially sold in Iceland are equipped to make this automatic.
  • In 2004, British citizens made up the single largest group of tourists to Iceland (60,000) followed by Americans (48,000). The largest group of resident foreigners is the community of approximately 2000 Polish citizens.
  • The tallest structure in Western Europe is located in Iceland; it is the 412 metre high (1,352 ft) Longwave radio mast Hellissandur, also called Gufuskálar.
  • The state television service in Iceland did not broadcast during July until 1983, or on Thursdays until 1987 - however, there are now several terrestrial channels, and foreign channels are widely available via satellite and cable.
  • Iceland is located partly on the North American tectonic plate and partly on the Eurasian one.
  • In terms of etymology, the Icelandic language is the closest to Old Norse, the language of the Vikings. Experts claim them to be virtually identical even though the Viking civilization disappeared about 800 years ago.
  • Today, the closest language still in existance to Icelandic is Faroese.
  • The only native land mammal when humans arrived was the arctic fox. It came to the island at the end of the ice age, walking over the frozen sea.
  • There are no native reptiles or amphibians on the island.
  • There are around 1,300 known species of insects in Iceland (ca. 1,100 of them endemic), which is rather low compared with other countries. There are about 925,000 known species in the world.
  • During the last Ice Age almost all of the country was covered by permanent snow and glacier ice. This explains the low number of living species.
  • When humans arrived, birch forest and woodland probably covered 25-40% of Iceland’s land area. But soon the settlers started to remove the trees and forests to create fields and grazing land. During the early 20th century the forests were at their minimum and were almost wiped out of existence. The planting of new forests has increased the number of trees since, but this can not be compared with the original forests. Some of those planted forests have included new foreign species.

See also

Template:Wikinewsportal

Geography

Politics

Economy

Culture

Other

References

  1. ^ "Statistics Iceland". www.statice.is. 28 July, 2006. Retrieved 6 August. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e "CIA - The World Factbook -- Iceland". Government. United States Government. July 20, 2006. Retrieved August 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ "CIA - The World Factbook -- Iceland". Introduction. United States Government. July 20, 2006. Retrieved August 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ a b c d e "CIA - The World Factbook -- Iceland". Economy. United States Government. July 20, 2006. Retrieved August 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ a b "CIA - The World Factbook -- Iceland". Geography. United States Government. July 20, 2006. Retrieved August 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ a b c d "National Land Survey of Iceland". www.statice.is. Unknown Publish Date. Retrieved 6 August. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "CIA - The World Factbook -- Iceland". Military. United States Government. July 20, 2006. Retrieved August 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ White, Josh (March 17, 2006). "U.S. to Remove Military Forces And Aircraft From Iceland Base". Washington Post. Retrieved August 6. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ "CIA - The World Factbook -- Iceland". Demographics. United States Government. July 20, 2006. Retrieved August 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)



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