Viral posts make incorrect claims about electricity, prisons and healthcare in Iceland

What is the claim? 

Multiple Facebook users have shared claims that education, medical care, and electricity are free in Iceland, adding that it also has no prisons or a standing army. The viral posts further claimed that Iceland is the only country in the world where voting takes place online. 

Similar posts were also seen on X (formerly Twitter). Archived versions of some such posts can be seen here, here, and here. 

Screenshots of social media posts making multiple claims about Iceland. (Source: Screenshots/X/Facebook)

What did we find?

While it is true that Iceland has no standing army, education and medical care are not totally free in the country. Contrary to the posts, there are four prisons, and electricity is cheap but not free in Iceland. Additionally, Estonia, not Iceland, is currently the only country in which voting for all its elections takes place online.

All education is not free in Iceland

In Iceland, one might need to pay tuition fees depending on whether the higher educational institution is public or privately owned. Public universities do not charge tuition fees but require an annual registration or administration fee that all students must pay. The University of Iceland's website says, "Students at the University of Iceland do not pay tuition fees, only an annual registration fee of ISK 75,000." Privately run colleges, however, charge tuition fees. 

According to the Directorate of Education and School Services, "The education of children and adolescents in primary schools operated by the local communities is free of charge. On the other hand, there is a special tuition fee for children and adolescents in private schools." 

Another document by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture about the educational system in Iceland says, "Parents pay fees for their children to attend pre-schools. Compulsory education (primary and lower secondary), including textbooks and materials, is completely free of charge, but in upper secondary and higher education only tuition is free. The state pays for all educational materials at the compulsory level." The latter refers to education for children between the ages of six and sixteen. 

The document further notes that education at the upper secondary level is free of charge, but pupils pay an enrolment fee and must purchase their textbooks. Pupils in vocational training pay a part of the cost of materials they use.

The healthcare system

A note on the University of Iceland's website says, "The Icelandic healthcare system only subsidises health care for beneficiaries but generally does not provide services for free. For most medical services, one can expect to pay a minimal fee."

An advisory listed on the official website of the U.K. government also adds that state healthcare in Iceland is not completely free. "Healthcare costs are covered by the state (through the Icelandic Health Insurance fund) and through patient contributions," it said. 

The advisory also stated that patient contributions are capped each month, and once one has spent a certain amount, the rest of the state healthcare is free for the month. 

Margrét Erlendsdóttir, the head of information for Iceland's Ministry of Health, told Logically Facts, "The health system in Iceland is funded mainly through public sources and covers all residents," adding that "while most health care providers are public, the number and scope of private non-profit and private for-profit providers have increased in recent years."

Erlendsdóttir further said, "Public expenditure accounts for the bulk of health expenditure in Iceland, at 83% of total health spending in 2019. Out-of-pocket (OOP) payments accounted for 16% of health expenditure in 2019. These are mainly co-payments for primary care visits, outpatient care and outpatient pharmaceuticals, with reductions or exemptions for vulnerable groups."

Prisons in Iceland

According to the official website of the Prison and Probation Administration (PPA) (Icelandic: Fangelsismálastofnun ríkisins), "The PPA runs 5 prisons, Prison Hólmsheiði, Akureyri and Litla-Hraun which are closed prisons and Prison Sogn and Kvíabryggja which are open prisons" in Iceland. 

However, Akureyri was closed in the spring of 2020, as confirmed by a government report about the types of sentences received in the 2017-22 period.

Francis Pakes, a professor of criminology at the University of Portsmouth, spent a week each in both open prisons to better understand the system. In a piece in The Conversation, Pakes described his experience as "striking" because of the absence of security features. 

What about electricity?

The Government of Iceland notes on its website that nearly all electrical energy in Iceland is produced by renewable energy resources, such as hydro (75.5 percent) or geothermal (24.5 percent).

According to Statistics Iceland, the center for official statistics in Iceland, the electricity prices for households with consumption between 2,500 and 5,000 kilowatt-hours averaged 15 euro cents per kilowatt-hour in the first half of 2022.

Global data gathering platform Statista also mentioned similar electricity rates for households in Iceland. Statista stated that "compared to the EU average electricity price, Iceland's electricity is significantly cheaper" and "electricity prices for households with a consumption between 2,500 and 5,000 kilowatt-hours averaged 15.3 euro cents per kilowatt-hour in the first half of 2023."

Reykjavik-based power company ON notes on its website that the average electricity bill for an average-sized house in Iceland is around ISK 3,500 per month, based on an estimated usage of 350 kWh.

Online voting

We could not find any reports about online voting in Iceland. However, in March 2015, Iceland, in partnership with a Spanish electronic voting systems and election technology company called Scytl, carried out their "first ever fully online residents referendum in Iceland" in 2015 in the "municipality of Ölfus with a participation rate of 43% of the municipality's residents." The report by Scytl about the referendum added that the online citizen referendum program was aimed at "streamlining the path to online voting in the country."

"The execution of the election in Ölfus was very successful and the participation was good. We are looking forward to working with Scytl on the second pilot election in a bigger municipality," Margrét Hauksdóttir, Director General of Registers Iceland, had said at the time. However, there are no reports about the country moving to fully online voting.

The Digital Iceland website, run by the Icelandic government's Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, expressly talks about in-person voting and instructs voters to cast their votes in a polling booth using the ballot box system. 

According to multiple reports, in 2005, Estonia became the first country in the world to implement internet voting for its entire electorate in a national election, contrary to what social media users claimed.

What did the Icelandic government say?

Logically Facts also contacted the Iceland government for comment on the claims on social media. Ægir Þór Eysteinsson, Press Officer, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Government of Iceland, told us that in Iceland, healthcare and education are not totally free, electricity is not free, and they do not have an online voting system. 

Eysteinsson also confirmed that there are prisons in Iceland, and while there is no Army in Iceland, the country is a founding member of NATO.

The verdict

Out of the various claims made about Iceland in the viral posts, only the part about Iceland not having a standing Army is true.