Friday, August 5, 2011

Info About Iceland

So, last year, I did a little comparison of Thailand and the US, side by side.  I thought it would be similarly interesting to do so about the US and Iceland.  Ok, so here we go:

Capital Cities:
US:  Washington DC
Iceland: Reykjavik

Population:
US:  310.2 million
Iceland:  308,910

(To put this into some perspective, there are just under 600,000 official residents of Washington DC, more than the entire population of Iceland!)

Monetary Units:
US:  Dollar
Iceland: Krona

The exchange rate today is $1 = 116.070 ISK.

Life Expectancy:
US:  76 (male), 81 (female)
Iceland: 79 (male), 83 (female)

Iceland has one of the highest life expectancy rates in the world.

Time Difference:
Iceland is 4 hours ahead of the US.

Geography:
US: The 4th largest country in the world
Iceland:  The 2nd largest island in Europe.  Iceland averages a volcanic eruption every 5 years.

Iceland is 39,768 square miles.  Our home state of Virginia is 42,774 Square miles.

Government:
US:  Democratic Federal Republic
Iceland:  Constitutional Republic

President:
US:  Barack Obama
Iceland: Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson

Presidents in both countries serve a 4 year term.

I’ve added a little sidebar yonder -----> with the flag and some of these facts.  I learned a lot with a quick Google search and hope you enjoyed!

1 comment:

  1. I knew I recognized her name. Gudrun is a powerful female character in Norse legends. An Icelandic author, Snorri Sturluson, wrote these stories in a book called _Edda_. I remember studying the story of Gudrun. It is a good one!

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