Indo-European · ISO 639-3 isl · is
Icelandic Language íslenska
Icelandic is an Indo-European language spoken by about 350,000 people in 1 country. It is an official language of Iceland. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Icelandic is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Icelandic
About the Icelandic language
Icelandic (íslenska) is spoken by about 350,000 people, which makes it the 508th most spoken language in the world — just behind Fijian (370,000) and ahead of Ingush (322,900). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Icelandic-Faroese group within the Germanic branch.
Where is Icelandic spoken?
Icelandic is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Iceland (364,036). More than half of the population speaks it in Iceland — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Icelandic is an official language in 1 country: Iceland.
Writing system and status
Icelandic is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Faroese, Swedish, Danish, English, German, Nigerian Pidgin and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 is, ISO 639-3 isl.
Frequently asked questions about Icelandic
How many people speak Icelandic?
Where is Icelandic spoken?
In which countries is Icelandic an official language?
What language family does Icelandic belong to?
What is Icelandic called in Icelandic?
Is Icelandic an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.