Island Countries


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Island - Pahawang Island Indonesia Image: Fidelia Zheng

Everybody knows what an island is, a piece of land entirely surrounded by water, it should be smaller than a continent, otherwise it would be a continent. With Australia one is not so sure, but the fact that Australia has its own tectonic plate justifies it as a continent. Geology of Islands. Some islands sit atop ancient submerged volcanoes rising from the ocean floor. Some low-lying tropical islands were formed from organic material of stony corals and other organic debris. Other islands are unsubmerged parts of the continental shelf, the shallow edge of a continental landmass. In the list below you can find out which are the most populous island countries, or the largest island nations by area.	Bookmark/share this page
Island Nations, islands that are sovereign states. List of island nations.

	Country	Capital City	Population	Area (km²)	World Region	Notes
	Indonesia	Jakarta	258,705,000	1,904,569	Archipelago between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean in Maritime Southeast Asia.	Most populous island nation, and the most populous country in South-East Asia, and the island nation with the most islands (13,466)
	Japan	Tokyo	126,920,000	377,915	Island chain between the North Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan in Northeast Asia.	Four main islands, Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu (the "Home Islands") - and 6,848 smaller islands and islets.
	Philippines	Manila	100,981,000	300,000	Archipelago east of Vietnam, between the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea.	More than 7,000 islands, divided into three island groups: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
	United Kingdom	London	66,000,000	243,000	British Isles archipelago, north of France.	Two main islands, Great Britain and the island of Ireland.
	Madagascar	Antananarivo	21,842,000	587,041	Island in the Indian Ocean, east of Mozambique in Southern Africa.	One main island, the fourth largest island in the world.
	Sri Lanka	Colombo	21,203,000	65,610	Island in the Indian Ocean, southeast of the Indian subcontinent.	One main island. There was a land connection to the Indian mainland, but now mostly submerged.
	Cuba	Havana	11,239,000	109,886	One main island in the Greater Antilles archipelago.	Largest island in the Caribbean.
	Haiti	Port-au-Prince	10,912,000	27,750	Haiti occupies the western portion of Hispaniola island.	One of the two countries occupying the island of Hispaniola.
	Dominican Republic	Santo Domingo	9,980,000	48,310	Hispaniola is one of the Greater Antilles islands, it is the second largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba.	One of the two countries occupying the island of Hispaniola.
	Papua New Guinea	Port Moresby	7,270,000	462,840	Papua New Guinea comprises of the eastern half of New Guinea and several offshore islands in the western Pacific Ocean.	Largest islands of PNG besides New Guinea island are New Ireland, New Britain, Manus and Bougainville.
	Singapore	Singapore	5,535,000	718	Relative small island adjacent to the southern tip of peninsular Malaysia.	Singapore is a city-state, the former trading post of the East India Company is today a global financial center.
	New Zealand	Wellington	4,675,000	270,467	Part of Zealandia, a microcontinent in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, about 1,700km (1,000 mi) south east of Australia.	Two long and narrow main islands and several outlying islands.
	Republic of Ireland	Dublin	4,635,000	70,273	Ireland occupies most of the island of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea from the island of Great Britain in the north Atlantic Ocean.	One main island, the northern part is occupied by Northern Ireland, a province of the United Kingdom.
	Jamaica	Kingston	2,740,000	10,991	Tropical mountainous Caribbean island nation south of Cuba. It is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles.	Discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1494.
	Bahrain	Manama	1,234,000	741	Kingdom of Bahrain is a small archipelago with more than 30 islands centered around Bahrain Island in the Persian Gulf.	Bahrain is connected to Saudi Arabia, by the 25 km long King Fahd Causeway.
	Trinidad and Tobago	Port-of-Spain	1,310,000	5,130	Tropical twin island country north of Venezuela, South America.	First colonized by the Spanish, the islands came under British control in 1797.
	Mauritius	Port Louis	1,286,000	2,040	Tropical island nation in the Indian Ocean, about 900 km east of the coast of Madagascar.	British colony since 1810 until independence in 1968. Partially part of the Mascarene Islands (Mauritius, Rodrigues and French Réunion)
	East Timor	Dili	1,183,000	14,874	East Timor, or Timor-Leste is a sovereign nation occupying the eastern half of the island of Timor in Maritime Southeast Asia.	Portuguese-colonized East Timor became independent in 1975, only to be annexed by Indonesia in 1976 for the next 26 years.
	Fiji	Suva	861,000	18,274	Tropical group of 330 islands of volcanic origin in the South Pacific Ocean, Oceania. Highest point is Tomanivi (Mount Victoria) at 1,324 m.	Fiji became independent in 1970 after nearly a century as a British colony. Two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.
	Cyprus	Nicosia	848,300	9,251	Island and Greece related island nation in the north-eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea in southern Europe.	The northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus is occupied by Turkey since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.
	Comoros	Moroni	770,000	2,235	The Union of the Comoros is a tropical, volcanic group of islands in the Indian Ocean at the northern entry of the Mozambique Channel, 300 km east off the coast of northern Mozambique.	Three major islands, Ngazidja (Grande Comore), Mwali (Mohéli) and Nzwani (Anjouan).
