Immigrants in Iceland were 35,997 on 1 January 2017, 10.6% of the population. The proportion of immigrants is larger than last year, when it was 9.6% of the population. The number of second generation immigrants rose from 4,158 in 2016 to 4,473 in 2017. An immigrant is a person born abroad with both parents foreign born and all grandparents foreign born, whereas a second generation immigrant is born in Iceland having immigrant parents. A person with foreign background has one parent of foreign origin.
Immigrants by country of birth
People born in Poland were by far the most numerous group of immigrants. In 2017, 13,771 immigrants or 38.3% of the total immigrant population were born in Poland. Other large immigrant groups were born in Lithuania (1,880) and in the Philippines (1,610).
More females among immigrants
On 1 January 2017 male immigrants exceeded the number of female immigrants for the first time since 2010. The sex ratio, the number of males per 1,000 females, has fluctuated from being 607 males per 1,000 females in 1996 to 1,353 males per 1,000 females in 2007. In 2017 the sex ratio was 1,063 males per 1,000 females.
703 persons acquired Icelandic citizenship in 2016
In 2016, 703 persons were granted Icelandic citizenship, compared with 801 in 2015. As in every year since 1992 more females than males were granted Icelandic citizenship in 2016. New Icelandic citizens were mostly of Polish origin (224).
