Iceland (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Fran Parnell [17]
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LIFESTYLE
In the last century the Icelandic lifestyle has shifted from isolated family communities living on scattered farms and in coastal villages to a more urban-based society with the majority of people living in the southwestern corner around Reykjavík. Despite this more outward-looking change, family connections are still very strong in Iceland, but young people growing up in rural Iceland are more likely to move to Reykjavík to study and work.
Icelanders work hard – the retirement age is 70 – and have enjoyed a very high standard of living in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. But keeping up with the Jónssons and Jónsdóttirs has come at a horrific price. For decades, Icelanders straight out of university have begun borrowing money to buy houses or 4WDs and spent the rest of their days paying off loans and living on credit. The recent economic crash means that it’s now payback time for all of that national debt. Most Icelanders have always had at least two jobs (for example, it’s common to find teachers spending their summer holiday leading treks and running tours), and so working themselves out of this financial black hole is going to be tough.
The Icelandic addiction to grafting is counterbalanced by their excessive idea of recreation. The bingeing in Reykjavík on Friday and Saturday nights is relaxation gone mad. So too are the hundreds of summer houses you’ll see when you’re driving round the Golden Circle, and the exceptional number of swimming pools, which form the social hub of Icelandic life.
The social care system is so good here that young Icelandic women have few worries about the financial implications of raising a child alone, and there’s no stigma attached to unmarried mothers. You’ll see pushchairs with contented-looking mums behind them rather than haggard or harried faces.
Crime is notable for its absence. We can’t think of a safer city than Reykjavík.
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POPULATION
The population of Iceland was a shade under 320,000 in 2009. A whopping 37% of all Icelanders live in Reykjavík, and the number is growing steadily as more people migrate from the country to the city – around 4000 people drift into town every year.
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Iceland’s population has tripled in the last 100 years.
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The Icelandic birth rate has been very high over the last few years, although it dropped a little to 1.24% in 2008 – that’s around one baby popping out every two hours. The little nippers can expect to live long in a pleasantly empty land: Iceland has one of the world’s highest life expectancies – 79.6 years for men and 83.0 years for women – and the lowest population density in Europe, with only 2.9 people per sq km.
Icelanders discovered fairly recently that much of their genetic make-up is Celtic, suggesting that far more of the Viking settlers had children by their slaves than originally thought. Even though they speak the nearest thing to Viking in existence, Iceland is actually the least purely Scandinavian of all the Nordic countries.
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WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Icelanders’ names are constructed from a combination of their first name and their father’s (or, more rarely, mother’s) first name. Girls add the suffix dóttir (daughter) to the patronymic and boys add son. Therefore, Jón, the son of Einar, would be Jón Einarsson. Guðrun, the daughter of Einar, would be Guðrun Einarsdóttir.
Because Icelandic surnames only tell people what your dad’s called, Icelanders don’t bother with ‘Mr Einarsson’ or ‘Mrs Einarsdóttir’. Instead they use first names, even when addressing strangers. It makes for a wonderfully democratic society when you’re expected to address your president or top police commissioner as Oliver or Harold!
About 10% of Icelanders have family names (most dating back to early settlement times), but they’re rarely used. In an attempt to homogenise the system, government legislation forbids anyone to take on a new family name or adopt