Island country

"Island nation" redirects here. For the Taiwanese TV Series, see Island Nation.

For a more comprehensive list, see List of island countries.

Not to be confused with Iceland.

An island country, island state or island nation is a country that is made up only of islands. A 25% of the world's countries are island countries. Island countries are historically more stable than continental countries but they're vulnerable for conquest by any naval superpowers. Indonesia is the island country with the most people in the world.

Island countries

Sovereign states and states with limited recognition fully on islands: those with land borders shaded green, and those without shaded dark blue (Bahrain (bh) should be shaded green as it shares a small land border with Saudi Arabia)

Countries/territories not shown on the map: Antarctica (aq) (continent), Australia (au) (continent), Cook Islands (ck) (free association with New Zealand), Greenland (gl) (integral part of the Kingdom of Denmark), Niue (nu) (free association with New Zealand); Northern Cyprus (tk-cy and cy-tk) (unrecognized country) Puerto Rico (pr) (unincorporated US territory)

There are many variations between island country economies: they may rely mainly on extractive industries, such as mining, fishing and agriculture, and/or on services such as transit hubs, tourism, and financial services.

List

There are at least 45 island countries in the world, and there are countries that only consist of an island, such as Iceland or Nauru, an archipelago, such as Federated States of Micronesia or Palau. This list also includes Australia, though a continent.

Country	ISO-3166 code	Area	Population	Capital	Official languages	Location
Antigua and Barbuda	ATG	442 km²	90,000	St John's	en
Australia**	AUS	7688000 km²	26,600,000	Canberra	en
Bahamas	BHS	13880 km²	415,000	Nassau	en
Bahrain	BAH	765 km²	1,422,000	Manama	ar
Barbados	BRB	430 km²	288,000	Bridgetown	en
Brunei	BRN	5770 km²	466,000	Bandar Seri Begawan	my/zh
Cape Verde	CPV	4030 km²	578,000	Praia	pt
Comoros	COM	1861 km²	833,000	Moroni	ar/fr/sw
Cook Islands	COK	235 km²	8,200	Avarua	mi/en/rt
Cuba	CUB	110000 km²	11,400,000	Havana	es
Dominica	DMA	755 km²	73,000	Roseau	en
East Timor	TLS	14900 km²	1,310,000	Dili	pt
Fiji	FJI	18300 km²	916,000	Suva	en/fj/hi
Grenada	GRN	345 km²	126,000	St George's	en
Iceland	ISL	103000 km²	378,000	Reykjavík	is
Indonesia	IDN	1905000 km²	278,700,000	Jakarta	id
Jamaica	JAM	11000 km²	2,750,000	Kingston	en
Japan	JPN	377000 km²	124,400,000	Tokyo	ja
Kiribati	KIR	810 km²	131,000	South Tarawa	gil/en
Madagascar	MAD	580000 km²	26,000,000	Antananarivo	fr/md
Malaysia	MYS	331000 km²	33,000,000	Kuala Lumpur	ms
Maldives	MDV	300 km²	510,000	Malé	md
Malta	MLT	315 km²	530,000	Valletta	en/mt/it
Marshall Islands	MHL	180 km²	77,000	Majuro	mh/en
Mauritius	MUS	2040 km²	1,233,000	Port Louis	en/fr
Micronesia	FSM	705 km²	122,000	Palikir	n/d/en/es
Nauru	NRU	22 km²	8,800	Yaren	nr/en
New Zealand	NZL	270000 km²	5,370,000	Wellington	en/mi/nzs
Niue	NIU	260 km²	2,200	Alofi	nu/en
Palau	PLW	460 km²	22000	Ngerulmud	pau/en/ja
Papua New Guinea	PNG	462000 km²	11,200,000	Port Moresby	en/tk/hm/id
Philippines	PHL	343000 km²	114,000,000	Manila	tg/en/es
Saint Kitts and Nevis	KNA	262 km²	55,000	Basseterre	en
Saint Lucia	LCA	620 km²	180,000	Castries	en
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	VCT	390 km²	117,000	Kingstown	en
Samoa	WSM	2830 km²	228,000	Apia	sm/en
São Tomé and Príncipe	STP	1002 km²	236,000	São Tomé	pt
Seychelles	SYC	455 km²	105,000	Victoria	sc/en/fr
Singapore	SGP	720 km²	5,800,000	Singapore	ms/en/zh/tml
Solomon Islands	SLB	28900 km²	747,000	Honiara	en
Sri Lanka	LKA	65500 km²	22,400,000	Colombo	en
Taiwan	TWN	36600 km²	23,800,000	Taipei	tw/zh
Tonga	TON	747 km²	107,000	Nuku'alofa	to/en
Trinidad and Tobago	TTO	5130 km²	1,550,000	Port of Spain	en
Tuvalu	TUV	26 km²	11,500	Funafuti	tv/en
Vanuatu	VUT	12200 km²	335,000	Port Vila	bi/en/fr

Australia is a continent but an island.