Of the 260,000 population, 170,000 live in Reykjavik. The rest live round the island's coast; almost 80 per cent of the land mass is uninhabitable.
Icelandic culinary delicacies include hakarl - rotting shark meat which has been buried in sand to putrify for six months; sursathir hrutspungar - ram's testicles pickled in whey and pressed into a cake; and slatur - sheep leftovers tied up in a sheep's stomach and cooked.
Life expectancy is high: 75.7 for men, 80.3 for women.
Iceland's parliament, the Althing, was founded in 930AD and is the oldest in the world.
Alcohol is expensive - upwards of pounds £5 for a pint of beer - because the government levies huge taxes on it to try to discourage drinking.
Dried fish was legal tender until early this century.
Iceland publishes more books per capita than any other country. Hot water is free, pumped into homes from underground volcanic springs. Hot springs for swimming can be found all over Iceland.
Famous Icelanders: Bjork, Vigdis Finnbogadottir, Magnus Magnusson, Sally Magnusson.