There are 46 island countries among the 193 members of the United Nations: sovereign states whose territory is made up of one or more islands, or parts of islands, with no territory on a continental mainland. Counting Taiwan and Northern Cyprus, which have limited recognition, and the Cook Islands and Niue, which are self-governing states in free association with New Zealand, the total is 50. The largest is Indonesia, at 1,904,569 km² and with more than 270 million people. The smallest is Nauru, a single Pacific island of 21 km². Totals elsewhere range from the mid-40s to 50, depending on how a source treats shared islands, associated states and Australia.
The Test for an Island Country: Islands or Parts of Islands, Nothing on a Mainland
The working definition used by Wikipedia's list of island countries is that a country's primary territory consists of one or more islands or parts of islands. That leaves room for very different shapes. Barbados, Dominica and Nauru are each a single island. Cuba, Iceland and Sri Lanka have one main island with smaller ones offshore. Japan has five main islands, Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa, surrounded by thousands of smaller ones. The Bahamas, Indonesia, the Maldives, the Philippines and Seychelles are spread across hundreds or thousands of islands. Our guide to archipelagos explains how island chains like these form.
The test is about territory, not borders. A country can share an island with a neighbour, and so have a land border, and still count as an island country, because none of its land is on a continent. What rules a country out is holding any territory on a mainland. Malaysia, for example, governs much of Borneo, but it also holds the Malay Peninsula on the Asian mainland, so it is not on the list. About a quarter of the world's independent countries pass the test.
Edge Cases: Australia, Shared Islands and Fixed Links to the Mainland
A handful of countries sit awkwardly with the definition, and the way a list handles them is what makes totals differ.
- Australia. It has no land borders and was once often called an island country, but it covers most of the Australian continent and is classed as a continental country. Greenland, the largest island on Earth, is also left out because it is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, not a sovereign state.
- Countries that share an island. Haiti and the Dominican Republic divide Hispaniola. Ireland shares the island of Ireland with the United Kingdom's Northern Ireland. Timor-Leste shares Timor with Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea shares New Guinea with Indonesia. Brunei holds part of Borneo, which it shares with Indonesia and Malaysia. All of these count, even though each has a land border.
- Cyprus. The Republic of Cyprus is a UN member. The northern part of the island is controlled by Northern Cyprus, which only Turkey recognises, and the United Kingdom holds the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia in the south.
- Fixed links. Some island countries are joined to a continent by bridges or tunnels without losing island status. Bahrain is linked to Saudi Arabia by the King Fahd Causeway, Singapore to Malaysia by the Johor–Singapore Causeway and the Second Link, and Great Britain to France by the Channel Tunnel.
- Trinidad and Tobago. It is grouped with the Caribbean, but it sits on the South American continental shelf just 11 km off Venezuela and about 130 km from Grenada, the nearest of the Antilles.
- Associated states and territories. The Cook Islands and Niue run their own affairs in free association with New Zealand, so some lists include them. Dependencies such as Puerto Rico, a US territory, are left out.
The 46 UN Member Island Countries, Region by Region
The table groups the 46 UN members by region. The Caribbean and Oceania have the most, with 13 each.
| Region | Count | Island countries |
|---|---|---|
| Caribbean and western Atlantic | 13 | Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago |
| Oceania | 13 | Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu |
| Asia | 9 | Bahrain, Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, Maldives, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste |
| Africa | 6 | Cape Verde, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles |
| Europe | 5 | Cyprus, Iceland, Ireland, Malta, United Kingdom |
The other four that appear on fuller lists are Taiwan (36,193 km²), Northern Cyprus (3,355 km²), Niue (260 km²) and the Cook Islands (236 km²). Trinidad and Tobago is usually grouped with the Caribbean, as it is here, but because it sits on the South American continental shelf, Wikipedia's list also counts it as South America's only island country.
