This is a list of countries by number of islands, with figures given for the numbers of islands within their territories. In some cases, this figure is approximate and may vary slightly between sources depending on which islands are counted. The criteria for inclusion appear to differ considerably between the countries so they are not necessarily directly comparable. Different languages use different words for islands depending on size and or shape and elevation. For example, in English, a smaller island can be referred to as an islet, skerry, cay, or eyot, leading to confusion over classification as an island in some circumstances. This can influence which islands are counted or not. Some islands are fully submerged by the tides at times, and those may also not be counted by some countries while others do. Where counts vary, this article uses the highest reliably sourced figure.
For the purposes of this article, the top 50 countries will have their islands determined by the following definition: “An island is a land mass permanently above sea level either in an inland waterway or in the open sea. It is completely surrounded by water, but must not be a continent.” [1]
Country | No. of islands | No. of inhabited islands | Notes | List link | Source(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Algeria | 240 | 32 islands and 208 islets; coastal islands/islets only. | List | [2] | |
Antigua and Barbuda | 54 | 2 | Three main islands (Antigua, Barbuda and Redonda) and 51 offshore islands | List | [3] [4] |
Australia | 8,222 | List | [5] | ||
Azerbaijan | 16 | 1 | List | [6] | |
Bangladesh | 23 | List | [ citation needed ] | ||
Barbados | 4 | 1 | There are currently two islands and two banks in Barbados. An additional historical island (Pelican Island) no longer exists. | List | [7] |
Bulgaria | 117 | List | [ citation needed ] | ||
Cambodia | 71 | List | [8] | ||
Canada | 52,455 | Canada has several large inhabited islands, including Prince Edward Island, Vancouver Island, Montreal, and Manitoulin Island. | List | [1] | |
Cape Verde | 15 | 9 | 10 islands and 5 islets | List | [9] |
Chile | 43,471 | 2,324 | 3,739 islands (above 9,000 m2 (97,000 sq ft)) and 2180 islets (above 3,000 m2 (32,000 sq ft)) | List | [10] [11] |
China | 6,961 | 433 | 500 m2 (5,400 sq ft) only. Excludes Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. | List | [12] |
Croatia | 1,246 | 48 | List | [13] | |
Cuba | 4,195 | List | [14] | ||
Denmark | 406 | 70 | List | [15] | |
Dominica | 3 | 1 | The island nation of Dominica with a total area of 750 km2 (290 sq mi) includes two small, off-shore islands and one disputed island: | List | [16] [17] |
Estonia | 2,355 | 22 | List | [18] [19] | |
Fiji | 330 | 110 | List | [ citation needed ] | |
Finland | 178,947 | 780 | List | [20] | |
France | 1,900+ | 109 | List | [21] | |
Greece | 6,000 | 227 | Depending on inclusion criteria counts vary from 1,200 [22] to 6,000. [23] The number inhabited is variously cited as between 166 [24] and 227. [23] | List | [23] |
Hong Kong | 263 | >500 m2 (5,400 sq ft) only. "Many" or "most" are inhabited. | List | [25] | |
Iceland | 31 | 4 | 1 large and "about 30 smaller islands, and thousands of rocks and skerries." | List | [26] |
India | 1,382 | 47 | "Off-shore identified islands". The Andaman and Nicobar Islands comprise 572 islands, 37 of which are inhabited. [27] Lakshadweep has 32 islands, 10 of which are inhabited. [28] | List | [29] |
Indonesia | 17,508 | 6,000 | Largest archipelagic state. 5 major islands and about 30 smaller groups, about 6,000 are inhabited. | By location By area By population | [30] |
Italy | 808 | 77 | List | [ citation needed ] | |
Japan | 120,729 | 430 | 14,125 islands with a circumference of at least 0.1 km. | By area By location | [31] [32] [33] |
Kiribati | 33 | 21 | 32 atolls and 1 limestone island; 21 islands are inhabited. | List | [34] |
Lebanon | 12 | 0 | There are 12 islands in Lebanon, 11 of which are off the coast of Tripoli, and 1 off the coast of Sidon. The biggest of which are the Palm Islands, followed by Sanani and Ramkeen, which was an inhabited island. The southern city of Tyre used to be an island up until the Siege of Tyre in 332 BC when the island was connected to mainland modern day Lebanon by Alexander the Great's forces in an attempt to capture the island. [35] | List | [36] |
Malaysia | 878 | The largest island, Borneo is shared with Brunei and Indonesia. | List | [ citation needed ] | |
Maldives | 1,192 | 187 | 1,192 islands in total of 10 atolls; 187 islands are inhabited. | List | [37] |
Malta | 21 | 3 | 3 inhabited (Malta, Gozo and Comino), 3 islets and 12 "large rocks" | List | [38] |
Marshall Islands | 34 | 24 | 29 atolls and 5 isolated islands. | List | [39] [40] |