	Solomon Islands	Honiara	642,000	28,896	A sovereign nation that consists of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands straddling the Solomon Sea, east of Papua New Guinea.	Main islands are Choiseul, New Georgia, Santa Isabel, Guadalcanal, Malaita, and Makira (San Cristobal).
	Cape Verde	Praia	525,000	4,033	Cabo Verde is a volcanic archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of Africa, about 650 km west of Dakar, Senegal.	Cape Verde became independent from Portugal in 1975.
	Malta	Valletta	429,000	316	Malta is a tiny island nation in the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily and the North African coast.	Main islands are Malta, Gozo and Comino.
	Brunei	Bandar Seri Begawan	417,784	5,765	The small Nation of Brunei, Abode of Peace is a rich unitary Islamic absolute monarchy on the north coast of Borneo in Maritime Southeast Asia.	Brunei gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1984.
	Bahamas	Nassau	370,000	13,943	The Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is an independent state within the Lucayan Archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, made up of 700-plus coral islands and cays.	Largest islands in the Bahamas are North Andros, Great Inagua, South Andros, Great Abaco, and Grand Bahama.
	Maldives	Male	341,000	298	A tropical archipelago of 1,190 coral islands, grouped into 26 atolls straddling the Equator in the Indian Ocean, about 900 km southwest of Sri Lanka.	Smallest Asian country. The low-lying Maldives are threatened by rising sea-level. Highest point is an unnamed location on Villingilli Island in the Addu Atoll at 2.4 m (8 feet).
	Iceland	Reykjavik	323,002	103,000	Nordic island nation in the North Atlantic Ocean, about 300 km southeast of Greenland.	Iceland boasts the world's oldest functioning legislative assembly, the Althingi, established in 930.
	Barbados	Bridgetown	285,000	431	Sovereign island country in the Lesser Antilles of the eastern Caribbean, an independent British Commonwealth nation.	Easternmost island in the Caribbean
.	Vanuatu	Port-Vila	252,763	12,189	The Republic of Vanuatu consists of a group of about 80 islands in the South Pacific Ocean.	Named by the Portuguese 'La Austrialia del Espíritu Santo' in the 17th century. As a British–French Condominium the archipelago was known as the New Hebrides.
	Samoa	Port-Vila	193,483	199	The Samoan Islands are an archipelago in the central South Pacific. The Independent State of Samoa occupies the western half of the islands.	Historically the islands were known as the Navigator Islands.
	Saint Lucia	Castries	172,000	539	Sovereign island nation in the Eastern Caribbean, north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent.	The island is a popular cruise destination, famous for the Pitons, two volcanic spires.
	São Tomé and Príncipe	São Tomé	178,700	964	African island nation at the equator, about 300 km west of Gabon.	Two archipelagos around the two main islands: São Tomé and Príncipe.
	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Kingstown	110,000	389	Island nation comprising the main island, St. Vincent, and a chain of smaller islands in the southern Caribbean.	SVG was an administrative unit of the West Indies Federation, a former federation of ten British West Indian territories established in 1958.
	Grenada	Saint George's	107,000	344	An island country in the Windward Islands, at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea.	One main island and six smaller islands. Grenada is known as the "Island of Spice".
	Tonga	Nuku'alofa	105,323	747	Polynesian kingdom of about 170 islands in the South Pacific.	Formerly known as the 'Friendly Islands'. Independence from British 'protection' in 1970.
	Micronesia Federated States of	Nuku'alofa	102,289	702	Micronesian archipelago with more than 600 islands north of the Equator in the western Pacific Ocean.	Formerly part of the Caroline Islands. Micronesia consists of four island states Pohnpei, Kosrae, Chuuk and Yap.
	Kiribati	Tarawa	100,000	726	Group of 33 coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean, straddling the Equator west of the International Date Line.	Former British protectorate and colony, then known as the Gilbert Islands.
	Seychelles	Victoria	92,000	455	African archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar.	Independent since 1976 (from Great Britain)
	Antigua and Barbuda	Saint John's	89,000	442	Tropical Caribbean twin-island country in the middle of the Leeward Islands archipelago.	Two inhabited main islands, and a number of smaller islands, including Redonda.
	Dominica	Roseau	72,000	751	Sovereign island country in the the Windward archipelago, Caribbean.	Dominica was the last of the Caribbean islands to be colonized by Europeans.
	Saint Kitts and Nevis	Basseterre	54,191	261	Two islands within the Lesser Antilles, West Indies (Caribbean)	Smallest sovereign state in the Americas.
	Marshall Islands	Majuro	52,634	181	Located in the North Pacific Ocean, about 4,900 km east of Mindanao (Philippines), 4,000 km south west from Hawaii, and 1,300 km west of the International Date Line.	Archipelago with two parallel island chains. Internationally probably best known is the Bikini Atoll, where the United States detonated 23 nuclear devices between 1946 and 1958 that left the island contaminated with radioactivity and uninhabitable.
	Palau	Ngerulmud	17,661	459	Micronesian island country in the southern Philippine Sea (Pacific Ocean), east of Mindanao (Philippines).	Archipelago of about 250 islands.
	Nauru	Yaren District	10,084	21	Micronesian island country in the South Pacific Ocean.	Smallest country in Oceania and the world's smallest island nation.
	Tuvalu	Funafuti	10,000	26	Polynesian island country in the South Pacific Ocean	Formerly known as the Ellice Islands.

Related pages:

World's Sovereign States

Countries by Area

Countries by Population

International Calling Codes

Overseas Territories and Dependent Areas

Countries of the Islamic World

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___ Island Countries

Island Nations, islands that are sovereign states.