The capital Reykjavik is by far the largest city in Iceland. Over 138,700 people live in the capital. The second largest city, Kópavogur, is located just outside of Reykjavik and has close to 40,000 inhabitants. Also the third largest city, Hafnarfjörður, can be found close to the capital. More than 375,000 people live in Iceland.

Nearly two thirds of the population in Iceland lived in cities in 2022. However, the share has decreased somewhat over the past 10 years. Furthermore, the share of people living in rural areas increased from 15.5 percent in 2020 to over 21 percent in 2021. In 2022, 241,000 of Iceland's 376,248 inhabitants lived in the capital region.

cities in Iceland. name, office head of government, Mayor, image, Area, date founded, Elevation, Country, administrative division, continent, latitude, waterbody, longitude, Website, population, Demonym

This statistic shows the degree of urbanization in Iceland from 2013 to 2023. Urbanization means the share of urban population in the total population of a country. In 2023, 94.04 percent of Iceland's total population lived in urban areas and cities. The population of Iceland Iceland is currently 94 percent urban, making it the eighth most urban country in the world. However, even though the majority of the population lives in urban areas, the island itself is not densely populated. The population overwhelmingly lives in the nation’s capital and largest city, Reykjavik, which is located in the southwest corner of the island and is considered the northernmost national capital in the world. Reykjavik is only home to around 120,000 people and has more of a suburban feel to it than that of an urban metropolis. Reykjavik has become the home base for the country’s booming tourist industry for those who want to venture out to explore the island’s vast wilderness. In 2014 alone, there were around 4.4 million tourists who stopped on the island for a short stay (413264). The two second largest cities, Kopavogur and Hafnarfjour, are also located very close to the capital, and are each home to around 30,000 people- significantly less than the population of Reykjavik. In total, the small island nation reports a population of around 330,000 people as of 2015, and these figures are not likely to grow significantly in the future, as the fertility rate is less than the natural replacement rate and annual population growth is also low.

This horizontal bar chart displays individuals using the Internet (% of population) by capital city using the aggregation average, weighted by population in Iceland. The data is about countries per year.

This bar chart displays urban population (people) by capital city using the aggregation sum in Iceland. The data is filtered where the date is 2021. The data is about countries per year.

This horizontal bar chart displays fertility rate (births per woman) by capital city using the aggregation average, weighted by population female in Iceland. The data is filtered where the date is 2021. The data is about countries per year.

Ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate and built up area per capita at the national level for Iceland, Israel and Slovakia and for select cities in Israel, Portugal and Slovakia. Data is produced by the national bureau of statistics in each country. Delineation of cities and urban areas vary by country - data for some countries is produced using the official municipality boundaries and for others the harmonized DEGURBA approach is used.

In 2024, Iceland was the Nordic country with the highest degree of urbanization, with over 80 percent of the population living in cities, towns, or suburbs. It is also the only Nordic country with a higher degree of urbanization than the EU average. Norway is the country with the lowest degree of urbanization, but the share was unusually high between 2021 and 2023, which is probably down to a change in the classification of towns and suburbs, as a municipal reform altered the number and size of municipalities. The reform was revoked at the beginning of 2024.

The cities in Europe where survey respondents most commonly indicated that they were a good place to live for gay and lesbian people were Rekjavik,Valletta and Groningen in 2023. In general, the cities which ranked as the best place to live for lesbian and gay people in Europe were in Nordic countries (Norway, Iceland, Copenhagen, Sweden, Finland), western European countries (Luxembourg, Germany, the Netherlands), and southern European countries (Italy, Malta, Spain). The five cities with the fewest respondents indicating that they were a good place to live were all in south-eastern Europe, with the bottom two both coming from Turkey (Diyarbakir) and Albania (Tirania). Turkey tends to rank so lowly due to the influence of traditionalist and religious social norms, which do not recognize LGBTQ relationships as being on a par as heterosexual relationships and lead to more commonly held homophobic views.