Information

Basic facts

Area: 103 000 km2
- lakes cover about 3% of the area, deserts (incl. lava fields) about 63%, glaciers about 11% and 23% are vegetated
- the coastline is long 4 970 km
- second largest island of Europe

Inhabitants: 300.000 people of which around 180.000 lived in the capital, Reykjavik, and surrounding areas
Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe with an average about three inhabitants per square km (about 20 % of area are populated). Almost 4/5 of the country are uninhabited and mostly uninhabitable, the population being concentrated in a narrow coastal belt, valleys and the southwest corner of the country.

Climate:
Thanks Gulf stream the country is not so cold like everyone would expect from its name. The weather is unforecasted and can change abruptly. It can happened that all weather conditions change during the same day. The Basic information average temperature of the warmest month is about 12°C (54°F) and of the coldest month about 0°C (32°F). It is usually considerably colder in the mountains and extreme North.