Religion in Iceland

Formal religious affiliation in Iceland (2016)

Religion in Iceland was initially the Norse paganism that was a common belief among mediaeval Scandinavians who started settling Iceland in the 9th century AD, until Christian conversion around 1000 AD, though paganism did not vanish then. Starting in the 1530s, Iceland, originally Roman Catholic and under the Danish crown, formally became Lutheran under the Icelandic Reformation, which culminated in 1550. As such, Iceland has a state Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland, and religious freedom has been a legal right since 1874. The state church is supported by the government, but all registered religions received support from a church tax paid by taxpayers over the age of 16 years.

According to government records, the population is at present overwhelmingly Lutheran, although Catholics and other Christian minorities exist as well as several non-Christian minority groups. The largest non-Christian religious grouping is Ásatrú (Germanic folk religion). A poll conducted by WIN/GIA in 2012 found that 57% of Icelanders considered themselves "a religious person", 31% consider themselves "a non religious person", while 10% define themselves as "a convinced atheist", placing Iceland in top 10 atheist populations in the world.

The earliest inhabitants of Iceland were Irish monks, known as Papar. However, the small population was soon overwhelmed by migrations of Scandinavians, most of whom practiced what can loosely be called Germanic paganism, in the eighth and ninth centuries. The Christianisation of Iceland, like the rest of Scandinavia, was a long process, beginning before official conversion and continuing after it. Particularly through the influence of continental missionaries and pressure from the Norwegian king, Iceland officially converted in 999/1000 CE.

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