Varða's analysis cited on RÚV's Kastljós

On 3 November the Department of Civil Protection published a leaflet with a checklist of what a household needs to get through three days. Runólfur Þórhallsson, head of the civil protection division, discussed it on RÚV's Kastljós the same evening. Asked whether there was data on how ready Icelandic households are, he pointed to the survey Gallup conducted for Varða earlier this year: the share who consider themselves prepared is low, roughly a quarter to a third, and in line with the other Nordic countries.

This has been surveyed to some extent, by the think tank Varða together with Gallup, early this year. They asked about these things, how well prepared people were. It was not a high share. Fairly in line with the Nordic countries, and that is part of why we are talking about this.

Runólfur Þórhallsson on Kastljós (translated)

The findings were published in Varða's analysis Þegar á reynir in March. Trust in responders is very high, but only just over a third consider themselves prepared for a disaster or emergency where they live, and household stocks of food and water fall well short of Nordic levels. Among Varða's recommendations was a clear official baseline for minimum household preparedness. The civil protection leaflet is a step in that direction.

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