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That was not my experience. I spent 3 weeks in Iceland, and only met one person who was not fluent in English (even they were plenty conversational).

You're right that Akureyri is not a small town for Iceland, though.

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Mind you as a tourist you’re going to be bumping into far more fluent locals than you might in day to day life otherwise. I’ve lived here for seven years and whilst I work in English and live in downtown Reykjavík I still meet a not unsubstantial number of Icelanders who are not comfortable with English. Mostly those 50+ but still some a generation younger. English speaking is definitely nearly ubiquitous in younger generations though.

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