Iceland

Iceland is a Nordic island country between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic, straddling the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Europe's westernmost and most sparsely populated country, with Reykjavik as its capital, home to about 35 percent of its roughly 395,000 residents. Sitting on a rift between tectonic plates, Iceland's geologic activity includes geysers and frequent volcanic eruptions, while the Gulf Stream keeps its climate temperate despite a latitude just south of the Arctic Circle. Settlement began in 874 under the Norwegian chieftain Ingolfr Arnarson, and the country governed itself through its parliament, the Althing, until union with Norway in the thirteenth century; after centuries of Danish rule and occupation during the Second World War, Iceland declared itself a republic in 1944. Fisheries industrialization and post-war aid transformed it into one of the world's wealthiest economies, and it maintains a Nordic social welfare system with universal health care and tertiary education. Iceland is a NATO member but the only one with no standing army, maintaining only a coast guard.