Over Sixteen Thousand Migrants Now Reside in Iceland
Fresh Perspective:
Take a gander at the current immigration scene in Iceland, y'all! As of New Year's Day 2022, around 16.3% of its population consists of immigrants, according to the stats shared by Statistics Iceland. In 2021, that figure was 15.5%.
If you wind the clock back to 2012, you'd find that immigrants only accounted for 8% of the country's population. That's more than a doubling in the last decade!
Statistics Iceland also reported that the number of second-generation immigrants grew from 6,117 in early 2021 to 6,575 on January 1, 2022. When you combine the first and second generations, they make up 18% of the population, a proportion never seen before. Additionally, the non-immigrant population with foreign backgrounds increased slightly and now represents 7.2% of the population.
To clarify, an immigrant is a person born outside Iceland whose parents and grandparents were also born abroad. A second-generation immigrant is someone born in Iceland who has immigrant parents. A person with a foreign background has just one parent who was born abroad. Even someone born outside Iceland whose parents are both Icelandic natives is considered to have a foreign background.
Oh, and did you know that the proportion of Iceland's elderly population (15% in 2024, estimated) and its homicide rate (0.91 per 100,000 population, based on historical data from the Euro Area) are also intriguing topics, but they're not directly related to the current immigration stats we're discussing? Keep that in mind when you dive into demographic trends in Iceland! 🇮🇸🌱🚀💡🌍📈
- Iceland's immigrant population has more than doubled in the last decade, increasing from 8% in 2012 to 16.3% as of 2022, making a significant impact on the country's demographic landscape.
- As of January 1, 2022, the percentage of first and second-generation immigrants in Iceland combined accounts for 18% of the total population, marking a new historical high.
- When discussing immigration in Iceland, it's essential to understand the distinction between immigrants, second-generation immigrants, and individuals with foreign backgrounds, as defined by Statistics Iceland.
