Life in Iceland in 2003
How are households doing?
Pay buys noticeably more
Kibba: A basket of food that cost $130 a year earlier now costs $127. Pay buys noticeably more than a year earlier: purchasing power rose 3.5%. In our example loan, the monthly payment equals 20% of median pay before tax.
- No overall score here: each section below stands on its own.
Household money
The household in numbers
- Purchasing power in 2003 +3.5% Pay rise above inflation
- Inflation with housing — CPI in 2003 2.1% 12-month change in consumer prices
- House prices in 2003 +9.6% Change above inflation
- Unemployment in 2003 3.6% Share of the labour force out of work
Food
- Food prices in 2003 −2.6% All prices: 2.1%
🧺 A basket of food that cost $130 a year earlier now costs $127
Loan example (a standard comparison)
A standard example of the cost of a new loan against one person's wage, not the measured burden of Icelandic households.
Assumptions of the example
A standard example with fixed assumptions, to compare the cost of a new loan between years: the same home, a loan of ISK 50 million in 2025 money, adjusted for house prices, over 40 years without indexation, at the central bank rate + 1.5 points as a stand-in for mortgage rates. It does not show what households actually pay: most have older loans, other rates, indexation or two incomes.
- Interest rate (estimate) 6.70%
- Term 40 years
- Median monthly wage $3,178
- Monthly payment (interest and principal) (Exact values) $637
- Share of the median wage 20.00%
Before 2010 most Icelandic home loans were indexed with lower interest rates, so this non-indexed example overstates the burden in those years. It is still used in the score and warning lights for those years, which pulls the score down.
Your settings only change this loan example. The score always uses the fixed example.
- Rent in 2003 +9.9% All prices: 2.1%
Energy costs
- 💡 Electricity & heating in 2003 +3.9% All prices: 2.1%
- ⛽ Petrol & diesel in 2003 +0.6% All prices: 2.1%
🧾 A monthly electricity and heating bill of $261 a year earlier now costs $271
🚗 A tank of fuel that cost $196 a year earlier now costs $197
Energy combined (weights 46% electricity and heating, 54% fuel): +2.2% in nominal terms. Headline inflation was 2.1%, so relative to inflation the change is +0.1%. That figure goes into the score.
Change in price from the year before (CPI subindices). Heating is mostly geothermal hot water.
People and services
People & health
- Residents and estimated overnight guests average over 2003 293,290 289,521 residents + 3,769 foreign guests a night
- Most in Jul 2003 301,196 of whom 11,676 foreign guests a night
- Population at year end 290,570 ▲ +0.7% during the year
- Net migration (2003) −133
- Hospital beds (2003) Not available in this version (hospital beds here cover 2007–2023)
Residents plus the foreign guests staying each night on average: foreign overnight stays in registered accommodation (Statistics Iceland, SAM01601) divided by the days in the month. Guests in unregistered lodging, with friends or on cruise ships are not counted, and residents who are abroad are not subtracted, so the figure is a rough estimate.