The World’s 100 Largest Islands, Side by Side

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An island is a piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water.

Greenland is the world’s largest island, with an area of over 2.1 million km2 (0.8 million sq mi), while Australia, the world’s smallest continent, has an area of 7.6 million km2 (3.3 million sq mi), but there is no standard of size that distinguishes islands from continents.

There are 443 islands in the world that have land areas of 970 square miles (2512 square kilometers) or greater and there are 335 more islands that have land areas of 190 (492 square kilometers) to 969 (2510 square kilometers) square miles.

The 155 largest islands have landmass equal to the size of Europe.
Almost 10 percent of global population live on islands.

David Garcia depicted with the Equal Earth Projection the 100 largest islands on the planet, in shaded relief.

Rank	Country or countries	Area, km2	Area, sq mi	Countries
1	Greenland	2130800	8227	Denmark
2	New Guinea	785753	303381	Indonesia, Papua New Guinea
3	Borneo	748168	288869	Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei
4	Madagascar	587041	226658	Madagascar
5	Baffin Island	507451	195928	Canada
6	Sumatra	443066	182812	Indonesia
7	Honshu	2258	872	Japan
8	Victoria Island	217291	83897	Canada
9	Great Britain	209331	80823	United Kingdom
10	Ellesmere Island	196236	75767	Canada
11	Sulawesi	180681	69761	Indonesia
12	South Island	145836	56308	New Zealand
13	Java	138794	53589	Indonesia
14	North Island	111583	43082	New Zealand
15	Luzon	109965	42458	Philippines
16	Newfoundland	10886	4203	Canada
17	Cuba	105806	40852	Cuba
18	Iceland	101826	39315	Iceland
19	Mindanao	9753	3766	Philippines
20	Ireland	84421	32595	Ireland, United Kingdom
21	Hokkaido	78719	30394	Japan
22	Hispaniola	73929	28544	Dominican Republi, Haiti
23	Sakhalin	72493	2799	Russia
24	Banks Island	70028	27038	Canada
25	Sri Lanka	65268	252	Sri Lanka
26	Tasmania	65022	25105	Australia
27	Devon Island	55247	21331	Canada
28	Alexander Island	4907	1895	None
29	Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego	47401	18302	Argentina, Chile
30	Severny Island (Novaya Zemlya)	47079	18177	Russia
31	Berkner Island	43873	16939	None
32	Axel Heiberg Island	43178	16671	Canada
33	Melville Island	42149	16274	Canada
34	Southampton Island	41214	15913	Canada
35	Marajу	401	155	Brazil
36	Spitsbergen	38981	15051	Norway
37	Kyushu	37437	14455	Japan
38	Taiwan	35883	13855	Taiwan
39	New Britain	35145	1357	Papua New Guinea
40	Prince of Wales Island	33339	12872	Canada
41	Yuzhny Island (Novaya Zemlya)	33246	12836	Russia
42	Hainan	3321	1282	China
43	Vancouver Island	31285	12079	Canada
44	Timor	28418	10972	Indonesia, East Timor
45	Sicily	25711	9927	Italy
46	Somerset Island	24786	957	Canada
47	Kotelny Island	24	93	Russia
48	Sardinia	23949	9247	Italy
49	Bananal	20	7398	Brazil
50	Shikoku	18545	716	Japan
51	Halmahera	1804	697	Indonesia
52	Seram Island	17454	6739	Indonesia
53	New Caledonia	16648	6428	New Caledonia
54	Bathurst Island	16042	6194	Canada
55	Prince Patrick Island	15848	6119	Canada
56	Thurston Island	157	61	None
57	Nordaustlandet	14467	5586	Norway
58	Sumbawa	14386	5554	Indonesia
59	October Revolution Island	14204	5484	Russia
60	Flores	14154	5465	Indonesia
61	King William Island	13111	5062	Canada
62	Negros	13075	5048	Philippines
63	Samar	12849	4961	Philippines
64	Palawan	12189	4706	Philippines
65	Panay	12011	4637	Philippines
66	Yos Sudarso	11742	4534	Indonesia
67	Bangka	11413	4407	Indonesia
68	Ellef Ringnes Island	11295	4361	Canada
69	Bolshevik Island	11206	4327	Russia
70	Jamaica	1119	432	Jamaica
71	Bylot Island	11067	4273	Canada
72	Sumba	10711	4136	Indonesia
73	Mindoro	10572	4082	Philippines
74	Viti Levu	10531	4066	Fiji
75	Hawai	10434	4029	United States
76	Cape Breton Island	10311	3981	Canada
77	Prince Charles Island	9521	3676	Canada
78	Bougainville Island	9318	3598	Papua New Guinea
79	Kodiak Island	931	3595	United States
80	Cyprus	9234	3565	Cyprus
81	Puerto Rico	91	35	Puerto Rico
82	Komsomolets Island	8812	3402	Russia
83	Corsica	8741	3375	France
84	Qeqertarsuaq	8612	3325	Denmark
85	Carney Island	85	33	None
86	Chiloé Island	8478	3273	Chile
87	Buru	8473	3271	Indonesia
88	Crete	835	322	Greece
89	Anticosti Island	7941	3066	Canada
90	Roosevelt Island	791	305	None
91	Wrangel Island	7866	3037	Russia
92	Tupinambarana	77	3	Brazil
93	New Ireland	7405	2859	Papua New Guinea
94	Leyte	7368	2845	Philippines
95	East Falkland	704	272	United Kingdom
96	Zealand	7031	2715	Denmark
97	Cornwallis Island	6995	2701	Canada
98	Prince of Wales Island	6675	2577	United States
99	Kerguelen	6617	2555	France
100	Siple Island	639	247	None
101	Graham Island	6361	2456	Canada
102	New Siberia	6201	2394	Russia
103	Melville Island	5765	2226	Australia
104	Prince Edward Island	562	217	Canada
105	Vanua Levu	5587	2157	Fiji
106	Wellington Island	5556	2145	Chile
107	Coats Island	5498	2123	Canada
108	Bali	5416	2091	Indonesia
109	Chichagof Island	5388	208	United States
110	Guadalcanal	5353	2067	Solomon Islands

