What Is the Biggest City in Iceland? (2026 Data)

In 1901 Reykjavík was a town of 6,667¹ people. Today the municipality alone has 140,470² residents, and the capital region around it holds almost two in three Icelanders. No other place in Iceland comes close: the next-largest municipality, Kópavogur, is a neighbouring suburb, and the largest town outside the capital region, Keflavík and Njarðvík, has about 22,572³ people.

That concentration shapes everything from where visitors stay to how the country's other towns grow. This report uses Statistics Iceland's population tables, going back to the census of 1901, to answer which city is biggest by three different measures, what comes second, how many cities and towns Iceland really has, and how Reykjavík compares with the other Nordic capitals. It ends with the capital's biggest landmarks, from the largest church to the largest shopping centres.

Reykjavík: one city, three sizes

Statistics Iceland publishes no separate category of "city". It counts people by municipality (sveitarfélag) and by locality (þéttbýli), the built-up areas where houses stand close together,³ so the size of Reykjavík depends on which boundary is used.

The municipality of Reykjavík, Reykjavíkurborg, had 140,470² residents at the end of June 2026, or 35.4%² of Iceland's 396,500² people. It covers 273 km²⁴, about 105 square miles, which is only 0.27%⁴ of Iceland's area.

The capital region adds six neighbouring municipalities: Kópavogur, Hafnarfjörður, Garðabær, Mosfellsbær, Seltjarnarnes and Kjósarhreppur. Together they had 253,230² residents, or 63.9%² of the population. The urban area of Greater Reykjavík, the continuous built-up zone that spreads across municipal borders, counted 247,162³ people on 1 January 2026, 62.7%³ of the country. Counted as a single urban nucleus within its own borders, the town of Reykjavík had 138,753³.

Top 10 biggest cities in Iceland

Ranked by municipality on 1 January 2026, Reykjavík leads with 139,804⁵ residents, followed by Kópavogur with 40,286⁵ and Hafnarfjörður with 32,398⁵. Reykjanesbær is fourth with 22,697⁵, ahead of Garðabær (20,724⁵) and Akureyri (20,284⁵), the largest municipality in the north. Mosfellsbær, Árborg, Akranes and Múlaþing complete the top 10.

Five of the ten largest municipalities are in the capital region. Only 8⁵ of Iceland's 62 municipalities had 10,000 residents or more, while 26⁵ had fewer than 1,000. The smallest, Tjörneshreppur, had just 54⁵ residents.

Biggest towns in Iceland

A municipality can hold several towns, and one town can spread over several municipalities, so the list of localities looks different. Greater Reykjavík, with 247,162³ people, is about 11 times³ the size of the next urban area, Keflavík and Njarðvík (22,572³). Akureyri follows with 20,467³, then Selfoss with 11,066³ and Akranes with 8,607³. Vestmannaeyjar is sixth with 4,518³.

Only 4³ localities have 10,000 residents or more. Below Akranes the sizes drop quickly: the tenth-largest town, Egilsstaðir, has 2,719³ people, and the twentieth, Reyðarfjörður, 1,470³.

Statistics Iceland also splits Greater Reykjavík into its urban nuclei, one per municipality. On that basis the town of Reykjavík had 138,753³ residents, Kópavogur 40,228³ and Hafnarfjörður 32,398³, so three of Iceland's four largest urban places touch each other on the map.

Second biggest city in Iceland

The answer depends on the measure again. As a municipality, Kópavogur has been in second place in every year since at least 1998, when it had 19,867⁵ residents; at the end of June 2026 it had 40,240². Hafnarfjörður is third with 32,810². Both are part of the Greater Reykjavík urban area, so neither is a separate town on the map.

Outside the capital region, the title has changed hands. In 2016 Akureyri, the largest town in the north, still had 17,974³ residents against 14,841³ in Keflavík and Njarðvík. The airport town grew by 52.1%³ in ten years and overtook Akureyri in 2022. Among municipalities, Reykjanesbær passed Akureyri in the same year, and Garðabær passed it in 2025, pushing Akureyri down to sixth place.

So if Reykjavík is the only real city, how many cities and towns does the rest of Iceland add up to?

How many cities in Iceland are there?

Counted by local government, Iceland had 62⁵ municipalities on 1 January 2026. After the local elections of 16 May 2026 the number fell to 61⁶, when Borgarbyggð and Skorradalshreppur were counted as one in Statistics Iceland's quarterly table.² Several carry the word for town (bær or kaupstaður) in their names, such as Kópavogsbær and Hafnarfjarðarkaupstaður.⁵

The number has shrunk through mergers. There were 173⁷ municipalities in 1875 and, most likely, a peak of 229⁸ in 1950. Few changes came until a 1986 law allowed small municipalities to be merged; in 1986 there were 223⁸, by 1998 124⁸, and by 2006 79⁸. Since 1950 Iceland has lost 168⁶ municipalities.

