electionstracker

Iceland 1979 parliamentary election

What was the result of the 1979 parliamentary election in Iceland?

Independence Party won 21 of 60 seats with 35.4% of the vote. 89.3% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • Iceland
  • Held:
  • Final result
  • ParlGov, read 5 October 2026

Which party won the most seats?

Final results from ParlGov, read : Independence Party won 21 of 60 seats with 35.4% of the vote; 89.3% of registered voters cast a ballot, down 0.9 points on 1978.

  • Independence Party 21 +1 seat 35.4% +2.7 points
  • Progressive Party 17 +5 seats 24.9% +8.0 points
  • People's Alliance 11 −3 seats 19.7% −3.2 points
  • Social Democratic Party 10 −4 seats 17.4% −4.6 points
  • Seats won
  • Change on the previous election at the right
  • Share of the vote
  • Share at the previous election
  • Change in points at the right

Changes are against the Iceland 1978 parliamentary election, party by party.

31 of 60 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 35.4%

    Share of the vote won by Independence Party

    Independence Party won 21 of 60 seats. A majority needs 31.

  2. +5 seats

    Seats gained by Progressive Party

    The largest gain in seats compared with 1978. Social Democratic Party lost 4 seats.

  3. 89.3%

    Voter turnout

    Down 0.9 points on 1978.

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
Independence Party21+135.4+2.743,838
Progressive Party17+524.9+8.030,861
People's Alliance11−319.7−3.224,401
Social Democratic Party10−417.4−4.621,580
Independents11.21,484

± is the change against the Iceland 1978 parliamentary election, party by party.

Votes by party
  • Independence Party 43,838
  • Progressive Party 30,861
  • People's Alliance 24,401
  • Social Democratic Party 21,580
  • Independents 1,484

ParlGov lists parties with at least 1 percent of the vote or 2 seats, so the rows do not add up to the valid votes.

How many people voted?

89.3% of the 142,073 registered voters cast a ballot (126,929 ballots), down 0.9 points on 1978. 123,751 of them were valid votes. The lowest turnout since 1949 in our data.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • Independence Party35.4% of votes35.0% of seats
  • Progressive Party24.9% of votes28.3% of seats
  • People's Alliance19.7% of votes18.3% of seats
  • Social Democratic Party17.4% of votes16.7% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 2.7 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 3.9 by votes and 3.8 by seats; Independence Party led Progressive Party by 10.5 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of