According to a new estimate by Statistics Iceland, the population in Iceland on 1 January 2025 was 389,444 and the population had increased by 5,718 from 1 January 2024, or by 1.5%. A total of 199,622 males, 189,623 females and 199 non-binary/other lived in the country at the beginning of the year, and the number of males increased by 1.6% from the previous year, females by 1.4% and non-binary/other by 25.2%.
The proportion of the elderly has never been higher
In recent decades, the age composition of the population has changed considerably. In general, it can be said that the number of children has decreased proportionally, while the number of older people has increased. Dependency ratio is calculated on the one hand as the proportion of the elderly (65+) among people of working age 20–64 years and on the other hand as the proportion of children and young people (0–19 years) from the same group. In the last ten years, the number of people aged 0-19 has decreased from 46.6% to 40.7% of people of working age, while the percentage of the elderly (65+) has increased from 23.3% to 26.5% and has never been higher.
Relative population growth was highest in the South
4,877 more people lived in the Capital region on 1 January 2025 than a year ago. That is equivalent to a 2.0% population increase in one year. Relative population growth was highest in the South where the population increased by 3.5% and in the West where the increase was 2.0%. In other parts of the country, population growth was below the national average, in the Northeast the number increased by 1.4%, in the East the number increased by 1.2%, in the Northwest by 0.8% and in the Westfjords by 0.1%. However, the population of Southwest decreased by 4.4%, which was mainly explained by migration from Grindavík in 2024.
The population decreased in 9 out of 62 municipalities
There were a total of 62 municipalities in Iceland on January 1, 2025, two less than the previous year. Reykjavík was the most populous municipality with 138,772 inhabitants, while Tjörneshreppur was the smallest municipalities with 53 inhabitants. A total of 27 municipalities had fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, four of which had fewer than 100 inhabitants. Eleven municipalities had 5,000 inhabitants or more.
Last year, the population decreased in 9 of the country's 62 municipalities. The largest decrease was in Grindavík, where the population decreased by 2,333, a decrease of 65% between years. Of the eleven largest municipalities, with 5,000 inhabitants or more, the proportional increase was the largest in Garðabær, by 5.4%, and Sveitarfélagið Árborg, by 4.3%. In Reykjavík, the increase was below the national average or 1.4%. Of the 11 largest municipalities, the smallest increase was in Múlaþing, by 1.1%, and the second smallest in Akureyrarbær, by 1.2%.
Statistics
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Municipalities
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