Icelands Family Structure

    In Iceland traditional families are considered a very small state even though its small most houses in the region can hold up to 2.57 individuals in a household. The majority of Icelander’s live within large family groups. Family is very important to them in several cases even their extended families also live with them to help each other with house duties and taking care of the younger ones. Many of these families do most of their socialization with each other. Icelanders just like us Americans have the same duties as teenagers making sure our rooms are clean, helping our mothers with dinner, doing laundry just to name a few duties that are parents had us do around the house growing up. I tried to find out what were several activities they would do as a family but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find some.

 Icelanders are very good off economics wise they are considered to be one of the best nations wide their stability rates are growing very quickly, and they honestly don’t have any individuals who don’t have jobs. In 2008 Iceland did fall into a economic crisis with several of their banks pacifically three to be exact, but even they are still considered to be pretty stable and are doing great. Icelanders, like many countries, have worked with foreign organization to export and import goodies within the two such as algaculture, technology, and other things that they may need to keep a good economical statue. According to Index Mundi states the following “Tourism accounted for 8.6% of Iceland’s GDP in 2016, and 39% of total exports of merchandise and services. From 2010 to 2017, the number of tourists visiting Iceland increased by nearly 400%. Since 2010, tourism has become a main driver of Icelandic economic growth, with the number of tourists reaching 4.5 times the Icelandic population in 2016’. From the previous quote we can see how the main source of their economy has been due to all the tourists that have helped this nation stay in their best economic state besides all their natural resources as well.

 In Iceland marriage isn’t as such as a big deal as it is in other customs or cultures in fact most of their residents aren’t married and its considered being a feminist culture in other words women are not looked down on for not being married with children it’s the other way around, actually they are looked up with adoration. I also found some very interesting facts one was that in the Iceland culture instead of a child taking their father’s last name they actually their first which I thought was very interesting because I have never seen that done before. Another interesting fact that I found was that they actually give Icelanders 6 months to choose a name for their child. In most cases if the family is very religious then they will wait until they have the ceremony to announce the child’s name. Lastly, I think that migration has had a big impact in Iceland throughout decades many people from other nations have migrated to Iceland. According to the article that I was reading it states that people started to immigrate to Iceland as early as the 1990’s and since then more people started to immigrate in Iceland and the numbers have just increased even more with the last couple of decades. 

References:

Economy & Infrastructure. (n.d.). https://www.iceland.is/the- big-picture/economy-infrastructure

Iceland economy - overview. Iceland Economy - overview - Economy. (n.d.). https://www.indexmundi.com/iceland/economy_overview.html#:~:text=Iceland%27s%20economy%20combines%20a%20capitalist%20structure%20and%20free-market,the%20fields%20of%20tourism%2C%20software%20production%2C%20and%20biotechnology.

Timothy Heleniak and Hjördis Rut Sigurjonsdottir. (2018, May 2). Once homogenous, Tiny Iceland opens its doors to immigrants. migrationpolicy.org. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/once-homogenous-tiny-iceland-opens-its-doors-immigrants

Torfadóttir, Á. (2022, October 4). 13 Icelandic traditions, customs & habits that you might find strange. Iceland Tours. https://www.icelandtours.is/blog/how-do-you-like-iceland-icelandic-traditions-customs-and-habits/

Writer, S., & Icelandorg. (2022, September 29). Iceland cultures, people and Traditions Guide. https://www.iceland.org/culture/

Iceland.org. Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://www.iceland.org/culture/