Islands Over 250,000 Km2 (97,000 Sq Mi)
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) |
Area (sq mi) |
Country or countries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greenland* | 2,130,800 | 822,706 | Greenland, constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark |
| 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 | 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 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.
Read more about this topic: List Of Islands By Area
Famous quotes containing the word islands:
“Consider the islands bearing the names of all the saints, bristling with forts like chestnut-burs, or Echinidæ, yet the police will not let a couple of Irishmen have a private sparring- match on one of them, as it is a government monopoly; all the great seaports are in a boxing attitude, and you must sail prudently between two tiers of stony knuckles before you come to feel the warmth of their breasts.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)