Immigrants in Iceland were 43,736 on 1 January 2018, 12.6% of the population. The proportion of immigrants is larger than last year, when it was 10.6%. The number of second generation immigrants rose from 4,473 in 2017 to 4,861 in 2018. 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 the most numerous group of immigrants in 2018 as in previous years, 16,970 or 38.8% of the total immigrant population. The second largest group of immigrants were born in Lithuania (2,420) followed by people born in the Philippines (1,754).
Immigrants by region
On 1 January 2018, 63.5% of first and second generation immigrants were living in the capital region. The highest proportion of immigrants was in the Southwest with 23.3% of first and second generation immigrants. The lowest proportion was in the Northwest where only 6.6% of the population were immigrants or second generation immigrants.
637 persons acquired Icelandic citizenship in 2017
A total of 637 persons were granted Icelandic citizenship in 2017, compared with 703 in 2016. More females than males were granted Icelandic citizenship in 2017, as in every year since 1992. New Icelandic citizens were mostly of Polish origin (223).
