Net-external migration in Iceland in 2023 war 6,790. This is somewhat fewer than the record year of 2022, when immigration exceeded emigration by 8,660. The migration balance has been high for the last two years, but the closest to that is in the year 2017, when over 7,900 more people immigrated to the country than left.
The number of immigrants was 21,561 in 2023 which is the second highest number since measurements began, only in the year 2022 have the number been higher (22,209). At the same time the number of emigrants increased from 13,549 in the year 2022 to 14,771 in 2023.
If only foreign citizens are considered, the migration balance was 7,004 in the year 2023 and it has only been higher in two years. In 2022 the migration balance of foreign citizens was 9,286 and in 2017 it was 7,326. The migration balance among Icelandic citizens was negative, but there were 214 more emigrants than immigrants in 2023. The migration balance of Icelandic citizens was also negative in 2022 by 526.
Denmark the most popular country of destination for Icelandic citizens
Of the 5,154 Icelandic citizens who emigrated in 2023, a total of 3,708 migrated to Norway, Denmark or Sweden. Most of them emigrated to Denmark, or 2,071. These countries were also the major countries of origin for immigrating Icelandic citizens as 3,392 out of 4,940 immigrants came from these countries.
Most of the foreign citizens emigrating from Iceland migrated to Poland, or 2,558 out of 9,617. Poland was also the largest contributor of immigrants with foreign citizenship, 4,192 persons out of 16,621 foreign immigrants. The second largest number of foreign citizens emigrated from Ukraine in 2023 (1,657 people).
Over 39% of immigrants and emigrants are in the age group 20–29 The largest age group among those who emigrated or immigrated in 2023 was 20–29 years old, or around 39%. However, the modal age of emigrants was 24 years (732) while the modal age of immigrants was 24 years, or 982.
Most positive internal migration in the Southwest region
When only considering internal migration between regions in the year 2023, the South had the most positive internal migration (462), followed by the West region which had a positive internal migration of 186 and the Northeast with 138. The Southwest had the most negative internal migration (-380), closely followed by the Capital region (-327). When considering external migration, the Capital region experienced the most positive migration or 3,962, followed by the Southwest region (1,405). No region experienced negative external net migration in 2023, and all experienced positive net migration in total.
Methods
Statistics Iceland assesses migration on the basis of information on changes in legal domicile in the National Registry's Population Register and on Statistics Iceland’s assessment of individuals residence, see the report.
Migrations based on National Registry information are counted on the basis of the date of registration in the National Registry, but not according to when the migration took place. However, Statistics Iceland’s assessment date is used when migration is assessed according to Statistics Iceland’s method. This applies from 2011, but before that time only information on changes in legal domicile in the National Register was used.
When the country to which a person moves from Iceland is unknown, information on citizenship is used in the case of individuals with foreign citizenship, but for Icelandic citizens, they are randomly assigned to countries that have recorded migration of other Icelandic citizens.
Statistics
Internal migration
External migration