Did you know that there are more sheep than people in the Faroe Islands? Or that a Faroe Islander has won the Nobel Prize? Or that you can find the Prime Minister’s phone number in the phonebook?

Here is a list of fun facts that you probably don’t know about the Faroe Islands.

DID YOU KNOW THAT:

• Tinganes, where parliament met for the first time in year 825, is thought to be one of the oldest parliamentary meeting places in the world still in use.
• During the Second World War, the British military occupied the Faroe Islands. Approximately 170 marriages took place between British soldiers and Faroese women.
• Faroese company Bakkafrost is the eighth largest salmon farming company in the world.
• The Faroe Islands is one of the world’s leading nations in producing sustainable electricity with over 50% of the nation’s electricity deriving from renewable energy sources. The aim is that the nation’s electricity will be sourced solely from renewable energy by 2030.
• No point in the Faroe Islands is further than 5km (3 miles) from the sea.
• The Faroe Islands is not a member of the European Union despite the fact that it is a self-governing region.
• Many houses in the Faroe Islands have grass roofs. Sheep – not mowing machines – are used for mowing the grass!
• The Prime Minister’s phone number is in the phone book.
• People population: 50,000. Sheep population: 70,000.
• There is no prison in the Faroe Islands. Prisoners being held for more than a year and a half are sent to prisons in Denmark.
• There are a total of five traffic lights in the Faroe Islands.
• The population of the Faroe Islands consists of 80 different nationalities.
• There are only two international fast-food outlets in the Faroe Islands: Burger King and Sunset Boulevard.
• There are approximately 110 different species of birds in the Faroe Islands.
• Many think the national bird is the puffin. It’s, in fact, the oystercatcher.
• In the capital, Tórshavn, transport with city buses is free of charge.
• Niels R. Finsen, a Faroese physician, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1903.
• Faroese people have an average lifespan of 82.6 years old, which ranks 12th out of 186 countries worldwide (2019 estimate).
• 83.9% of Faroese people of working age were part of the labour force in 2019, which is one of the highest of any European country.
• The average temperature during winter is 3°, one of the highest averages among the Nordic countries.
• 97.4% of Faroese households have wireless internet.
• One must be 18 years of age to drink and drive in the Faroe Islands (not at the same time, obviously). Sexual consent is 15 years of age.
• Star player Gunnar Nielsen, a goalkeeper for the Faroese national football team and Icelandic club FH, is the only footballer from the Faroe Islands to have played in the English Premier League. Manchester City is among his former clubs.

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