Iceland’s youngest PM
Kristrún Frostadóttir leads new coalition

Photo: Stjórnarráð Íslands

Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir received the keys to the Prime Minister’s Office from Bjarni Benediktsson, the outgoing prime minister, on December 22, 2024, the day after she was installed as the country’s new head of government. At 36, Kristrún is the youngest prime minister in Icelandic history.

“I thanked Bjarni Benediktsson, the outgoing prime minister, for his work in the ministry and in the governments of recent years. He wished the new government well. There was a festive atmosphere at the handover,” she said. “Now a new government is taking office. We intend to uphold the trust shown in us in the elections on November 30th and heed the clear call for change. I will do my best to serve as prime minister for the benefit of the entire nation.”

Kristrún has been a member of Alþingi since 2021 and has been the leader of the Social Democratic Alliance since 2022. In Alþingi, she served on the finance committee, economic and trade committee, and budget committee, in addition to the Icelandic division of the West Nordic Council

Kristrún was born in Reykjavík on May 12, 1988, the daughter of ethnographer Frosti Fífill Jóhannsson and physician Steinunn Guðný H. Jónsdóttir. She matriculated from Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík in 2008 and graduated from the University of Iceland with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics in 2011. She subsequently earned an MA degree in economics from Boston University in 2014 and an MA degree in international studies with an emphasis on economic policy and international finance from Yale University in 2016.

While studying economics, she worked in the offices of the Governor of the Central Bank, 2009–2010, and then as an economist in the research department of Arion Bank, 2011–2012. She was a journalist at the business publication Viðskiptablaðið, 2013–2014, before returning briefly to public service as an economist in a working group under the Prime Minister's Office in 2014. She then worked as a specialist in the research department of the investment bank Morgan Stanley in New York and London, 2015–2017, as an economist at the Icelandic Chamber of Commerce in 2017, and as chair of the Agricultural Product Pricing Committee at the Ministry of Employment, 2017–2018. She was an adjunct faculty member at the University of Iceland’s Faculty of Economics, 2018–2020, and chief economist at Kvikabanki, 2018–2021, when she was elected to Alþingi.

Kristrún’s husband is Einar Bergur Ingvarsson, a business graduate, and they have two daughters. – SMJ / Stjórnarráð Íslands