Almost one in ten in Iceland foreign-born
Photo: Iceland Monitor/Rax
At 1 January this year, there were 31,812 foreign nationals living in Iceland – representing 9.6% of the total population – according to new figures from Statistics Iceland.
‘Foreign nationals’ for the purposes of this figure mean individuals now living in Iceland who were born outside of Iceland and whose two parents and all four grandparents were also born outside of Iceland.
This proportion has increased in the twelve months from 1 January 2015 from 8.9% to 9.6%. Back in 2012, the proportion of foreign nationals living in Iceland was 8.0%.
MORE: GUIDE: Relocating to and working in Iceland
Polish nationals are by far the largest group of expatriates in Iceland, making of 37.7% of the total. They are followed by the Lithuanians (5.1%) and the Philippines (4.8%).
In the course of 2015, 801 foreign nationals took Icelandic nationality, as compared to 595 in 2014.
