Buddhism in Iceland has existed since the 1990s after immigration from countries with Buddhist populations, mainly Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

. As of 2008, there are three Buddhist organizations in Iceland officially recognized as religious organizations by the Icelandic government. The oldest and largest is the Buddhist Association of Iceland, a Theravada

Theravada

Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...

 group, which was recognized in 1996 and had 880 members in 2010. Another group, Zen in Iceland – Night Pasture, a Zen

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

 group, was recognized in 1999 and had 75 members in 2010. The most recent group is, SGI in Iceland, a Soka Gakkai group, which was recognized in 2008 with 135 members. Together, these three organizations represent approximately 0.3% of the population of Iceland. This is more than the Islamic groups

Islam in Iceland

The Nordic country Iceland has 644 Muslims, 404 members of "The Association of Muslims in Iceland" and 274 members of "The Muslim Culter Center of Iceland"...

 but less than the pagan groups.