Hundred Largest Islands in the World by Population Density

Java is the most populated island in the world (141 million people).

Rank by Density	Island	Countries	Population	Area (km²)	People per km²
1	Java	Indonesia	141,000,000	138,793	1,015.9
2	Bali	Indonesia	4,225,000	5,780	731
3	Taiwan	Taiwan	23,571,000	36,193	651.3
4	Zealand	Denmark	3,749,200	7,031	533.2
5	Luzon	Philippines	53,336,134	109,965	485
6	Honshu	Japan	104,000,000	227,960	456.2
7	Panay	Philippines	4,477,247	12,011	372.8
8	Kyushu	Japan	12,970,479	36,753	352.9
9	Puerto Rico	United States	3,195,000	9,104	350.9
10	Negros	Philippines	4,414,131	13,310	331.6
11	Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka	21,440,000	65,610	326.8
12	Great Britain	United Kingdom	66,040,000	209,331	315.5
13	Hispaniola	Dominican Republic, Haiti	21,396,000	76,192	280.8
14	Jamaica	Caribbean	2,890,000	10,992	262.9
15	Mindanao	Philippines	25,537,691	97,530	261.8
16	Hainan	China	8,670,000	33,920	255.6
17	Shikoku	Japan	3,845,534	18800	204.5
18	Sicily	Italy	5,057,000	25,711	196.7
19	Flores	Indonesia	1,831,000	13,540	135.2
20	Samar	Philippines	1,751,267	13,429	130.4

Want to learn more about islands? Have a look at the following books:

• Amazing Islands: 100+ Places that Will Boggle Your Mind
• The Age of Islands: In Search of New and Disappearing Islands
• Exploring Islands (Geography Zone: Landforms)

Related posts:
– The largest to the smallest landmasses in the world mapped
– World’s 25 Largest Lakes, by Area