![](https://assets.isu.pub/document-structure/230522143757-288496eaa8883e362d5d1abe0d769ff7/v1/8449b29c7b23d5806f257669124a43af.jpeg?width=720&quality=85%2C50)
1 minute read
AKUREYRI IN FACTS & FIGURES
With a population of 20.000, Akureyri is the largest town in North Iceland and the thirdlargest urban area in Iceland after Reykjavík and Keflavík.
Many of the older houses in town have a quilted exterior, unlike the corrugated iron ubiquitous elsewhere in Iceland. The houses are tiled with pre-pressed iron plates imported from America in the 1930s.
In 1863, more than fifty years before Icelandic women won the right to vote, a woman in Akureyri voted in the municipal elections. Her vote was accepted because of a loophole created by a translating error in the original Danish law.
The town’s Botanical Garden contains almost every plant that grows in Iceland and several species from other countries like Greenland.
![](https://assets.isu.pub/document-structure/230522143757-288496eaa8883e362d5d1abe0d769ff7/v1/fe8f5612c49834eacee7a7240343a3a2.jpeg?width=720&quality=85%2C50)
Akureyri sits at the head of the longest fjord in Iceland: Eyjafjörður.
Akureyri was home to Matthías Jochumsson, the poet who wrote the lyrics to Iceland’s National Anthem.
![](https://assets.isu.pub/document-structure/230522143757-288496eaa8883e362d5d1abe0d769ff7/v1/9df378f9403b5b203eb777b217c2d6d7.jpeg?width=720&quality=85%2C50)
In Akureyri, stopping at a red light is much more pleasant than elsewhere; the red lights are heart-shaped! Stopping for a selfie in the middle of traffic is dangerous, but you’ll find a heart-shaped red light by the cultural centre, Hof!
![](https://assets.isu.pub/document-structure/230522143757-288496eaa8883e362d5d1abe0d769ff7/v1/27b7c58d22966ef6877c1ef6146901d0.jpeg?width=720&quality=85%2C50)
Since Akureyri is so far north, it’s a prime spot to experience the midnight sun. Around the summer solstice, the sun doesn’t set at all.
Akureyri is only about 90km south of the Arctic Circle