The Largest Islands in the World

Updated September 9, 2022 | Infoplease Staff

As big as they get (without being called a continent)

The following table lists the largest islands on earth including the name, location, political affiliation, and land area (in square miles and square kilometers). For the purposes of this list, we are not including possible continental landmasses like Australia or Antarctica. We're also only counting landmasses, so the arctic ice sheet doesn't qualify.

Greenland is the world's largest island covering 2,175,597 square kilometers. Although it's owned by Denmark rather than Canada, it has company in the many large islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Most of the other top contenders are found in the Pacific Ocean, especially in Oceania.

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    Area
Island Location and political affiliation sq. mi. sq. km
Greenland North Atlantic (Danish) 839,999 2,175,597
New Guinea Southwest Pacific (West Papua [Irian Jaya], Indonesia, western part; Papua New Guinea, eastern part) 309,000 800,311
Borneo West mid-Pacific (Indonesian, south part; Brunei and Malaysian, north part) 287,300 744,108
Madagascar Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa (Malagasy Republic) 227,000 587,931
Baffin Island North Atlantic (Canadian) 195,926 507,451
Sumatra Northeast Indian Ocean (Indonesian) 182,859 473,605
Honshu Sea of Japan–Pacific (Japanese) 89,176 230,966
Great Britain Off coast of NW Europe (England, Scotland, and Wales) 88,795 229,979
Victoria Island Arctic Ocean (Canadian) 83,896 217,291
Ellesmere Island Arctic Ocean (Canadian) 75,767 196,236
Sulawesi (Celebes) West mid-Pacific (Indonesian) 73,057 189,218
South Island South Pacific (New Zealand) 58,384 151,215
Java Indian Ocean (Indonesian) 51,038 132,189
North Island South Pacific (New Zealand) 44,702 115,778
Cuba Caribbean Sea (republic) 42,803 110,860
Newfoundland North Atlantic (Canadian) 42,031 108,860
Luzon West mid-Pacific (Philippines) 40,420 104,688
Iceland North Atlantic (republic) 39,800 103,082
Mindanao West mid-Pacific (Philippines) 36,537 94,631
Ireland West of Great Britain (republic, south part; United Kingdom, north part) 32,597 84,426
Hokkaido Sea of Japan–Pacific (Japanese) 32,245 83,515
Sakhalin (Karafuto) North of Japan (Russian) 29,500 76,405
Hispaniola Caribbean Sea (Dominican Republic, east part; Haiti, west part) 29,300 75,887
Banks Arctic Ocean (Canadian) 27,038 70,028
Tasmania South of Australia (Australian) 26,200 67,858
Sri Lanka (Ceylon) Indian Ocean (republic) 24,900 64,491
Devon Arctic Ocean (Canadian) 21,331 55,247
Tierra del Fuego Southern tip of South America (Argentinian, east part; Chilean, west part) 18,605 48,187
Axel Heiberg Arctic Ocean (Canadian) 16,671 43,178
Melville Arctic Ocean (Canadian) 16,274 42,149
Kyushu Sea of Japan–Pacific (Japanese) 16,223 42,018
Southampton Hudson Bay (Canadian) 15,913 41,214
 
NOTE: Australia is not included in this list because it is commonlydefined as a continent rather than an island.
 
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Sources +

U.S. Geological Survey