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Updates: 

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For Iceland, the draft standard listed 23 townships and 23 counties. In the final standard, those divisions are completely absent. Iceland is shown divided into nine regions. They are the same as the regions given by Statistics Iceland, except that ISO splits Capital region into two regions: "Höfuðborgarsvæði utan Reykjavík" (i.e. Capital Area without Reykjavik), and Reykjavík. But a revision of the standard dated 2015-11-27, removes Reykjavik as a subdivision. The ISO standard lists only the Icelandic names.

In 2006, due to merging municipalities, two former municipalities were moved from one region to another, resulting in changes to the total populations and areas of those regions. I have updated those two columns in the main table.

FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 10, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2006-03-23. It assigns new FIPS codes to the current Icelandic regions, superseding the county codes formerly in effect.

Currently, publications of Statistics Iceland show the country divided into eight landsvæði (regions). These are subdivided into 23 sýslur (counties), eight kaupstaðir (independent cities), seven bæir (towns), and five divisions of other types. The counties are further subdivided into units which have several Icelandic generic terms applied to them, but which can be referred to overall as municipalities. The number of municipalities has changed almost every year lately. There is a hierarchical set of codes for these divisions. Each region has a one-digit code. Each entity on the second level - county, independent city, town, etc. - has a four-digit code ending in '00', in which the first digit identifies the region it belongs to. Each municipality has a four-digit code whose first two digits indicate the county it belongs to. There is one exception. Reykjavik, the capital, is an independent city with the code 0000, but it belongs to the Capital region, whose code is 1. The eight regions are shown in the table below. (English names of regions are approximate translations.)

In my opinion, the ISO list showed Capital and Reykjavik as two separate regions only because Reykjavik has a code beginning with 0, and the rest of the Capital region has codes beginning with 1.

Country overview: 

Short name	ICELAND
ISO code	IS
FIPS code	IC
Language	Icelandic (is)
Time zone	0
Capital	Reykjavik

 

Iceland was part of Denmark until 1918-12-01. After its independence, it retained its allegiance to the Danish crown until 1944-06-17, when it became a republic.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Island
2. Dutch: IJsland, Republiek IJsland (formal)
3. English: Republic of Iceland (formal)
4. Finnish: Islanti
5. French: Islande f
6. German: Island n
7. Icelandic: Ísland, Lyðveldið Ísland (formal)
8. Italian: Islanda f
9. Norwegian: Island, Republikken Island (formal)
10. Portuguese: Islândia, República f da Islândia f (formal)
11. Russian: Исландия
12. Spanish: Islandia, República f de Islandia (formal)
13. Swedish: Island
14. Turkish: İzlanda Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Icelandic is: ice, land: country

Spelling note: The Icelandic language uses the letters edh and thorn. The capital and small edh are printed Ð and ð; thorn is Þ and þ. Edh is used to represent the voiced 'th' sound (as in 'this'), and thorn the unvoiced (as in 'thing'). When place names are transcribed into a typeface that lacks these letters, edh is normally transcribed 'dh', and thorn 'th'. However, because of their superficial resemblance, thorn is sometimes erroneously transcribed 'p'.

Primary subdivisions: 

Iceland is divided into eight landsvæði (sing. landsvæðun: regions).

Region	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Rds	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital	Icelandic
Capital	IS.HO	1	IC39	4	187,426	1,062	410	Reykjavík	Höfuðborgarsvæðið
Eastland	IS.AL	7	IC38	9	13,822	22,110	8,537	Egilsstaðir	Austurland
Northland East	IS.NE	6	IC40	8	27,017	22,735	8,778	Akureyri	Norðurland eystra
Northland West	IS.NV	5	IC41	7	8,870	12,581	4,858	Sauðárkrókur	Norðurland vestra
Southern Peninsula	IS.SU	2	IC43	4	17,915	829	320	Keflavík	Suðurnes
Southland	IS.SL	8	IC42	2,3	22,413	24,526	9,470	Selfoss	Suðurland
Western Fjords	IS.VF	4	IC44	6	7,551	9,409	3,633	Ísafjörður	Vestfirðir
Westland	IS.VL	3	IC45	5	14,877	9,554	3,689	Borgarnes	Vesturland
8 regions					299,891	102,806	39,694
HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Region codes from ISO 3166-2. These are the same as the Statistics Iceland region codes. For full identification in a global context, prefix "IS-" to the code (ex: IS-7 represents Eastland). FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Rds: The first digit of a highway number identifies the region in which the road is located. Highway number 1 is the ring road which encircles the whole island. Population: 2005-12-31 (compiled annually from population registers).

 

Note: Reykjavík, although it is part of Capital region, was for a while given the ISO code IS-0.

Postal codes: 

Iceland uses three-digit postal codes. Postal codes for Icelandic addresses can be identified by prefixing them with "IS-".

Further subdivisions:

See the Municipalities of Iceland page.

Two of the regions are often grouped together: Capital Area, also called Reykjavík, and Southern Peninsula, also called Reykjanes. The regions are subdivided into 23 counties (1977, 1981-17; 1959-16) and 23 independent towns. These are further subdivided into 79 sveitarfélög (sing. sveitarfélagið: municipalities), as of 2006-04-08. Each of the independent towns coincides with a municipality. The number of municipalities has been steadily decreasing, while the number of independent towns has generally been increasing. The Association of Local Authorities in Iceland  has published this report  (in Icelandic, dated 2004-08-24) with a list of all 229 municipalities as of 1950, a list of all 105 municipalities as of 2002-12-31, and descriptions of all the changes from 1950 to 2004.

