Calling Iceland even a 'smaller country' seems a bit of a leap, even if it were a city it would still be far from being considered a large one.

> Calling Iceland even a 'smaller country' seems a bit of a leap, even if it were a city it would still be far from being considered a large one.

Just a few numbers to put in perspective:

* Iceland's population (as of 2013) was 323,000.

* As of 2015, the US had 58 cities whose population was over 320,000. Combined, these cities account for about 16% of the total population of the US.

Though, even that's a bit misleading, because city populations aren't actually as meaningful as metropolitan populations (since city boundaries are arbitrary, and traveling between a city and the adjacent suburbs is easy). Since Iceland is an island, it's more elucidating to compare it to metropolitan areas:

* The US has 155 metropolitan areas whose population is larger than the 320,000. Together, these cities account for 74.7% of the US population. So, three-quarters of people living in the United States live in a metropolitan area whose population is greater than that of the entire country of Iceland.

That's beautifully put. Thank you.

I think "stopping substance abuse" and "free education" are very different problems. The first one is completely social, at least, while the second one has a strong economical component.