This list of islands by area includes all islands in the world greater than 2,500Â km2 (970 sq mi) and several other islands over 500Â km2 (193 sq mi), sorted in descending order by area. For comparison, continents are also shown.
Continental landmasses
Although the continental landmasses listed below are not normally called islands, they are land entirely surrounded by water (excluding the geologically insignificant Panama Canal and Suez Canal). In effect, they are enormous islands and are shown here for that reason. The figures are approximations and are for the continental mainland only. Some people, however, consider mainland Australia to be an island.
Notes:
- Australia is more than three times the size of Greenland, the largest island. Australia is sometimes dubbed "The Island Continent", and sometimes accorded the role of "Earth’s largest island but smallest continent".
- Antarctica is a special case: if its ice is considered not as land, but as water, it is not a single land mass, but several land areas of much smaller area, since the ice-bedrock boundary is below sea level in many regions of the continent. If its ice cover were to be lifted, some rock that is currently below sea level would rise as the weight of the ice would be removed, although this would in part be counteracted, and in some areas of the continent overtaken, by eustatic rises in sea level.
Islands over 250,000 km2 (97,000 sq mi)
Although an island is, in general, any land mass that is completely surrounded by water, some definitions exclude land masses large enough to be considered continents. Placing Australia in the latter category (even though arguments can be made whether it is technically a continent, or merely part of a larger continent also called Australia) makes Greenland the largest island. For the sake of classification, this list of islands begins with Greenland.
* It is thought that beneath the ice sheet Greenland may be three separate islands. Whether the places where the ice-bedrock boundary reaches below the sea level are land or sea is a matter of definition. The usual definition is that Greenland is one major island.
Islands 100,000â€"250,000 km2 (39,000â€"97,000 sq mi)
Islands 20,000â€"100,000 km2 (7,700â€"38,600 sq mi)
Islands 10,000â€"20,000 km2 (3,900â€"7,700 sq mi)
Islands 5,000â€"10,000 km2 (1,900â€"3,900 sq mi)
Islands 2,500â€"5,000 km2 (970â€"1,930 sq mi)
Islands 1,000â€"2,500 km2 (390â€"970 sq mi)
This section of the list might not be complete, but covers almost all of the islands in the world over 1,000Â km2. The area of some Antarctic islands is uncertain.
Islands 500â€"1,000 km2 (190â€"390 sq mi)
This section of the list is not complete, although it should cover all European islands over 500Â km2 and most islands of other continents.
Notes
See also
- List of countries by area
- List of islands (by continent and country)
- List of islands by name
- List of islands by population
- List of islands by highest point
- List of islands by population density
References
Most figures are taken from the United Nations Environment Programme list of islands by area.
Figures about Canadian islands are mainly from this site:
- http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/learningresources/facts/islands.html
Figures about islands of Chile can be found on this site:
- http://www.worldislandinfo.com/Chile.htm
This site gives important information on islands of Greenland:
- http://www.ub.ntnu.no/formidl/utgivelser/til_opplysning/to_nr15.html#umeny7
- The figures of the Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic islands Charcot Island, Smyley Island, Latady Island, Rothschild Island and Hearst Island are rough estimates, made by a Wikipedian on the basis of a map, and found in this article: List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands. The estimate of Latady Island (700Â km2), in particular, may be wrong; another estimate, found on Latady Island, whose source is unknown, however, claims it is 3,300Â km2.
External links
- Joshua Calder's World Island Info
- United Nations Environment Programme list of islands by area