Iceland review - 2012, Blaðsíða 90

88 ICELAND REVIEW
the sPell is broken, she
is number 98

Ísleifur Gissurarson was born in 1006,
six years after Iceland’s adoption of
Christianity at Alþingi, in Þingvellir.
In 1056 he became the first bishop
of Iceland, after studying in Herford,
Germany, and was made bishop by
Athelbjart, arcbishop of Bremen. Since
then, we have had 97 more bishops
in Iceland, thereof 58 in Ísleifur’s
homestead Skálholt, and from 1797
in Reykjavík, and 38 at Hólar, North
Iceland. In April 2012, the spell was
broken as Agnes M Sigurðardóttir
became the first woman to be elected
Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran
State Church of Iceland. Eighty per-
cent of the population belongs to that
church. PS
FaithFully yours

According to Statistics Iceland, 245,456
people are registered members of the
Icelandic Church. The Catholic Church
has 10,455 members in Iceland. The
Old Norse Religion, Ásatrú, has 1,951
members. Jehovah has 696 witnesses.
Registered Muslims are 419. In addi-
tion to these, the people of Iceland
belong to several other religious
organizations. Then there are those
who prefer not to. They are currently
15,802. ÁA
muniCiPalities in
iCeland

There are 76 municipalities in Iceland,
and their populations range from 52 in
Árneshreppur in Strandir, to 124,600 in
the capital, Reykjavík. The average pop-
ulation is 4,190. The largest in area is
Fljótsdalshérað, in east Iceland, at 8,884
square kilometers or 3,430 square miles,
about the same size as the islands of
Puerto Rico or Cyprus. The population
is 3,406. The total length of the roads in
Fljótsdalshérað is 887 kilometers or 551
miles, and that includes 257 kilometers
or 160 miles of mountain roads, passable
only by 4 x 4 vehicles. PS
F a c t s &
F I g u r e s
f&f