Reykjavík — capital and largest city of Iceland

Location

Reykjavík is located in the southwest of the island at the foot of the Reykjanesskagi peninsula, but the sparsely populated suburbs extend far to the south and east. The zone of plate tectonic shift that crosses Iceland from southwest to northeast also passes over this peninsula. Therefore, earthquakes are more frequent, but usually of low magnitude.

The city's coastline is characterized by (semi-)islands, caves and straits. During the last ice age (until about 10,000 years ago), parts of today's city area were covered by glaciers, other parts were below the waterline. During warm periods and at the end of the Ice Age, some of today's hills (such as Öskjuhlíð) were islands. The Öskjuhlíð and Skólavörðuholt hills are former shield volcanoes that were active during the warmer periods of the Ice Age. At 914 metres high, Esja is the highest mountain in the area.

The largest river that crosses Reykjavík is called Elliðaár, is not navigable and is known for its abundance of salmon. South and southwest of the capital is the nature reserve Heiðmörk.

Just a short distance from the Arctic Circle, Reykjavík receives only four hours of sunlight on the shortest days of the year. In summer, the nights are as bright as during the day.

Climate

Reykjavík is located in the subpolar climate zone. However, due to its location directly on the coast and close to the Gulf Stream, the city's climate has a significant maritime character. This results in a relatively small temperature difference between the individual seasons with comparatively mild winters and cool summers. Since the beginning of the 20th century, mean annual temperatures have fluctuated between 3 °C and 6.5 °C.

In winter, temperatures rise to just above freezing on average during the day and fall to just below freezing at night. Temperatures below -10 °C are rarely measured, despite the location just below the Arctic Circle. The lowest temperature ever measured is -24.5 °C (on 21 January 1918).

In summer, temperatures reach around 15 °C during the day, while it usually cools down to below 10 °C at night. Warm days with values above 20 °C are recorded only occasionally. The highest temperature ever measured is 25.7 °C (on 30 July 2008).

Precipitation (0.1 mm and more) falls on average on 148 days per year. The potential evaporation reaches 400 mm per year. The annual sum of sunshine duration is about 1,250-1,300 hours. May is the sunniest month of the year with an average of just over 6 hours per day, whereas December and January do not even reach an average of 1 hour of sunshine per day.

Places with similar climates are Tórshavn (Faroe Islands) and Dutch Harbor (Alaska) in the northern hemisphere, and Ushuaia (Argentina) and Stanley (Falkland Islands) in the southern hemisphere.

City breakdown

Reykjavík is divided into ten municipalities (hverfi):

¹⁾Green belt (Reykjavík hinterland)

In the official statistics of Iceland 31 statistical districts are shown for Reykjavík or the capital municipality Reykjavíkurborg as a further subdivision of the Hverfi.

More than 200,000 inhabitants live in the metropolitan region of Reykjavík. Five of Iceland's municipalities are located in the capital region: Garðabær: population 16,299, Hafnarfjörður: population 29,799, Kópavogur: population 36,975, Mosfellsbær: population 11,463 and Seltjarnarnes: population 4664 (as of 1 January 2019).