The Republic of Iceland

Iceland has one of the world’s oldest parliaments: the Althingi, established in 930 AD at Thingvellir, is the oldest parliament still in existence.

Vigdis Finnbogadottir was elected President of Iceland in 1980, becoming the first woman in the world to be democratically elected as a head of state.

Iceland was one of NATO’s twelve founding members in 1949 and remains the only NATO member without its own military forces.

Iceland expanded its exclusive fisheries zone to 200 nautical miles in 1975 during the series of disputes with the United Kingdom known as the Cod Wars.

Iceland publishes more books per capita than any other country, and its Christmas Eve tradition of Jolabokaflod (the Christmas Book Flood) sees people exchange and read books.

Over 99% of Iceland’s electricity and heating comes from domestic renewable sources, primarily geothermal and hydroelectric power.

Surtsey is a volcanic island that formed south of Iceland during eruptions from 1963 to 1967 and has been protected as a natural scientific laboratory.

The 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajokull caused the cancellation of more than 100,000 flights and affected about seven million passengers.

Nordic clinker boat traditions shared by Iceland and four other Nordic countries were inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2021.

The Arnamagnaean Manuscript Collection contains nearly 3,000 items, including important medieval Icelandic sagas, and was added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2009.

Iceland’s 1703 census is the oldest surviving nominal census in the world that records every member of an entire country’s population by name, age and social status.

The 1703 Census of Iceland was added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World International Register in 2013.