Iceland 1930

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1830571079

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-221162

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Iceland 1930

Edition:: 2. ed.

Place of publication:: Reykjavík

Publisher:: Ríkisprentsmiđjan Gutenberg

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: 193 S.; Tab., Kt., Taf.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Population

Collection:: Economics Books

2 vocabulary. But as the old stock of words still remains unaltered in the main, and as both grammatical forms and rules are very much the same as of old, the Icelanders can read and understand their literature of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries much more easily than an Eng- lishman can the works of Shakespeare. Hence it is wrong to speak about Old and Modern Icelandic as being two different languages; on the contrary, they are one and the same language, Icelandic, which has remained essentially unaltered from the time of the colonization to this very day. And though the country is large, the inhabitants widely scat- tered, and infercommunication therefore very difficult, there are no dialects, and the difference between the spoken and written language is less marked than in most other countries. This is supposed to be chiefly due to the fact, that our language has from the first been a literary language, and our literature extensively read by the general public. Hence the uniformity of speech in spite of the widely scattered population and want of communications. DENSITY OF POPULATION Iceland is by far the most sparsely populated country in Europe, with a present population of about 106 000, which gives an average of something more than one person per square kilometre. In Norway and Finland, the most thinly peopled countries in Europe (Iceland excepted), the populations average 7 and 9 per square km. respectively. But it should be remembered that almost four-fifths of Iceland are uninhabited and for the most part uninhabitable (jdkulls, glaciers, sands. wastes). NUMBER AND INCREASE OF POPULATION It is not known with certainty what the population of Iceland was just after the country had become fully settled, but with some probability it has been estimated at about 60000 a hundred years or so after the first colonists landed there (in 965), and by the end of the eleventh century it may have numbered some 80 000. Afterwards it considerably decreased in number owing to the terrible disasters and plagues with which the country was frequently visited. The most deadly of these was the Black Death, which ravaged the country from 1402-—1404, and is supposed to have swept away no less than two-thirds of the population. The first census in Iceland was taken in 1703. It was very elaborate, giving the name, station, and age of every person, and is probably the

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