Immigrants in Iceland were 25,926 1 January 2013, 8.1% of the population. The proportion of immigrants is slightly larger than last year, when it was 8.0% of the population. The number of second generation immigrants rose from 2,876 in 2012 to 3,204 in 2013. An immigrant is a person born abroad with two foreign born parents and four foreign born grandparents, whereas a second generation immigrant is born in Iceland having two immigrant parents. A person with foreign background has one parent of foreign origin.
Immigrants by country of birth
People born in Poland were by far the most numerous group of immigrants. In 2013, 9,371 immigrants or 36.1% of the total immigrant population were born in Poland. Other large immigrant groups were born in Lithuania (1,385) and in the Philippines (1,385).
Immigrants by region
On 1 January 2013, 66.9% first and second generation immigrants were living in the capital region. The highest proportion of immigrants is in the Westfjords where 12.7% of the population are first and second generation immigrants, while the lowest proportion is in the Northwest where only 4.3% of the population are immigrants or second generation immigrants.
413 persons acquired Icelandic citizenship in 2012
In 2012, 413 persons were granted Icelandic citizenship, compared with 370 in 2011. As in every year since 1992 more females than males were granted Icelandic citizenship in 2012. New Icelandic citizens were mostly of European origin.
Statistics