Lögberg-Heimskringla - 22.02.1985, Blaðsíða 3

WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 22. FEBRÚAR 1985 3
A New Society puts down its roots
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Caurtesy News fram Iccland
The population of Iceland may in-
crease by as much as 40% over the
next forty years, according to a
prediction from the Planning Depart-
ment of the Economic Dcvelopment
Institute. The institute's demographic
report on population and employ-
ment describes in statistical form the
revolutionary changes Iceland has
undergone over the last century or
so.
There are now 238,000 Icelandcrs,
three times as many as at the turn of
the century, and they have incrcas-
ingly left the land to move into in-
dustrial and service work in urban
centres, especially the capital. Well
over half tlie population now lives on
the southwest peninsula, in Reyk-
javík and environs — in 1901, there
were 12,000 people living in the area,
8,000 of whom (8% of the population)
lived in Reykjavík. Today the popula-
tion of Reykjavík is ten times higher
at 87,000.
In 1901 Iceiand was a mainly rurai
country, vvhere three-quarters of the
population lived outside urban cen-
tres, while by 1983 hine-tenths lived
in towns and villages. The rural
population has hardly changed, and
the urban centres have blossomed.
Only in the West Fjords has popula-
tion fallen in real terms, from around
12,000 to under 10,500, Whole sec-
tions of the West Fjords where com-
munities once flourished are now
deserted.
Manpower has moved from the
traditional fishing and farming into
new forms of employment. At the
turn of the century nearly two-thirds
of the population was involved in far-
ming and fishing — today it is under
11%. Even in real terms the number
of people working on farms has
plummeted, from 17,000 to 7,000:
numbers in the fishing industry have,
on the other hand, remaincd fairly
steady.
Meanwhile, the proportion of the
work force employed in fish-
processing and other industry has
soared from 12% to 37%; in real
terms a tenfold increase in man-
power from 4,000 to over 40,000.
Over half the population now works
in service industries as against 25%
in 1910, The number working in ser-
vices has increased sixfold since 1910
— in banking and insurance the
number of employees has tripled,
and hospital workers have quadrupl-
ed, just in the past twenty years.
The growth in population during
the 20th century can partly be at-
tributed to medical advances and a
Reykjavík's largely scrvicc-based population continucs to swell at the expense of smaller agricultural
and fishing communities.
rise in the standard of living which
have reduced child mortality and
doubled life expectancy since the
mid-nineteenth century. In the 1850s
the average Icelander could expect to
live only to his or her mid-thirties,
while now the figure is in the high
seventies. These figures reflect the
high rate of child death in the last
century: 25% of children died in the
first year of life, and only half could
expect to reach the age of 25. Today
mortality in the first year is well
under 1% and about half the popuia-
tion lives to be eighty.
Not surprisingly in view of the
dramatic improvement in lifc expec-
tancy, there has been a slow down-
ward trend in the birthrate, At the
turn of the century, when every
fourth or fifth child could be ex-
pected to die before reaching the age
of twenty, the average woman gave
birth to 4.4 children — today's figure
is 3.3.
Even now Icelanders tend to have
larger families than other Europeans:
the Economic Development Institute
predicts a rise in population of
anything up to 40% over the next for-
ty years if the present birthratc is sus-
taincd, or about 28% if the
downward trend continues, In 2023,
therefore, there will be 70 to 90 thou-
sand more Icelanders than today.
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