Commuting: Iceland's challenge and opportunity

European labour market mobility has increased in recent years. From June 2006 until the economic crash in the autumn of 2008 some 18,000 people migrated to Iceland to work. The majority were men. 

9,000 jobs were created in Iceland during 2006.

The number of Icelanders in Iceland dropped after the crash, especially during 2009 when they moved abroad to find word - mainly to Norway. Icelanders have begun returning in the same tempo as they did during the past two decades. 

Between 2006 and 2007 there were 10,826 more immigrants than people emigrating from Iceland. Now more have left Iceland than immigrated. Despite this, the annual number of immigrants has been higher in 2009, 2010 and 2011 than it was in the years before the economic boom between 2005 and 2006.

Emigration is proportionally smaller among immigrants with foreign heritage than among Icelanders.

Source: The Ministry of Welfare report on migration 1961-2011.