This is a list of islands in the world ordered by area. It includes all islands with an area greater than 2,500 km² (970 square miles), and several other islands over 500 km² (193 square miles). For comparison, continental landmasses are also shown.
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Continental land masses
These figures are rough approximations only.
| Rank | Continent | Area (km²) |
Area (sq mi) |
Country/Countries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Afro-Eurasia | 84,400,000 | 32,500,000 | Various |
| 2 | Americas | 42,300,000 | 16,400,000 | Various |
| 3 | Antarctica | 13,000,000 | 5,000,000 | None (various countries have territorial claims) |
| 4 | Australia | 7,600,000 | 2,900,000 | Australia |
Notes: Australia is more than three times the size of Greenland, the largest island. However, Australia is sometimes considered 'The Island Continent'.[1] Beneath the ice sheet, Antarctica is not a single land mass, but a number of land areas of much smaller area.[2]
Islands over 250,000 km²
Traditionally, landmasses completely or mostly surrounded by water are classified as continents (when they are large enough) or islands. According to this classification, mainland Australia (7.6 million km2) is the smallest continent and Greenland (2.1 million km2) is the largest island. Thus the list of islands begins with Greenland.
| Rank | Island’s name | Area (km²)[3] |
Area (sq mi) |
Country/Countries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greenland* | 2,130,800[4] | 822,706 |  Denmark ( Greenland) |
| 2 | New Guinea | 785,753 | 303,381 |  Indonesia (Papua and West Papua) and  Papua New Guinea |
| 3 | Borneo | 748,168 | 288,869 |  Brunei, Indonesia (Central, East, South and West Kalimantan) and  Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak) |
| 4 | Madagascar | 587,713 | 226,917 |  Madagascar |
| 5 | Baffin Island | 507,451[5] | 195,928 |  Canada (Nunavut) |
| 6 | Sumatra | 443,066 | 171,069 | Indonesia (Aceh, Bengkulu, Jambi, Lampung, Riau and North, South and West Sumatra) |
* It is thought that beneath the ice sheet Greenland may actually be three separate islands.[6] This is a matter of definition more than anything else, if the parts where the ice reaches below the sea level is land or sea. The usual definition gives that Greenland is one major island.
Islands 25,000 km²–250,000 km²
Islands 10,000 km²–25,000 km²
Islands 5,000 km²–10,000 km²
Islands 2,500 km²–5,000 km²
Islands 1,000 km²–2,500 km²
This section of the list might not be complete, but covers almost all of the islands in the world over 1,000 km². The area of some Antarctic islands is uncertain.
Islands 500 km²–1,000 km²
This section of the list is not complete, although it should cover all European islands over 500 km² and most islands of other continents.
References
Most figures are taken from the United Nations Environment Programme list of islands by area.
Note #1-4 refer to some other sources.
- ^ Australia in Brief - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- ^ Global warming and the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Michael Oppenheimer, 1998 (see map of Antarctica showing regions where bedrock is below sea level)
- ^ http://islands.unep.ch/Tiarea.htm
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Joshua Calder's World Island Info
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae Atlas of Canada
- ^ "Greenland's huge ice sheet is melting far faster than scientists expected", San Francisco Chronicle, 2 July 2006.
- ^ http://islands.unep.ch/Tiarea.htm
- ^ Nolan, Professor William. "Geography of Ireland". Government of Ireland. http://www.gov.ie/en/essays/geography.html. Retrieved 2009-11-11.
- ^ Australian Government Geoscience Australia
- ^ The Republic of China (ROC) is a state commonly referred to as Taiwan. It is also diplomatically occasionally known as Chinese Taipei or other names. The ROC is no longer a United Nations member since late 1971 and regarded by UN as Taiwan, Province of China (see also One-China policy and Political status of Taiwan. It is currently recognized by the Holy See and 23 UN member states and with de facto international relations with most others. The political status of the ROC and the legal status of Taiwan (alongside the territories currently under the ROC jurisdiction) are in dispute. The ROC should not be confused with the People's Republic of China (PRC) which is commonly known simply as China, or the Republic of Taiwan proposed by supporters of Taiwan independence.
- ^ http://islands.unep.ch/Tiarea.htm
- ^ http://islands.unep.ch/Tiarea.htm
- ^ Akrotiri and Dhekelia (3% of the island) are not sovereign territory of the Republic of Cyprus (97% of the island) - see Appendix A, Article 1 in the Cypriot constitution
- ^ http://islands.unep.ch/Tiarea.htm
- ^ http://islands.unep.ch/Tiarea.htm
- ^ a b c d e List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands
- The figures of the Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic islands Charcot Island, Smyley Island, Latady Island, Rothschild Island and Hearst Island (note #5) are just rough estimates found on this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Antarctic_and_sub-Antarctic_islands. The estimate of Latady Island (700 km²) is probably wrong. Another source claims it is 3,300 km². http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latady_Island
Figures about Swedish islands are from this site:
Figures about Norwegian islands are from this site:
Figures about Finnish islands are mainly from this site:
- http://personal.inet.fi/koti/kauko.huotari/saaret.htm (also includes freshwater islands)
Figures about Scottish islands are mainly from this site:
Figures about islands in China are mainly from this site:
Figures about Canadian islands are mainly from this site:
Figures about islands of Chile can be found on this site:
This site gives important information on islands of Greenland:
See also
- List of islands (by country)
- List of islands by name
- List of islands by population
- List of islands by highest point
- List of countries by area
- List of European islands by population
- List of European islands by area
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Wright, John W., ed. The New York Times Almanac, Millennium Edition. New York: Penguin, 1999.