Territorial extent: 

Rangárvallasýsla includes the Vestmannaeyjar, sometimes called the Westman Islands.

The UN LOCODE page  for Iceland lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: 

1. Akureyri: Icelandic akur: field and eyri: alluvium
2. Hafnarfjörður: Old Icelandic hafnar: port, fjörður: fjord
3. Reykjavik: Icelandic for smoky bay

Change history: 

1. In 1900, Iceland consisted of three amter (counties) in the Danish administrative system: North, South, and West. North corresponded to the present-day regions of Northland East, Northland West, and most of East (all but part of Austur-Skaftafellssýsla); West corresponded to the present-day regions of West (excluding Borgarfjarðarsýsla) and Western Peninsula; and South comprised the rest of the country. These counties evolved into regions. The number of divisions was changed to five ~1937, to seven ~1945, and to eight ~1960.
2. There were 16 counties in 1958. Some of them have split since then. Specifically, Gullbringu- og Kjósarsýsla split into Gullbringusýsla and Kjósarsýsla, and Mýra- og Borgarfjarðarsýsla split into Mýrasýsla and Borgarfjarðarsýsla, both ~1964.
3. According to Table 1.2 in "Statistical Yearbook of Iceland 2002", "The separation of the judicial and executive branches of government at district level took place 1 July, 1992." This table shows that up to that date, there were 27 "National government districts". These disappeared, to be replaced by eight district courts (judicial) and 27 district commissioner offices (executive). It's possible, although I can't be sure, that the jurisdictions of the eight district courts are the eight regions.
4. 2006-01-28: Siglufjarðarkaupstaður municipality (2005 pop. 1,352, a.k.a. Siglufjörður) transferred from Northland West to Northland East region.
5. 2006-04-08: Skeggjastaðahreppur municipality (2005 pop. 125) transferred from Eastland to Northland East region.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Capital: Reikiavik (Spanish); Reykjavík (variant); Reykjavík og Nágrenni, Reykjavíkursvæði (Icelandic-variant)
2. Snæfellsnes- og Hnappadalssýsla: Snæfellsnessýsla (obsolete)
3. Southern Peninsula: Reykjanes, Southwest Peninsula (variant); Reykjanessvæði (Icelandic-variant)
4. Western Fjords: Western Peninsula (variant)

Population history:

Region	1910	1950	1970	1980	1991	2000
Capital	15,006	65,555	119,822	135,000	149,482	174,991
Eastland	9,713	9,705	11,315	12,856	13,180	11,930
Northland East	11,959	18,368	22,225	25,700	26,382	26,471
Northland West	9,012	10,264	9,909	10,631	10,340	9,424
Southern Peninsula	2,589	5,093			15,357	16,500
Southland	13,250	13,847	18,052	19,637	20,548	21,123
Western Fjords	13,386	11,166	10,050	10,479	9,756	8,144
Westland	10,268	9,975	13,205	14,884	14,532	14,266
8 regions	85,183	143,973	204,578	229,187	259,577	282,849

 

Sources: 1910, 1950, 2000 data from Iceland in Figures 2001-2002, page 6 (no longer available online, but see more recent versions at Statistics Iceland ). 1970 and 1980 data from the Encyclopædia Britannica, 1984 edition; data for Southern Peninsula are included in Capital (listed as Reykjavíkursvæði og Reykjanessvæði, i.e. Reykjavik area and Reykjanes area). The 1980 data are identified as an estimate in the EB, but they are in exact agreement with the populations shown in the 1985 edition of Almanaque Abril (Brazil). 1991 data from The Statesman's Year-Book, 1993-94 edition. The date is December 1 of each year shown until 1991, otherwise December 31. Recent data were compiled from population registers.

Sources differ regarding the 1950 census. Here are some data I've collected from several editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica World Atlas (EBWA), and The Statesman's Year-Book, 1959 edition. All areas are in km.². The data in the 1957 EBWA were listed in mi.², but they had evidently been converted from the rounded figures shown in this table.

Source ->	EBWA 1951		EBWA 1957		EBWA 1964		SY 1959
Division	Area	1940 pop.	Area	1950 pop.	Area	1950 pop.	Area	1950 pop.
East	22,515	10,123	15,500	9,843	21,991	9,705	15,500	9,705
North	35,452	27,406	35,500	28,771	35,461	28,632	35,500	28,632
South	24,677	13,596	31,800	13,908	25,214	13,847	31,800	13,847
Southwest	10,679	57,396	10,700	80,426	10,693	80,623	10,700	80,623
Western Peninsula	9,469	12,953	9,500	11,315	9,470	11,166	9,500	11,166
5 divisions	102,792	121,474	103,000	144,263	102,829	143,973	103,000	143,973

 

The total 1950 population of Iceland is the same in EBWA 1964, SY 1959, and the 1950 "Iceland in Figures" data given above. Comparing the individual divisions from those columns, it looks as if East division is the same as Eastland region; North division is the same as Northland East and Northland West regions put together; South division equals Southland region; Southwest division equals Capital, Southern Peninsula, and Westland regions; and Western Peninsula division is Western Fjords region. The likeliest explanation is that some of the divisions were split up between about 1964 and 1970, and the data from "Iceland in Figures" are proleptic. I'm suggesting, that is, that Statistics Iceland had population data for lower-level entities, such as counties, and added them up as if those entities belonged to the regions that they belong to today.

There are significant differences between the areas of the divisions in these reference works. Moreover, none of them is a very good fit for the areas that you would get by converting the present-day regions into the old divisions. I can't account for these discrepancies.