Almost 11,000 people moved to Iceland last year

By Hege Eilertsen, High North News April 5, 2017
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The city skyline of Reykjavik, Iceland, on April 7, 2016. (Arnaldur Halldorsson / Bloomberg)
The city skyline of Reykjavik, Iceland, on April 7, 2016. (Arnaldur Halldorsson / Bloomberg)

An unusually high number of people moved to Iceland last year, according to new figures from Statistics Iceland.

In 2016, 10,958 people moved to the island, compared with 7,461 in 2015, reports Iceland Review.

The number of those who immigrated exceeded that of those who left the country by 4,069. That difference was 1,451 the previous year.

Only twice in the past has net immigration in Iceland exceeded that of last year. This was in 2006 and 2007, when net immigration was about 5,200. The year 2007 is the only one when more people immigrated to Iceland than last year, or 12,546.

Among the 3,245 Icelandic citizens who left the country in 2016, 2,134 moved to Norway, Denmark or Sweden. Most of them (993) moved to Denmark.