How many islands are there in the West Indies?

Answer 1

Major islands associated with Europe are Corsica, England, Ireland, Iceland, Svalbard, Sicily, Malta, Cyprus, and Sardinia, but there are many, many more.

Ireland is an island, but England is not. It's attached to Wales and Scotland.

Answer 2

This is an extremely difficult question to answer with any degree of precision, mainly because not everyone agrees on what can be called an island!

Even so, we'll start by defining what is meant by "the British Isles"...

BRITISH ISLES: DEFINITION

The 'British Isles' is purely a geographic term. It refers to all those land masses, great and small, north of France, with Great Britain and Ireland being the two largest of those islands.

BRITISH ISLES: ISLANDS

There are over 130 inhabited islands within 'the British Isles' group of islands. (See Related links below)

However, there are many more islands in the British Isles. Some are between the two major islands, others are around, near, associated with, or on lakes or rivers of the countries in that area.

Depending on what counts as an island, estimates of the number of islands in the British Isles range from 'over a thousand'(1) to over six thousand(2).

SOME MAJOR ISLANDS and island groups:

• Ireland
• Great Britain - 9th largest island in the world(3)
• Isle of Man
• Isle of Wight
• Channel Islands: Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, Little Sark, Herm, Brechou, Jethou, Lihou, Ortach, Burhou, the Casquets, Les Miniquiers, the Ecrehou Islands + others.

• Isles of Scilly: 5 populated islands + 140 others
• Isle of Skye
• Western Isles, the main islands being: Lewis, Harris, North Uist, South Uist, Bara.

ISLANDS WITHIN ISLANDS

Some large parts of the five major countries of the British Isles are islands themselves. e.g. Anglesey, Isle of Sheppey, Portsea Island, the Hebrides, the Orkneys, the Shetlands.

INLAND ISLANDS

In addition to 'sea' islands, there are also very many inland islands i.e. on lakes and rivers etc within the British Isles. e.g. Belle Isle, Lake Windermere; Eel Pie Island, River Thames.

ISLANDS THAT ARE NOT ISLANDS

The British Isles also has places called islands that are not really islands! e.g. Isle of Dogs; Isle of Ely; Isle of Athelney.

---SUMMARY---

• The British Isles area is comprised of very many islands, thousands, in fact, but in view of the challenge of determining exactly which piece of land surrounded by water actually qualifies as an island, an exact number cannot be given.

• However, in view of the sheer amount of islands there, the commonly used term 'the British Isles' (apart the word 'British') appears to be quite appropriate for that part of the globe.

References

1. WikiPedia: Terminology of the British Isles

2. WikiPedia: British Isles

3. WikiPedia: List of Islands by area.

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FOR MORE DETAILS, and separate respective lists of islands for England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, see Sources and Related links below.

Answer 3

There are approximately 28 island countries and 9 dependent territories in the West Indies, making a total of 37 islands.

Answer 4

3

Answer 5

fifteen

Answer 6

600