Distillers Country guides / Iceland
Iceland
A one-page guide to Iceland for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Reykjavik
- Official languages
- Icelandic
- Currency
- Icelandic krona (ISK)
- Time zone
- UTC+0 (GMT)
- Area
- 103,000 km²
People
- Population
- 392,404 (2025)
- Population growth
- 1.5% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 94.2%
- Aged under 15
- 17.5%
- Aged 65 and over
- 16.0%
- Life expectancy
- 82.8 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$38.6 billion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$98,323 (2025)
- Economic growth
- 1.28% (2025)
- Inflation
- 4.09% (2025)
Climate
Subarctic coastal climate moderated by the North Atlantic Current; cool summers; the south coast is warmer, wetter and windier than the north; highlands are coldest. Records: 30.5 C high and -38 C low.
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Legal
- Legal drinking age
- 20 for on- and off-premise sales of all beverages (WHO 2018 country profile, status 2016: https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/country-profiles/substances-abuse/ISL.pdf)
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 8.16 litres of pure alcohol (2022)
- What people drink
- Beer 57%, wine 28%, spirits 15% (2016)
- Traditional drinks
- Brennivin (caraway-flavoured spirit)
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); Wikipedia - Iceland; Vinbudin (ATVR); Wikipedia - Brennivin; WHO country profile ISL; Eimverk Distillery - Great Drams; Wikipedia: Brennivín. Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.