Interesting Facts

The top 5 countries in the Global Wellbeing Index, published by the United Nations, are Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Canada. (The researchers believe that the differences in happiness can be explained by 6 factors: levels of gross domestic product (GDP), life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom and level of corruption. The US is 15th, the UK is 21st, but Germany is only 26th.) Source

According to the Gobal Gender Gap report, published by the WEF, Britain has dropped  eight places to stand 26th in the world for gender equality. (Not surprisingly the Nordic countries - Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark - were the most equal, and they have been joined by Nicaragua, Rwanda, Ireland, the Philippines and Belgium in the top 10. Yemen remained at the bottom of the chart for the ninth year in a row.) Source

According to the Global Peace Index, Europe is the most peaceful area of the world, with 13 of the top 20 most peaceful countries. (Iceland, Denmark and New Zealand were the top 3 most peaceful countries of 162; the UK ranked 44th. The Global Peace Index is issued by the IEP (Institute for Economics and Peace) and is a measurement of nations’ and regions’ peacefulness based on external and internal measures. You can see how well your country ranks on their interactive map:- http://www.visionofhumanity.org/#/page/indexes/global-peace-index)

An online shop, nammi.is, is selling 160-gram (five-and-a-half ounce) jars of ash from the Eyjafjpoll volcano. (The ash costs €23.80 ($29.90), but the good news is all the proceeds are going to a charity that supports Iceland's search and rescue services.)

The Icelandic Stock Exchange fell by 76% in early trading as it re-opened after closing for two days last week.

The government of Iceland seized Kaupthing Bank, the country's largest lender, effectively completing the nationalization of the whole banking system after the previous takeover of Glitnir and the No.2 lender, Landsbanki.

In Iceland, 96% of women go to university. (Which means 4% have better things to do with their lives.)