Iceland Flag

There are four symbols in the colors and objects on the Icelandic flag which have great meaning to the people. The red cross which was introduced to the modern flag in 1915 stand for Christianity. The three colors represent three important aspects of their lives. Red is symbolic of the fire that erupts from volcanoes on the island, white represents snow that covers the land occasionally, and blue stands for the color of mountains on the island.

According to a legend, a red flag with a white cloth fell from the heavens during the Battle of Valdemar ensuring Danish victory. Denmark used this flag in its territories until the time when Iceland became a kingdom on its own. At independence, Iceland kept the cross but changed the background.Iceland‘s original flag was a white cross on a blue background. This flag was paraded in 1897 for the first time. This flag referred to as Hvítbláinn ("the white-blue") was used up to the 1900. There was another designer of Iceland‘s flag known as Einar Benediktsson’s whose design was more popular with the people in around the second decade of the 1900s. His design was a white cross on a blue background.

The flag of Iceland was put in place through a law that stipulated how the national flag and coat of arms should look like. The law describes the colors and dimensions of the flag. Apart from this law, there also exists a law that defines official flag days and times. The original design of the fag was by a man called Matthías Þórðarson in 1906. He made the design and presented it to the Reykjavík Student’s Association. In this presentation, he outlined the symbolism of the different colors. This design by Matthias was eventually adopted as the official flag over a long struggle.

In past versions of the flag, the hue of blue has appeared to be slightly different. There was also formerly an unofficial flag of Iceland that was only blue and white.

This page was last modified on May 1st, 2018

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Published on 2019-11-06


Capital	Reykjavik
Languages	Icelandic, English, Nordic languages, German widely spoken
Ethnic Groups	Homogeneous mixture of descendants of Norse and Celts 94%, population of foreign origin 6%
Religion	Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland (official) 69.9%, Roman Catholic 3.8%, Reykjavik Free Church 2.9%, Hafnarfjorour Free Church 2%, Asatru Association 1.1%, The Independent Congregation 1%, other religions 4% (includes Zuist and Pentecostal), none 6.1%, other or unspecified 9.2% (2017 est.)
Government	Parliamentary republic
Independance	1 December 1918 (became a sovereign state under the Danish Crown); 17 June 1944 (from Denmark; birthday of Jon SIGURDSSON leader of Iceland's 19th Century independence movement)
Area	103,000.00 km²
Water Area	2,750.00 km²
Land Area	100,250.00 km²
Population	335,878.00 Iceland is almost entirely urban with half of the population located in and around the capital of Reykjavik; smaller agglomerations are primarily found along the coast in the north and west
Location	Northern Europe, island between the Greenland Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, northwest of the United Kingdom
GDP(PPP)	$16,150,000,000.00 (USD)
GDP (Per Capita)	$48,100.00 (USD)
Export Partners	Its major export partners are the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Spain.
Export Commodities	Its main exports are fish and fish products.
Import Partners	Its major import partners are Norway, Germany, the United States.
Import Commodities	Its major imports include machinery and equipment, petroleum products, foodstuffs, and textiles.
Climate	Temperate; moderated by North Atlantic Current; mild, windy winters; damp, cool summers
Terrain	Mostly plateau interspersed with mountain peaks, icefields; coast deeply indented by bays and fiords
Learn More	Iceland

Iceland Flag

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