Iceland
ISL · 2024 energy mix · renewables 80.2% · fossil fuels 19.5%
Threat reading 9 of 100, classified STABLE. 0 events recorded here in the last seven days, 0 in the last thirty.
That number is computed from live feeds and moves. The live monitor is where to read it as of right now.
Where its energy comes from
| Hydro | 51.3% |
|---|---|
| Other renewables | 28.9% |
| Oil | 17.6% |
| Coal | 1.9% |
In 2024, renewables accounted for 80.2% and fossil fuels for 19.5%. On electricity traded with its neighbours, Iceland is close to balanced on electricity trade.
Sources under one per cent of the mix are left out of the table rather than listed as a row of zeroes. Percentages are shares of a country's primary energy, not of the power it generates.
Recorded history
NOAA's hazard records hold 14 significant earthquakes, 2 tsunamis and 54 significant eruptions in or just off Iceland since 920.
The deadliest was the April 1784 VEI 4 eruption (Grimsvotn, Iceland-NE), which killed 9,350 people.
The strongest earthquake on record here was magnitude 7.5, on 6 May 1912 (Iceland).
The most recent entry is the 18 December 2023 eruption (Reykjanes, Iceland-SW), which killed one person.
Across the entries that record a death toll, 10,229 people died.
| Date | What | Where | Toll |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 1784 | VEI 4 eruption | Grimsvotn, Iceland-NE | 9,350 dead |
| 11 July 1300 | VEI 4 eruption | Hekla, Iceland-S | 600 dead |
| 5 June 1362 | VEI 5 eruption | Oraefajokull, Iceland-SE | 220 dead |
| 1164 | earthquake | Iceland: Southland, Grimsnes | 19 dead |
| 1182 | earthquake | Iceland: Southland | 11 dead |
| 1013 | earthquake | Iceland: Sudurland | 11 dead |
| 1629 | VEI 2 eruption | Grimsvotn, Iceland-NE | 4 dead |
| 3 August 1727 | VEI 4 eruption | Oraefajokull, Iceland-SE | 3 dead |
| 17 October 1755 | VEI 4 eruption | Katla, Iceland-S | 2 dead |
| 31 March 2010 | VEI 2 eruption | Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland-S | 2 dead |
| 2 November 1947 | VEI 4 eruption | Hekla, Iceland-S | 1 dead |
| 25 July 1510 | VEI 4 eruption | Hekla, Iceland-S | 1 dead |
| 27 January 1973 | VEI 3 eruption | Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland-S | 1 dead, 300 homes destroyed |
| December 1684 | VEI 2 eruption | Grimsvotn, Iceland-NE | 1 dead |
| 5 September 1927 | VEI 1 eruption | Esjufjoll, Iceland-SE | 1 dead |
| 18 December 2023 | eruption | Reykjanes, Iceland-SW | 1 dead, 3 homes destroyed, damage $1 to 5 million |
| 1860 | eruption | Grimsvotn, Iceland-NE | 1 dead |
| 15 January 1967 | tsunami (waves to 75 m) | Iceland: Central-south | - |
| 21 July 2014 | tsunami (waves to 60 m) | Askja Lake | - |
| February 1477 | VEI 6 eruption | Bardarbunga, Iceland-NE | damage under $1 million |
| 6 May 1912 | magnitude 7.5 earthquake | Iceland | - |
| 29 March 1875 | VEI 5 eruption | Askja, Iceland-NE | damage under $1 million |
| 11 May 1721 | VEI 5 eruption | Katla, Iceland-S | damage under $1 million |
| 2 September 1625 | VEI 5 eruption | Katla, Iceland-S | - |
| 15 October 1104 | VEI 5 eruption | Hekla, Iceland-S | damage under $1 million |
These are the 25 deadliest and largest of 70 entries. A dash means NOAA recorded no number, not that nobody died. Older entries are fewer because fewer were written down, not because less happened.
Recorded history: NOAA NCEI hazard databases, public domain, retrieved 2026-10-22.
In the last 30 days
Our feeds placed no events in Iceland in the last 30 days. That is a statement about the feeds we read, not proof that nothing happened.
What the threat reading is made of
| Conflict | 0 |
|---|---|
| Unrest | 0 |
| Security | 10 |
| Spillover from neighbours | 0 |
| Natural hazard | 0 |
| Resilience | 89 |
Each is 0 to 100. Resilience runs the other way to the rest: a high number is a country better able to absorb a shock, not a country in more trouble.
Other countries tracked
Where the data comes from
Energy mix, 2024: Our World in Data, energy dataset (https://github.com/owid/energy-data), compiled by Pablo Rosado, Hannah Ritchie, Edouard Mathieu and Max Roser from the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Ember and The Shift Dataportal. Licence: Our World in Data's own compilation is CC BY 4.0. The underlying figures stay under their original terms: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy, U.S. EIA, Ember and The Shift Dataportal. The percentages shown here and the wording are ours. Threat reading: computed by Rift Web from the feeds listed on the sources page.