Land use - Outlook 2020 (Iceland)

The international outlook is for increased climate change in the near future and continued melting of icecaps.

Growing population, higher income and more leisure time are pressures for urban sprawl and an increase in the number of summer houses and more leisure activity. The outlook for population development is a decrease or stagnation for the next four or five years due to migration of foreign labour and some emigration of nationals. The population decrease in 2009 was 0.7 %.

Figure 1. Population (1 January) trend and outlook 2000 to 2020. A bend in the trend of the population growth is foreseen for the next four-five years.