What is the largest island in the world?
Quick answer
Greenland is the largest island in the world, covering about 2.16 million km² (836,000 square miles). Australia is bigger, but it’s classed as a continent, not an island. Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, and about 80% of it is covered by an ice sheet.
The 10 largest islands
| Rank | Island | Area | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greenland | 2,166,086 km² | Denmark |
| 2 | New Guinea | 785,753 km² | Papua New Guinea, Indonesia |
| 3 | Borneo | 748,168 km² | Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei |
| 4 | Madagascar | 587,295 km² | Madagascar |
| 5 | Baffin Island | 507,451 km² | Canada |
| 6 | Sumatra | 443,066 km² | Indonesia |
| 7 | Honshu | 225,800 km² | Japan |
| 8 | Victoria Island | 217,291 km² | Canada |
| 9 | Great Britain | 209,331 km² | United Kingdom |
| 10 | Ellesmere Island | 196,236 km² | Canada |
Why isn’t Australia an island?
Geographers draw a line between continents and islands by size and geology. Australia sits on its own tectonic plate and is about 3.5 times larger than Greenland, so it’s classed as the smallest continent rather than the largest island.
Greenland facts
- It has only about 57,000 people, making it one of the least densely populated places on Earth.
- The capital is Nuuk.
- Its ice sheet is up to 3 km thick. If it all melted, global sea levels would rise by about 7 meters.
- On many world maps (the Mercator projection), Greenland looks about as big as Africa. In reality, Africa is about 14 times larger.
At the other end of the scale, see the smallest country in the world. Canada, home to three of the ten largest islands, also has the longest coastline.
Still curious?
Jump to a random question from the archive.