Island countries of the world

What counts as an island country?

The essential condition is that the country’s land lies on islands rather than a continental mainland. It does not require every island to belong entirely to one country. Indonesia, for example, shares Borneo with Malaysia and Brunei, New Guinea with Papua New Guinea, and Timor with Timor-Leste.

This also separates countries from individual islands. Japan and the Philippines are countries containing many islands; Hispaniola is an island containing two countries. A list of the world’s largest islands and a list of island countries will therefore answer different questions.

Indonesia is the most populous entry here, ahead of Japan and the Philippines. The same classification also includes Tuvalu, Nauru and other states with very small populations. “Island country” says something about the arrangement of land, not population, economic development or remoteness.

The island-country list

The table is ordered by population for comparison, without assigning a geographic rank. The shared-island column highlights the eight countries in this list that share an island with another sovereign state. The United Kingdom is included because Northern Ireland shares the island of Ireland; Great Britain itself is a separate island.

47 countries. Scroll the table for all entries.

47 island-country profiles under the definition above. Population is a separate July 2026 projection.

Country ↕	Population, July 2026 ↕	Shared-island context ↕	Capital ↕
Indonesia	287,886,782	Shares Borneo, New Guinea and Timor	Jakarta
Japan	122,427,731	Island or archipelago	Tokyo
Philippines	117,724,471	Island or archipelago	Manila
United Kingdom	69,931,528	Shares Ireland (Northern Ireland)	London
Madagascar	33,522,052	Island or archipelago	Antananarivo
Sri Lanka	23,348,315	Island or archipelago	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (administrative), Colombo (commercial)
Taiwan	23,011,292	Island or archipelago	Taipei
Haiti	12,037,506	Shares Hispaniola	Port-au-Prince
Dominican Republic	11,609,500	Shares Hispaniola	Santo Domingo
Papua New Guinea	10,947,848	Shares New Guinea	Port Moresby
Cuba	10,892,659	Island or archipelago	Havana
Singapore	5,905,748	Island or archipelago	Singapore
Ireland	5,356,950	Shares Ireland	Dublin
New Zealand	5,287,479	Island or archipelago	Wellington
Jamaica	2,833,403	Island or archipelago	Kingston
Bahrain	1,675,572	Island or archipelago	Manama
Trinidad and Tobago	1,513,268	Island or archipelago	Port of Spain
Timor-Leste	1,436,923	Shares Timor	Dili
Cyprus	1,382,334	Island or archipelago	Nicosia
Mauritius	1,265,059	Island or archipelago	Port Louis
Fiji	937,282	Island or archipelago	Suva
Comoros	899,010	Island or archipelago	Moroni
Solomon Islands	858,288	Island or archipelago	Honiara
Malta	549,011	Island or archipelago	Valletta
Maldives	531,517	Island or archipelago	Malé
Cape Verde	529,630	Island or archipelago	Praia
Brunei	469,775	Shares Borneo	Bandar Seri Begawan
Bahamas	404,628	Island or archipelago	Nassau
Iceland	402,329	Island or archipelago	Reykjavik
Vanuatu	342,564	Island or archipelago	Port Vila
Barbados	282,724	Island or archipelago	Bridgetown
Sao Tome and Principe	244,994	Island or archipelago	São Tomé
Samoa	220,528	Island or archipelago	Apia
Saint Lucia	180,488	Island or archipelago	Castries
Kiribati	138,445	Island or archipelago	Tarawa
Seychelles	134,959	Island or archipelago	Victoria
Grenada	117,362	Island or archipelago	Saint George's
Micronesia	114,183	Island or archipelago	Palikir
Tonga	103,291	Island or archipelago	Nuku'alofa
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	99,245	Island or archipelago	Kingstown
Antigua and Barbuda	94,626	Island or archipelago	Saint John's
Dominica	65,511	Island or archipelago	Roseau
Saint Kitts and Nevis	46,992	Island or archipelago	Basseterre
Marshall Islands	35,075	Island or archipelago	Majuro
Palau	17,614	Island or archipelago	Ngerulmud
Nauru	12,101	Island or archipelago	Yaren
Tuvalu	9,362	Island or archipelago	Funafuti

Cyprus also requires care: the British Sovereign Base Areas are separately administered territory on the island. The table’s shared-island notes focus on neighbouring sovereign country profiles, so they should not be treated as an exhaustive border or territorial-status inventory.

Why islands can have land borders

Haiti and the Dominican Republic divide Hispaniola. Ireland and the United Kingdom meet on the island of Ireland. Papua New Guinea and Indonesia share New Guinea. Each example demonstrates why “no land borders” is an unsuitable definition of an island country.

Bridges and causeways are a different issue. A fixed link to neighbouring territory does not turn an island’s underlying landmass into a continental mainland. The geographical classification here follows the location of the country’s land, rather than whether you can drive away from it.

Malaysia is excluded even though part of it lies on Borneo, because Peninsular Malaysia is on the Asian mainland. Equatorial Guinea likewise includes continental territory. Having important islands, or even an island capital, does not make the whole country an island state.

Australia, Greenland and small-island groupings

Why is Australia excluded?

This page treats Australia’s main landmass as a continent. Some informal lists call it an island country and produce a larger count. Neither count is interpretable without that convention being stated. Australia remains in our country directory and in area, population and economy comparisons.

Why is Greenland excluded?

Greenland is an island, but it is not a separate country profile under this directory’s convention. Dependent territories are not silently mixed into the country count. That same rule excludes many well-known Caribbean and Pacific islands that appear on travel lists.

Is this the UN’s Small Island Developing States list?

No. SIDS is a development-policy grouping with its own membership and scope. It can include places with mainland territory, while this geographic list includes countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom. The two classifications should not be substituted for each other.