Mexico | 1,356 | 131 | List | [41] | |
Micronesia | 607 | 65 | Four major island groups | List | [42] [43] |
Nauru | 1 | 1 | — | [44] | |
New Zealand | 600 | Approximate number within about 50 km (31 mi) of the two main islands; excludes associated states and Antarctic islands. | List | [45] | |
Netherlands | 34 | 15 | Of the Netherlands | [ citation needed ] | |
North Macedonia | 30 | 0 | 13 larger than 0.01 km2 (2.5 acres), 6 on lakes, the rest on rivers. | List | [46] |
Norway | 320,249 | 60+ | There are a total of 320,249 islands, islets, or skerries along the coast of Norway. Kartverket (The Norwegian Mapping Authority) considers islands larger than 10 m2 (110 sq ft) proper islands, amounting to 239,057, with then 81,192 being skerries; however, by the definition used in this list, all 320,249 are considered islands. An older source gives 53,789 islands, which may be the figure for coastal islands only. [47] | List | [48] [49] |
Pakistan | 12 | 7 | Pakistan's largest island, Astola | List | [50] |
Palau | 200 | 8 | Eight permanently inhabited | List | [51] |
Peru | 233 | 8 | There is approximately 94.36 km (58.63 mi)[ clarification needed ] in maritime islands and islets, and 39.04 km (24.26 mi) inside lakes | List | [52] |
Philippines | 7,641 | 2,000 | Thousands of islands are unnamed, and tiny. | List | [53] [54] |
Poland | 203 | Usedom (shared with Germany) and Wolin are barrier islands; the rest are either lagoon, lake or river islands. | List | [55] | |
Portugal | 102 | 23 | 23 portuguese islands are inhabited. | List | [ citation needed ] |
Russia | 1,338 | List | [56] | ||
Samoa | 12 | 4 | List | [57] | |
Senegal | 35 | List | [ citation needed ] | ||
Serbia | 35 | 1–3 | Ostrovo is permanently populated, while Ada and Great War Island are occasionally inhabited. Most islands are on the Danube and Sava. | List | [ citation needed ] |
Singapore | 64 | These include Sentosa, Pulau Ubin, St John's Island and Sisters' Islands. | List | [58] | |
South Korea | 3,358 | 2,876 | List | [59] | |
Spain | 60 | 21 | List | [ citation needed ] | |
Sri Lanka | 61 | 3 | Most of the islands are situated in the north and eastern parts of the from the main land. The most prominent islets are west of the Jaffna Peninsula in the Northern Province. | List | [ citation needed ] |
Sweden | 267,570 | 984 | Slightly more than 8,000 islands had some form of buildings in 2013, most uninhabited. More than 1.6 million (17% of population) people lived on an island in 2013. This figure is high because there are densely populated islands in the larger cities of Sweden. | List | [60] |
Scotland See United Kingdom. | 900 | 118 | More than 900 islands, of which 118 are inhabited. | List | [ citation needed ] |
Thailand | 1,430 | List | [ citation needed ] | ||
Tonga | 169 | 36 | The total surface area of the archipelago is about 750 km2 (290 sq mi), scattered over 700,000 km2 (270,000 sq mi) of the southern Pacific Ocean. | List | [61] |
Tuvalu | 9 | 9 | Six atolls and 3 reef islands. | List | [62] |
United Kingdom | 6,346 | 129 | Includes all offshore islands marked on Ordnance Survey maps. England, Scotland & Wales: 6289; Northern Ireland: 57. (Not included: Isle of Man: 30[ dubious – discuss ]; Bailiwick of Guernsey: 57[ dubious – discuss ]; Bailiwick of Jersey: 274[ dubious – discuss ]; overseas dependencies.) Inhabited islands. England: 24; Scotland: 93; [63] Wales: 9; [64] Northern Ireland: 2; Britain[ clarification needed ]: 1. | List | [65] |
United States | 18,617 | 10,000 | List | [66] | |
Venezuela | 650 | 350 | Most of them are virgin lands[ clarification needed ]and Margarita Island is the largest island of Venezuela. | List | [ citation needed ] |
The Federated States of Micronesia, or simply Micronesia, is an island country in Micronesia, a subregion of Oceania. The federation consists of four states—from west to east, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae—that are spread across the western Pacific. Together, the states comprise around 607 islands that cover a longitudinal distance of almost 2,700 km (1,700 mi) just north of the equator. They lie northeast of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, south of Guam and the Marianas, west of Nauru and the Marshall Islands, east of Palau and the Philippines, about 2,900 km (1,800 mi) north of eastern Australia, 3,400 km (2,100 mi) southeast of Japan, and some 4,000 km (2,485 mi) southwest of the main islands of the Hawaiian Islands.
Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census, with more than half living on Tarawa atoll. The state comprises 32 atolls and one remote raised coral island, Banaba. Its total land area is 811 km2 (313 sq mi) dispersed over 3,441,810 km2 (1,328,890 sq mi) of ocean.
