The exact number of Icelanders seems uncertain given that 156 individuals are registered as alive at the National Registry but deceased in the genealogy database Íslendingabók (“Book of Icelanders”). The National Registry will now cooperate with the database.

Photo by Páll Stefánsson.

Director of the National Registry Haukur Ingibergsson told ruv.is that the error is unfortunate but not particularly surprising; keeping a record of people’s deaths who have emigrated to other countries perhaps decades ago is an international problem.

However, the problem should be resolved, Ingibergsson said, which is why the National Registry will now look to cooperate with Íslendingabók in keeping the registry’s information as up-to-date as possible.

When the 156 individuals who were registered as alive in the National Registry were looked up in the Icelandic Social Insurance Administration’s database, it turned out that none of them are receiving payments from the state.

However, that wasn’t the case with one woman who continued to receive pension benefits ten years after her death in the US, as recently revealed.

 As at Íslendingabók, the Icelandic Social Insurance Administration’s staff not only rely on death certificates to update its database but use other means as well, such as following death announcements in the papers.