Within each region the countries fall into recognisable island groups. In the Caribbean, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic make up the Greater Antilles, while Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago are listed with the Lesser Antilles. The Bahamas lies outside the Caribbean Sea altogether, in the Atlantic's Lucayan Archipelago. In the Pacific, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu belong to Melanesia. Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Palau are in Micronesia. New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu are Polynesian. Africa's six divide between two oceans: Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe in the Atlantic, and the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.
The Ten Largest by Area, From Indonesia to Ireland
Island countries are usually small, but the top of the list includes some very large states. Indonesia is the largest island country by area, by number of islands (Wikipedia's list gives 17,504, though the Indonesia article puts the total between 13,000 and 17,000) and by population. It is also the fourth most populous country in the world. Its islands include Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi as well as parts of Borneo and New Guinea, and they straddle the Indian and Pacific oceans. You can see how the archipelago is divided in our guide to Indonesia's islands.
Madagascar comes second at 587,041 km². It is a single main island in the Indian Ocean and is described as the world's largest microcontinent, a fragment of continental crust rather than a volcanic island. It became independent on 26 June 1960. Our article on how big Madagascar is puts that area in context. Papua New Guinea (462,840 km²) is third. It holds the eastern half of New Guinea plus the surrounding islands and became independent as a Commonwealth realm on 16 September 1975. Japan (377,976 km²) and the Philippines (about 300,000 km²) follow. Both have more than 100 million people. New Zealand (270,467 km²) is part of Zealandia, a largely submerged continent. The United Kingdom (244,820 km²) and Ireland (70,273 km²) both sit on the European continental shelf. Iceland, by contrast, lies on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Europe and North America.
Nauru, Tuvalu and the Other Microstates at the Bottom of the List
At the other end, five island countries are smaller than 300 km². Nauru, in Micronesia, covers 21 km² and has about 12,600 people. It became independent on 31 January 1968. Tuvalu is made up of three reef islands and six atolls, with 26 km² of land and roughly 11,700 people, and it is one of the countries most exposed to rising seas. The Marshall Islands (181 km²), Saint Kitts and Nevis (261 km²) and the Maldives (298 km²) complete the five. The Maldives is the smallest country in Asia.
Small size often goes with very high density. Singapore fits about 5.7 million people onto 728 km². Bahrain's density is about 2,109 people per km², Malta's about 1,591 and the Maldives' about 1,289. Low-lying states such as the Maldives and Tuvalu are among the Small Island Developing States, which face rising seas, coastal erosion and threats to fresh water, and they have become vocal advocates of strong international action on climate change.
Independence Dates, From Haiti in 1804 to Timor-Leste in 2002
Most island countries became independent in a single wave of decolonisation after the Second World War. Haiti, the first sovereign state in the Caribbean, declared independence from France on 1 January 1804, and the Dominican Republic followed on 27 February 1844. Cuba became a republic on 20 May 1902, and Ireland's independence dates from 6 December 1922. Indonesia proclaimed independence on 17 August 1945, the Philippines became independent from the United States on 4 July 1946, and Sri Lanka followed on 4 February 1948.
The 1960s and 1970s brought the largest group. Cyprus and Madagascar became independent in 1960, Samoa, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in 1962, Malta in 1964, and the Maldives and Singapore in 1965. Barbados followed in 1966, Mauritius and Nauru in 1968, Fiji and Tonga in 1970, Bahrain in 1971 and the Bahamas in 1973. Grenada became independent in 1974; Cape Verde, the Comoros, São Tomé and Príncipe and Papua New Guinea in 1975; Seychelles in 1976; and the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Dominica in 1978. Kiribati, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines followed in 1979, Vanuatu in 1980, Antigua and Barbuda in 1981 and Saint Kitts and Nevis in 1983. Brunei followed on 1 January 1984. The newest island country is Timor-Leste, which became independent on 20 May 2002, following a UN-supervised referendum in August 1999 that led Indonesia to give up control. It was the first new sovereign state of the 21st century.