Transport and infrastructure in Iceland
Our listing of the primary types of transport compares the infrastructure of Iceland with the average of all countries in Europe. Overall, the traffic routes are above average and in good condition.› Airports in Iceland
Back to overview: Iceland
Road traffic
The network of roads and highways has a total length of 12,898 km. For each of the country's 372,520 inhabitants, this corresponds to 34.62 meters. This puts Iceland in 13th place in the global ranking. However, it is also important to note that the country's population density is very low at around 4 inhabitants per km². In this case, disproportionately long distances generally have to be covered to reach the more remote parts of the country.With an average of 16 traffic fatalities per year (2013 - 2019), road traffic in Iceland is considered very safe. This corresponds to 4.7 accident fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. By comparison, this figure is 12.3 in the USA and 17.0 worldwide.
In Iceland, traffic drives on the right-hand side of the road, i.e. people drive in the right-hand lane and overtake on the left. Oncoming traffic comes toward you on the left side. This regulation was enforced on May 27th, 1968. Here you can also find an overview of all countries with left-hand traffic.
Iceland | |||
total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
---|---|---|---|
Roadways | 12,900 km | 34,623.64 km | 125.22 m |
Railroads | 0 km | 0.00 km | 0.00 m |
Waterways | 0 km | 0.00 km | 0.00 m |
Commercial harbors | 41 | 110.06 | 0.000 |
Airports | 10 | 26.84 | 0.097 |
Europe | |||
total | per 1 mio inhabitants | per km² | |
---|---|---|---|
Roadways | 6,708,900 km | 11,154.38 km | 1,111.71 m |
Railroads | 258,600 km | 429.97 km | 42.85 m |
Waterways | 54,800 km | 91.17 km | 9.09 m |
Commercial harbors | 15,273 | 25.39 | 0.003 |
Airports | 573 | 0.95 | 0.000 |
Data sources used
• Global Health Observatory Data Repository (World Health Organization)• UNCTAD
• Internation Union of Railways (UIC)
• CIA Factbook
• OECD Statistics
• Wikipedia (german)