Non-Schengen nationals account for 11% of mothers at Landspítali
Monday 9th November 2026 on 23:15 in
Iceland
More than one in 10 mothers who gave birth at Landspítali hospital this year held citizenship outside the Schengen area, mbl.is reported, citing a hospital summary of parents’ citizenship.
Of 2,570 births recorded from the start of the year through October 7, 288 involved mothers with non-Schengen citizenship, or 11.2%. The share was 10.8% for all of 2025 and 6.3% in 2021, and has risen each year since then.
The number of births to mothers with non-Schengen citizenship rose from 220 in 2021 to 346 in 2025, an increase of 57%. Over the same period, the hospital’s total number of births fell by nearly 8%, from 3,469 to 3,202.
Of the births recorded through October 7 this year, 2,000 involved mothers with Icelandic citizenship, or 77.8%, while 282 involved mothers who were citizens of another Schengen country, or 11%.
A similar increase was recorded among fathers. In 242 births so far this year, the father was registered as having citizenship outside the Schengen area, representing 9.4% of cases. The figure was 8.8% in 2025 and 4.2% in 2021. The hospital said fewer records have listed the father’s citizenship as unknown since 2021, which should be considered when comparing the figures.
Overall, 570 of the mothers, or 22.2%, held foreign citizenship. About half of births to foreign citizens involved mothers with citizenship outside the Schengen area. The figures are based on parents’ citizenship and do not indicate where they were born or how long they have lived in Iceland.
At the start of 2026, about 21,400 people in Iceland held citizenship outside the Schengen area, representing 5.4% of the population. More than 71,000 people in Iceland held foreign citizenship in total.
The largest non-Schengen citizenship groups in Iceland on January 1, 2026, were Ukrainian, 4,636; Venezuelan, 1,931; Filipino, 1,716; Vietnamese, 1,188; US, 1,113; Palestinian, 926; British, 925; Syrian, 696; Indian, 561; and Thai, 545. The figures are from Statistics Iceland.