Iceland Civil Registration

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Iceland

Civil Registration

Find the Records

Offices to Contact

Registers Iceland
Kt. 650376-0649
Borgartún 21
105 Reykjavík, Iceland
Tel. +354 515 5300
Email: skra@skra.is
Website

Background

Births, marriages, and deaths were recorded by the Iceland state church. It wasn't until 1953, that Iceland had a seperate civil registration office.

• See Iceland Church Records for more resources.

This system of recording vital events by the state church, Lutheran Church of Iceland, worked so well that it became the official government registry of births, marriages and deaths. In 1914 the government established the Statistical Bureau of Iceland [Hagstofa Íslands], responsible for all statistical data for the country. It oversaw the accurate recording of vital events and starting 1916 received transcripts of births, marriages, and deaths from Church records and for non-Lutherans received vital record information from county offices [sýslumaður].

Since 1953, the National Registry, a department of the Statistical Bureau, is responsible for maintaining the national register of persons. It provides unified, centralized registration of the entire population for administrative and statistical uses. The national register of persons is continuously updated and includes ID numbers, addresses and address changes, deaths, etc. Information on births is obtained from birth reports submitted by maternity institutions and midwives. Lutheran ministers and heads of other religious communities report at least monthly on baptisms, marriages, and deaths.

Town and county magistrates report on civil marriages. The Ministry of Justice reports naturalizations, divorces, adoptions and name changes. The national register of persons is the one, single register of persons in the country and is therefore utilized by virtually all relevant public authorities and is also used extensively by the private sector: banks, insurance companies, etc.