How many towns in Iceland

Statistics Iceland counts a locality as urban when at least 200 people live there. By that rule Iceland had 67³ towns and villages on 1 January 2026: 1³ with over 100,000 people (Greater Reykjavík), 3³ with 10,000–99,999, 22³ with 1,000–9,999 and 41³ villages with 200–999. Another 37³ clusters of 50–199 people are listed but counted as rural.

The towns hold most of the population. Greater Reykjavík alone has 62.7%³, the three towns of 10,000–99,999 another 13.7%³, and only 5.5%³ of people live in rural areas or in clusters under 200. The number of urban localities has barely moved: 64³ in 1998 and 67 in 2026. Because the count dipped to 58 in 2012 before rising again, a straight line through 1998–2026 points to only about 63 by 2050, our calculation rather than a forecast; population growth has gone mostly into existing towns rather than new ones.

Smallest town in Iceland

Among places large enough to count as urban, the smallest was Kirkjubæjarklaustur, with 210³ residents on 1 January 2026. The smallest locality that Statistics Iceland lists at all is Grímsey, with 47³ people, down from 69³ in 2016. Several of the tiny places in the table were not listed in 2016 because they had fewer than 50 residents then.

How Reykjavík grew

The census of 1 November 1901 counted 6,667¹ people in Reykjavík, 8.5%¹ of Iceland. The town grew fast in the first half of the century: 28,304¹ in 1930 and 56,251¹ in 1950. Reykjavík passed 100,000 residents in 1992¹ and had 139,804⁵ on 1 January 2026, 21 times as many as in 1901.

Since 2000 the municipality has added about 1,006⁵ people a year on average. Drawn forward, that straight line reaches about 158,000⁵ residents in 2050, our calculation rather than a forecast. The trend hides a dip: the population fell from 119,547⁵ in 2009 to 115,394⁵ in 2011, then grew by 20,538⁵ in the last ten years.

Reykjavík's share of Iceland peaked at 40.8%¹ in the census of 1960. Since 1998 it has slipped from 39.4%⁵ to 35.5%⁵, because the suburbs and the towns within commuting distance grew faster. If the trend of 2000–2026 continued, Reykjavík's share would fall to about 31.2%⁵ by 2050. The capital region as a whole moved the other way, from 60.4%⁵ of the population in 1998 to 63.9%⁵ in 2026.

Where Iceland is growing fastest

Between 1 January 2016 and 2026, Iceland's population grew by 20.9%⁵. Reykjavík grew more slowly, by 17.2%⁵, while the rest of the capital region pushed the region's growth to 20.6%⁵. Outside the capital region, population rose by 21.5%⁵.

The fastest growth came outside the capital region. Among municipalities with at least 1,000 residents in 2016, Vogar grew by 67.3%⁵, Árborg by 56.3%⁵, Ölfus by 52.3%⁵ and Reykjanesbær by 51.9%⁵. In the capital region, Mosfellsbær (47.5%⁵) and Garðabær (43.5%⁵) grew much faster than Reykjavík. On the south coast, the village of Vík grew from 318³ to 740³ residents.

One town went sharply the other way. Grindavík on the Reykjanes Peninsula had 3,575³ registered residents on 1 January 2024 and 817³ on 1 January 2026, a fall of 77% in two years.

Inside Reykjavík: the districts

Reykjavík is divided into ten districts. The largest, Breiðholt, had 22,283⁹ residents on 1 January 2026, almost exactly as many as in 1998 (22,234⁹). Laugardalur (19,514⁹) and Grafarvogur (18,358⁹) follow. The city centre, Miðborg, has 10,999⁹ residents after growing 40.8%⁹ since 2016.

The fastest-built district shows how the city has expanded outward. Grafarholt-Úlfarsárdalur had only 72⁹ residents in 1998 and 8,884⁹ in 2026. Kjalarnes, which joined Reykjavík in 1998,¹ is the smallest district with 1,008⁹. Another 1,918⁹ residents were registered without a district.

Area and density of the capital region

Reykjavík's 273 km²¹⁰ (105 sq mi) make it a spacious city: with 139,804 residents it has about 1,326¹⁰⁵ people per square mile, or 512 per km². Kópavogur, on 80 km²¹⁰ (31 sq mi), is almost as dense. The densest municipality is Seltjarnarnes, with 2 km²¹⁰ (0.8 sq mi) with about 5,969¹⁰⁵ people per square mile. Kjósarhreppur covers 284 km²¹⁰ with only 319 residents.

The municipal areas listed by the University of Iceland's science web add up to about 1,043 km² (about 403 sq mi), roughly 1% of Iceland, which puts the whole capital region at about 626¹⁰⁵ people per square mile.

Who lives in Iceland's biggest city

Reykjavík has more people of working age, and fewer children and older people, than the rest of the country. On 1 January 2026, people in their thirties made up 17.2%⁵ of Reykjavík's residents against 14.8%⁵ elsewhere in Iceland. Children under 15 were 16.3%⁵ of the city against 18.2% outside it, and people aged 65 and over 15.3%⁵ against 16.6%. The city had 71,096⁵ male and 68,587⁵ female residents.

