ABSTRACT
Iceland is located in the North Atlantic Ocean just south of the Arctic Circle. At 103,000km² in size, it is the world’s 18th largest island, and Europe’s second largest island following Great Britain. It is considered to be a part of Europe, not North America, though geologically the island belongs to both continents. Due to its cultural, economic and linguistic similarities, in some contexts Iceland is also included in Scandinavia. It is reasonably remote with its nearest neighbours being Green-land (287km) and the Faroe Islands (420km). The population is 316,000, and its capital city Reykjavik is the world’s northernmost one. The majority of the people live in coastal areas near the capital with other major towns scattered around the coast. Only a quarter of the country is vegetated and much of the remainder is lakes, glaciers or lava-covered wasteland.