Kiribati consists of 32 atolls and one island in an expanse of ocean equivalent in size to the contiguous United States. The islands are scattered such that Kiribati has territory located in each of the four hemispheres. The islands of Kiribati lie roughly halfway between Hawaii and Australia in the Micronesian and Polynesian regions of the South Pacific. The three main island groupings are the Gilbert Islands, Phoenix Islands, and Line Islands. On 1 January 1995 Kiribati moved the International Date Line to include its easternmost islands and make it the same day throughout the country.
The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean.
Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Polynesia to the east, and Melanesia to the south—as well as with the wider community of Austronesian peoples.
Nauru, officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in Micronesia, part of Oceania in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba of Kiribati, about 300 km (190 mi) to the east.
The demographics of Nauru, an island country in the Pacific Ocean, are known through national censuses, which have been analysed by various statistical bureaus since the 1920s. The Nauru Bureau of Statistics have conducted this task since 1977—the first census since Nauru gained independence in 1968. The most recent census of Nauru was on 30 October 2021, when population had reached 11,680 people. The population density is 554 inhabitants per square kilometre, and the overall life expectancy is 63.9 years. The population rose steadily from the 1960s until 2006 when the Government of Nauru repatriated thousands of Tuvaluan and I-Kiribati workers from the country. Since 1992, Nauru's birth rate has exceeded its death rate; the natural growth rate is positive. In terms of age structure, the population is dominated by the 15–59-year-old segment (57%). The median age of the population is 21.6, and the estimated gender ratio of the population is 101.8 males per 100 females.
Majuro is the capital and largest city of the Marshall Islands. It is also a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district of the Ratak (Sunrise) Chain of the Marshall Islands. The atoll has a land area of 9.7 square kilometers (3.7 sq mi) and encloses a lagoon of 295 square kilometers (114 sq mi). As with other atolls in the Marshall Islands, Majuro consists of narrow land masses. It has a tropical trade wind climate, with an average temperature of 27 °C (81 °F).
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Oceania or any other island located in the Pacific Ocean.
Nauru, following independence from the United Kingdom, became a sovereign, independent republic on 31 January 1968. Nauru has established diplomatic relations with a number of nations, including most of its Pacific neighbors with which it maintains economic, cultural and administrative ties.
The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) is an inter-governmental organisation that aims to enhance cooperation among countries and territories of Oceania, including formation of a trade bloc and regional peacekeeping operations. It was founded in 1971 as the South Pacific Forum (SPF), and changed its name in 1999 to "Pacific Islands Forum", so as to be more inclusive of the Forum's Oceania-spanning membership of both north and south Pacific island countries, including Australia. It is a United Nations General Assembly observer.
European exploration and settlement of Oceania began in the 16th century, starting with the Spanish (Castilian) landings and shipwrecks in the Mariana Islands, east of the Philippines. This was followed by the Portuguese landing and settling temporarily in some of the Caroline Islands and Papua New Guinea. Several Spanish landings in the Caroline Islands and New Guinea came after. Subsequent rivalry between European colonial powers, trade opportunities and Christian missions drove further European exploration and eventual settlement. After the 17th century Dutch landings in New Zealand and Australia, with no settlement in these lands, the British became the dominant colonial power in the region, establishing settler colonies in what would become Australia and New Zealand, both of which now have majority European-descended populations. States including New Caledonia (Caldoche), Hawaii, French Polynesia, and Norfolk Island also have considerable European populations. Europeans remain a primary ethnic group in much of Oceania, both numerically and economically.
The Micronesian Games are a quadrennial international multi-sport event within the Micronesian region. The Games were first held in 1969 in Saipan. The 2010 Micronesian Games were initially due to be held in Majuro, until the hosts withdrew. The 2010 Games were hosted by Palau. The Federated States of Micronesia won the bidding to host the 2014 Micronesian Games in Pohnpei State, and later won again against CNMI for the 2018 Micronesian Games, held in Yap State.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Nauru:
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania vary, with it being defined in various ways, often geopolitically or geographically. In the geopolitical conception used by the United Nations, International Olympic Committee, and many atlases, the Oceanic region includes Australia and the nations of the Pacific from Papua New Guinea east, but not the Malay Archipelago or Indonesian New Guinea. The term is sometimes used more specifically to denote Australasia as a geographic continent, or biogeographically as a synonym for either the Australasian realm or the Oceanian realm.
Soccer is a minor sport in the island country of Nauru. The country is not a member of FIFA.
The following lists events that happened during 2020 in Oceania.
The 9th Micronesian Games were held from July 15 to July 27, 2018, in Yap, Federated States of Micronesia. The venues included the Matson Sports Complex in Abay, and several locations around Colonia.
List of events that happened during 2021 in Oceania.
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