People living in Iceland made approximately 2,207,000 trips in 2021 and around 2,762,000 trips in 2022. The number of trips made by residents increased by 25% between years. This includes all overnight trips, both professional and personal and both domestic and non-domestic.
During this period, there were several changes in travel patterns in Iceland, in large part due to the economic aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, which still had quite an impact in 2021. For example, the number of professional trips nearly doubled between years, from 165,000 to 317,000, and the number of non-domestic personal trips increased from 323,000 to 792,000, or by 144%. At the same time, the number of domestic personal trips decreased by 3.8%, from 1,719,000 to 1,653,000.
There is a marked seasonality in the travel pattern of Icelanders, with the lowest number of trips in the first quarter (January-March) and most in the third quarter (July-September). In the third quarter of 2021, residents made around 847,000 trips, compared with over one million trips in 2022, which is a 25% increase. The average number of trips per person was 7.7 in 2021 and 9.4 in 2022.
Over half of the population stayed home in the first quarter of 2021
The proportion of people who did not travel during each quarter was highest at the beginning of 2021, with 52% of residents not making any overnight trips in the first quarter of 2021. It is the only case of more than half of the population staying home for an entire quarter. In the first quarter of 2022, the same rate was 46%.
In both years, the percentage of people who said they made at least one trip was highest in the third quarter, or 76% in 2021 and 80% in 2022. In general, the proportion of tourists (i.e. those who made at least one trip during the quarter in question) increased between years. However, the proportion of tourists remained relatively unchanged between years in the fourth quarter, just under 60%. There is a marked seasonality in the proportion of tourists, lowest in the first quarter and highest in the third quarter.
The proportion of non-domestic trips out of all personal trips steadily rose from the beginning of 2021 to the second quarter of 2022, from 6.5% to 33%. The number of non-domestic trips increased in the third quarter of 2022. However, due to a high number of domestic trips, they accounted for only 27% of the total number of personal trips that quarter. A similar pattern can be observed in the proportion of professional trips, which nearly doubled during the period, from 7.2% at the beginning of 2021 to 13.5% at the end of 2022. Participants were not asked for the breakdown of professional trips into domestic and non-domestic trips.
Men travel more than women
Throughout most of the period in question, men made more trips than women. The only exception was the fourth quarter of 2022. On annual basis, women made more non-domestic private trips for both years.
Statistics Iceland also publishes the number of trips by age, broken down into ten-year age intervals. The number of trips made by Icelandic residents increased between years for all age groups, with the greatest increase for people aged 35-54 (36%) but lowest for the oldest and youngest age groups. The increase was 16% for 65–79-year-olds and 14% for 16-24-year-olds. The number of professional trips increased between years for all age groups, except for the oldest age group (65-79 years old) where professional trips decreased by 37%.
About the data
In 2021, Statistics Iceland launched a travel survey of Icelandic residents. Data is collected both on the web and by telephone with the aim of gathering information on both professional trips and personal trips, for which the respondents stay at least one night away from home.
Each quarter, the survey is conducted by contacting 1,550 individuals aged 16-79 living in Iceland, asking about their trips in the previous quarter. For the final sample, individuals who were deceased, not found to be Icelandic residents, or not considered as part of the population for other reasons were excluded. The final response rate varied from quarter to quarter, in the range between 51%-60%.
The travel survey uses a methodology based on EU directives on travel statistics so that the results can be compared with the results of comparable surveys in other countries of the European Economic Area (EEA). These are initial findings, and it is hoped that more variables will be added in future publications, such as reasons for not travelling during the last quarter, major domestic and non-domestic destinations, and spending during travel. Figures are expected to be released for the first half of 2023 in March 2024.
This is a study based on limited sample size which needs to be taken into account when interpreting the results. All figures are preliminary, and may change over time in light of further review.