Reykjavík also has the highest share of foreign citizens among the capital region's large municipalities. At the end of June 2026, 30,410² foreign citizens lived in the city, 21.6%² of its residents, up from 7.1%² at the end of 2010. The national figure was 17.9%². Among the 15 largest municipalities the highest share is in Reykjanesbær, at 30.1%², and the lowest in Garðabær, at 7.7%².

Statistics Iceland's degree-of-urbanisation table gives one more view of city life. In 2026, 63.8%¹¹ of Iceland's population lived in densely populated areas, 16.3%¹¹ in intermediate areas and 19.9%¹¹ in thinly populated areas. The dense share has barely changed since 2010 (63.2%), while intermediate areas gained.

From a single city to a whole region of Europe: how big is Reykjavík next to the other Nordic capitals?

Reykjavík among the Nordic capitals

Nordic Statistics compares the capital areas of the Nordic countries using each national office's own definition; for Iceland it is the capital region. In 2025 the Reykjavík capital area had 249,054¹² residents, about a tenth of Stockholm's 2,473,307¹² and a sixth of Oslo's 1,464,970¹². Copenhagen had 1,396,508¹² and Helsinki 1,266,471¹².

Reykjavík is small but fast. From 2011 to 2025 its capital area grew by 26.2%¹², the fastest of the eight capital areas, ahead of Nuuk (25.5%¹²) and Oslo (23.2%¹²). Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands, Nuuk in Greenland and Mariehamn in Åland are the only smaller Nordic capitals.

The biggest buildings in Iceland's capital

Biggest church in Reykjavik

Hallgrímskirkja, the Lutheran parish church on Skólavörðuholt hill, describes itself as the largest church in Iceland.¹³ Its tower rises 244 feet (74.5 m)¹⁴. Designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, it took decades to build: construction began in 1945¹⁵, the steeple and wings were consecrated in 1974¹⁵ and the nave was completed in 1986¹⁵. Iceland Magazine reported in 2018 that the church was the tallest building in Reykjavík and the second-tallest building in Iceland.¹⁵

The tallest building in the country is not in Reykjavík at all. According to the same 2018 report, the Smáratorg tower next to the Smáralind shopping centre in Kópavogur measures 255 feet (77.6 m)¹⁵, about 10 feet (3.1 m) more than Hallgrímskirkja, and a smokestack at the aluminium smelter in Reyðarfjörður, East Iceland, reaches 256 feet (78 m)¹⁵.

Biggest mall in Iceland

Smáralind in Kópavogur calls itself the largest shopping centre in Iceland, with more than 667,000 sq ft (62,000 m²)¹⁶ of shops, restaurants, services and entertainment and nearly 3,000¹⁶ parking spaces. It opened on 10 October 2001¹⁷, and at 61,500 m² it was then the largest building in Iceland.¹⁷

The biggest mall in Reykjavik itself is Kringlan, which describes itself as the city's largest shopping centre.¹⁸ It opened in 1987¹⁸ with about 301,000 sq ft (28,000 m²)¹⁹ and had grown to about 570,000 sq ft (53,000 m²)¹⁹ by 2017. Today it has more than 150¹⁸ shops, restaurants and service businesses and over 1,800¹⁸ parking spaces.

What the numbers mean

For a country of about 396,500 people, Iceland has a dominant capital. With 63.9% of residents in the capital region and 62.7% in one continuous urban area, Greater Reykjavík is about 11 times the size of the next urban area, and 5 of the 10 largest municipalities lie in the capital region.

That dominance is not growing inside Reykjavík's own borders. The municipality's share of Iceland has fallen from 39.4% in 1998 to 35.5% today, while nearby municipalities such as Vogar, Árborg and Ölfus grew by more than half in ten years. The practical result is a capital that spreads: new districts such as Grafarholt-Úlfarsárdalur, suburbs that overtake old regional centres, and a population that is younger, more international and more likely to be in its thirties than the rest of the country.

Conclusions

1. Reykjavík is the biggest city by every measure, but the size depends on the border. The municipality has 140,470 residents, the continuous urban area 247,162 and the capital region 253,230, a gap of more than 100,000 people between the narrowest and widest definition.
2. The second-biggest place is really a suburb. Kópavogur and Hafnarfjörður are separate municipalities but part of the same urban area; the largest separate town, Keflavík and Njarðvík, passed Akureyri only in 2022, driven by growth of 52.1% in ten years.
3. Iceland has few cities and many small towns. There are 62 municipalities and 67 towns and villages, yet only 4 places have more than 10,000 people, and the number of urban localities has barely changed since 1998.
4. Growth is moving to the edge of the capital. Reykjavík grew 17.2% in ten years against 20.9% for Iceland, and its capital area was still the fastest-growing in the Nordic region from 2011 to 2025 at 26.2%, so the wider region, not the old city, absorbs the new residents.