A new issue in the Statistical Series on the population development in 2016 published by Statistics Iceland shows that on the 1st of January 2017 the population of Iceland was 338,349, the population growth with respect to 1st of January 2016 being 1.8% or 5,820 individuals.
Population decline is only present in the Westfjords which lost 0.2% of its population in 2016. All other regions experienced a population increase. The Southwest region gained proportionally the most (6.6%), followed by the South (2.1%) and the Capital region (1.5%).
Life births in Iceland were 4,034 in 2016, 2,042 boys and 1,992 girls. The number of births had decreased from the previous year when 4,125 children were born. The total fertility rate in 2016 was 1.7, slightly less than its previous value (1.8) in 2015.
In 2016, 2,309 individuals died in Iceland, 1,197 men and 1,112 women. The mortality rate was 6.9 per 1,000 inhabitants and the infant mortality rate was 0.7 per 1,000 life births. In 2016, the life expectancy at birth in Iceland was 80.7 years for men and 83.7 years for women.
There were 4,019 more immigrants than emigrants in 2016, 2,899 men and 1,170 women, mostly foreign citizens. The net Icelandic migration was -146 individuals.
The dependency ratio was 67.4% 1 January 2017, lower than in the previous year. The dependency ratio is calculated as the ratio of the young and old age population relative to the working age population (defined as 20–64 years of age).
Foreign citizens represented 8.9% of the population on the 1st of January 2017, the highest proportion ever. The number of foreign citizens was 30,275, 46.6% being Polish. In total, there were 46,516 individuals born abroad (13.8% of the population) living in Iceland on the 1st January 2017.
The number of nuclear families, i.e. couples with or without children under the age of 18 years or parents with children under 18 years, was 80,638 on 1 of January 2017, compared with 79,942 families previous year.
Population development 2016 — Statistical Series