According to a new estimate by Statistics Iceland, the population in Iceland on 1 January 2026 was 394,324 and the population had increased by 4,880 from 1 January 2025, or by 1.3%. A total of 202.181 males, 191,927 females and 216 non-binary/other lived in the country at the beginning of the year. The number of males increased by 1.3% from the previous year, females by 1.2% and non-binary/other by 8.5%.
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 45.9% to 40.3% of people of working age, while the percentage of the elderly (65+) has increased from 23.9% to 27.0% and has never been higher.
Relative population growth was highest in the South
A total of 2,858 more people lived in the Capital region on 1 January 2026 than a year ago. That is equivalent to a 1.1% population increase in one year. Relative population growth was highest in the South where the population increased by 3.7%. In the Westfjords, the population increased by 2.3% and by 1.3% in the West. In other regions, population growth was below the national average. In Northeast, the population grew by 0.8%, in the Southwest by 0.2%, and in Northwest the population remained unchanged (0.0%). However, the population decreased by 0.1% in East.
The population decreased in 9 out of 62 municipalities
There were a total of 62 municipalities in Iceland on January 1, 2026. Reykjavík was the most populous municipality with 139,804 inhabitants, while Tjörneshreppur was the smallest municipalities with 54 inhabitants. A total of 26 municipalities had fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, three of which had fewer than 100 inhabitants. Eleven municipalities had 5,000 inhabitants or more.
Last year, the population decreased in 14 of the country's 62 municipalities. The largest decrease was in Grindavík, where the population decreased by 427, a decrease of 34.3% between years. Of the eleven largest municipalities, with 5,000 inhabitants or more, the proportional increase was the largest in Sveitarfélagið Árborg, by 5.0%, and Garðabær, by 3.0%. In Reykjavík, the increase was below the national average or 0.7%. Of the eleven largest municipalities, only one experienced a population decrease, which was Fjarðabyggð (0.4%).
Statistics
Overview
Municipalities
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