Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and the most sparsely populated country in Europe. The capital and largest city is Reykjavík. Reykjavík and the surrounding areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is the only part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that rises above sea-level, and its central volcanic plateau is erupting almost constantly.
Iceland was settled in the 9th century by invaders from Norway. The island was governed as an independent commonwealth under the Althing, one of the world’s oldest functioning legislative assemblies, until the 13th century. The establishment of the Kalmar Union in 1397 united the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Iceland thus followed Norway’s integration into that union, coming under Danish rule after Sweden’s secession from the union in 1523. In the wake of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Iceland’s struggle for independence took form and culminated in independence in 1918 and the founding of a republic in 1944. Although its parliament (Althing) was suspended from 1799 to 1845, the island republic has been credited with sustaining the world’s oldest and longest-running parliament.
Icelandic culture is founded upon the nation’s Scandinavian heritage. Most Icelanders are descendants of Norse and Gaelic settlers. Icelandic, a North Germanic language, is descended from Old West Norse and is closely related to Faroese. The country’s cultural heritage includes traditional Icelandic cuisine, Icelandic literature, and medieval sagas. Iceland has the smallest population of any NATO member and is the only one with no standing army, with a lightly armed coast guard.
Iceland represents 151 unrelated individuals living in Iceland. Each collection was arranged through the leaders of each region and supervised by the same. The samples were amplified by PCR using the commercial AmpFISTR SGMPlus kit.
Source publication: “Icelandic population data for the STR loci in the AMPFISTR SGM Plus system and the PowerPlex Y-system”, Forensic Science International: Genetics, 2009, ppe101-e103