25 Fun Facts About Iceland That Most People Go Their Whole Life Without Knowing

Iceland's Silfra fissure is the only place in the world where you can swim between two tectonic plates. It is a crack between continents formed because of the tectonic plates pulling apart. Some of the openings are so narrow that you can touch both sides at once, i.e. you can be touching the North American and Eurasian continents at the same time. Not only that, but it’s also where you’ll find some of the clearest water in the world. The Silfra fissure is located in Thingvellir National Park, in southwestern Iceland, and it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.

Iceland was first settled in the ninth century and then the only native land mammal was the Arctic Fox. These animals came to the island at the end of the ice age, walking over the frozen sea. Other animals were brought to the island by settlers. There are from 8,000 to 10,000 Arctic Foxes living in Iceland and their status in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List is Least Concern.

The economic crash of 2008 was really devastating for Iceland and in order to lift up people’s spirits, the town of Akureyri thought that it’s the simple things that have the biggest impact. Akureyri is the second largest city in Iceland and it is located in the north of the country, so the cold climate and long nights don’t help when it comes to keeping people happy. But the town found a solution: they transformed red traffic light circles into hearts. This was a part of a larger Smile With Your Heart campaign and the traffic lights became permanent fixtures of the city. Now people stuck in traffic see the hearts and are constantly reminded to stay positive and the international symbol of love in such an unexpected place puts a smile on one’s face.

Icelanders love to read books. Iceland publishes the most books per capita in the world, with five titles published per 1000 Icelanders. In 2009, the Reykjavik City Library’s book loans totaled to 1.2 million, but Reykjavik’s population is only 200,000. But the majority of books are sold during one particular time of the year—from late September to early November. This national tradition is called Jolabokaflod, or the "Christmas Book Flood." The books are gifted on the night of December 24th and people spend the night reading. The tradition started during World War II, when currency restrictions limited the amount of imported giftware in Iceland. But paper restrictions weren't that bad, so books became perfect Christmas presents.

Iceland's population is about 360,000 and on a such a small island with little immigration, there’s a chance that you have distant cousins that you don’t even know about. There is also a chance for an Icelander to accidentally date them. It’s such a problem that in 2010, they even developed an app which could help them to check if their newly gained acquaintance is related to them or not. The Íslendinga-App uses information from another data base Íslendingabók, or The Book of Icelanders, a website that lists all Icelanders since the first immigrants in the 11th century and their relations to one another. But the app makes it more convenient, provides easy access to smartphone users, and has some other fun functions. Android users just have to bump their phones and they already know how closely related they are.

Normally, in modern times, family members share their last name and it stays for generations through the father’s line, but in Iceland, they have their own last name system. Firstly, when two people get married, they keep their own last names. If they have a son, then his last name is formed by adding the suffix ‘-son’ to his father’s or mother’s first name, while a girl’s name would be formed by adding the suffix ‘-dóttir’. The suffixes literally mean ‘son’ and ‘daughter’ respectively. So that is how all of the family members can have different last names and there are no family names as we understand them now. Also, since 2019, Icelanders who identify as non-binary are allowed to add the suffix ‘-bur’ instead, which means ‘child.’

The Elephant Rock is a basalt rock found on the Westman Islands in Iceland. The Westman Islands formed after a series of volcanic eruptions and the last eruption that caused significant damage was in 1973. It is believed that the Elephant Rock formed in this very eruption.

It is spectacular because the shape is so defined, it looks like it has its trunk underwater and the basalt rock gives it a unique wrinkled skin texture.

Icelanders can eat ice cream no matter the temperature, and it gets cold there. In fact, they love ice cream so much that they have a word which, in essence, means driving around and eating ice cream. The word is ísbíltúr and it is a compound word. The first part of the word is taken from ísbúð, which means an ice-cream shop, and the second part is bíltúr, which signifies the act of jumping in a car and going for a ride. So together they mean going on a car ride where the journey is more important than the destinations, but at some point, you enjoy some ice cream.

According to the Elfschool, 54 percent of Icelanders believe that elves are real and even more people respect the traditions and myths surrounding them. And you can find tiny elf houses all around Iceland to remind you of their otherworldly presence. If someone outside Iceland wants to know more about elves, they can go to the Elfschool, where they can learn what these elves look like, where and how they live in just a day. The school promises to introduce students to people who are experts in this field and to tell many stories of people meeting the elves.

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is an Icelandic politician who served as the fourth President of Iceland and she was the first female who was democratically elected as president in the world. She is also Iceland’s only female president to date. During the 1980 presidential election, the Icelandic women’s movement focused on electing a woman. That year, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir ran against three male candidates and won with a small difference: she received 33.6 percent of the national vote and the nearest rival got 32.1 percent. After four years in office, she was very popular and was re-elected again in 1984 with nobody running against her. She then won the election with 94.6 percent of the votes in 1988, and again in 1996 unopposed. That makes her the longest-serving Icelandic president (four terms) until Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson was elected to his fifth term in 2012.

In Iceland and other Nordic countries, it’s not unusual to leave your infant to sleep outside even in freezing temperatures. Of course, they are dressed appropriately and covered up, but even then, most parents from other countries would feel wary about leaving their infant in cold weather. However, in Iceland, it is believed that sleeping in the cold boosts children’s immune system and contributes to a better rest. Maybe there is truth to that, because the average life expectancy in Iceland is 82 years, which is 10 years more than the world’s average.

There are approximately 1,300 types of insects in Iceland, but no mosquitoes. Temperatures in Iceland can get very low or suddenly and unexpectedly rise, which would interfere with a mosquito’s lifecycle. Scientists think that this is the reason why Iceland is a mosquito-free country. But just because there aren’t any mosquitoes biting doesn’t mean that there is nothing to replace them. Icelanders have to deal with midges, which look like mosquitoes and also bite.

The first McDonald’s in Iceland was opened in 1993, but the fast-food chain didn’t survive for that long. In 2009, the last restaurant was closed and no new ones were opened. After the initial enthusiasm and after Burger King and KFC opened, McDonald’s became just another fast-food chain for Icelanders, so it wasn’t that special anymore. Also, the 2008 financial crash contributed to the last restaurant closing and now you can find Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and TGIF’s, but no McDonald’s in Iceland.

In Iceland, you can’t name your baby whatever name you want. The baby naming process is regulated by the Icelandic Naming Committee established in 1991. They created a list of approved names and as of 2012, it contained 1,712 male names and 1,853 female names. If the parents want to give their baby a name which isn’t in the official approved list, they have to submit the name to the committee for approval. The committee evaluates whether the name is compatible with Icelandic grammar and if there is likelihood that it would cause embarrassment for the bearer. Until 2019, all names had to have grammatical gender, but since then, it has been changed.