Talk:List of islands by population

Figures
Random other islands, very rough figures


 * 1) Java - 114,000,000
 * 2) Honshu - 98,352,000 (1990)
 * 3) Great Britain - 58,000,000 (2001)
 * 4) Luzon - 42,800,000 (2000)
 * 5) Sumatra - 40,000,000
 * 6) Taiwan - 22,191,000
 * 7) Sri Lanka - 19,608,000
 * 8) Mindanao - 17,600,000 (1997 est)
 * 9) Hispaniola - 15,785,000
 * 10) Madagascar - 15,500,000
 * Sulawesi over 14,500,000
 * Borneo 12,500,000
 * Cuba 11,184,023
 * Long Island 7,500,000 (including Brooklyn, Queens)
 * New Guinea has about 6,700,000, of which 2,000,000 in Indonesia
 * Ireland 5,600,000
 * Singapore 4,608,595
 * Jamaica 2,695,867
 * Manhattan 1,500,000
 * Hong Kong Island 1,400,000
 * Vancouver Island 750,000
 * Tasmania 475,000
 * Iceland 290,570
 * Greenland 56,385

Outdated?
Most of these numbers appear to be outdated by more than a decade.


 * The numbers given for Ireland, Jamaica, Iceland and Greenland look about right to me. Some of the others could outdated. Sometimes it can be difficult to calculate exact numbers because population statistics are invariably based on borders and political geography, and as a consequence some administrative units are not coterminous with physical islands (e.g. they may include other nearby islands or mainland portions, as well). //Big Adamsky 06:22, 22 January 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm thinking mostly of Java. According to the Indonesian statistics office, Banten province has 9 million people, DKI Jakarta 9 million, Central Java 33 million (2005), DI Yogyakarta 3.2 million, West Java 37 million (2002), East Java 36.5 million (2004). That's roughly 128 million. If we were to be conservative, we could take off 6 million for Madura, the Thousand Islands, and a few outlying islands that exist within these provincial borders. That still leaves 122 million. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.239.246.9 (talk • contribs)

Great Omission
Why has Australia been omitted from this list? Australia is the largest island in the world and has a population of over 20 million. DB 13:19, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
 * The reason for this is fully explained in the article. Warofdreams talk 14:08, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
 * It is not fully explained. Merely stating "it is generally accepted" is not good enough in Wikipedia, really, is it? Does anyone know of another article which we can point to for a full explanation? Adxm (talk) 10:20, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * It's highly debatable that Australia is an island, I for one think a continent can't be an island as well. And if Australia is classed as an island, why isn't Antarctica as well? - Randwicked Alex B 14:33, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I have commonly seen Australia classed as an island before - I think personal opinion should not decide wether it is included or not though - as someone who is an expert on the subject. (Australia is commonly touted as the only Island, continent and country in one.) I believe whether something is an island and or a continent is probably defined by geological factors, not political ones (borders) which would give a reason why Antarctica isn't included. skorpion 23:09, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Australia has to my knowledge always been known as the smallest continent and largest island. Never have I heard Australia "generally not considered an island".
 * I have also, always heard it being an island regardless of whether its a continent. The statement 'generally accepted' is wrong. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.170.211.85 (talk) 10:11, 21 June 2009 (UTC)
 * It says right here on the Island Wikipedia article that "An island (pronounced /ˈaɪlənd/) or isle (/ˈaɪl/) is any piece of land that is surrounded by water." Last I checked, Australia was "surrounded by water".  One would assume that this fact makes Australia eligible for this list??  --121.79.3.240 (talk) 11:21, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
 * This suggests that Australia is in fact an island, this should be honoured by Australia's inclusion in the list. 124.185.73.212 (talk) 09:26, 20 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Australia is the name of an island and a continent, but the island (encompassing only the mainland of the country, Australia) and the continent (also including Tasmania, New Guinea and numerous other islands) are two separate entities and encompass different areas and masses of land. Therefore the island and the continent are different things with the same name. That means Australia (the continental land-mass and the island, respectively) could be included in both the continental land-masses section and the island section.
 * On the List of islands by area Wikipedia page, it says that by definition a landmass cannot be both a continent and an island. The Island Wikipedia page says that an island must be sub-continental. The Continents Wikipedia page includes Australia as a continent in every continental model. In this case, Australia is not an island, because it is a continent and a continent can't be an island.Bennychloroplast (talk) 18:32, 31 March 2018 (UTC)

Other Omissions
The island of São Vicente in Brazil has a population of about 700,000. http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilha_de_São_Vicente_(Brasil) (The link is to an article in portuguese, sorry.) 189.121.31.145 (talk) 04:59, 14 July 2009 (UTC)Vidigal Guam, with a population of 159,358 (2010 Census figures) has been omitted.<ref.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guam#Demographics 158.135.13.85 (talk) 19:33, 16 April 2015 (UTC)

Table links for countries
Might as well link them all otherwise it looks bad. Skinnyweed 21:12, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

Copyright Violation
I've removed the copyvio tag. While the page linked to did have the same information as this article, a list of information such as in this article cannot be copyrighted except in the format presented. Since there is no creative value (no prose), only information, the list cannot be copyrighted. Cheers. — Cuivi é  nen  T, Wednesday, 17 May 2006 @ 14:25 UTC

AFD debate link
This article has been kept following this AFD debate. Sjakkalle (Check!)  11:28, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Cebu, Mactan and Bantayan
I recomputed the population of Cebu Island from census data, excluding Lapu-Lapu City and the municipalities of Cordova (Mactan), Bantayan (Bantayan island), Madridejos (Bantayan island), Santa Fe (Bantayan island), and the Camotes islands (municipalities of Poro, Tudela, San Francisco and Pilar).

I also added Mactan Island and Bantayan Island, although the population needs to be adjusted for associated islands included in the census data. I did remove the population of Barangay Santa Rosa from Mactan.

Fbkintanar (talk) 23:07, 6 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Please recheck your Cebu island sum as the old figure appears to be accurate (3,292,905). --Polaron | Talk 00:12, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Polaron, you are right. I actually caught my own error, but my ISP went down for a few hours, and wasn't able to fix it right away. I am including my computations above. When rounded to the thousands, we agree, but I wonder why there is a discrepancy of 60? But I guess it isn't worth losing sleep over.

Fbkintanar (talk) 08:24, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Ireland
The 2006 population estimate for Ireland is 5.9 million (4.2 million in RoI (2006 census) and 1.7 million in NI (2001 census)). However, with the NI data, it could be safe to say the actual isaldn population is closer to ~6 million. 86.139.122.26 21:17, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Don't forget that offshore islands are excluded; while they don't add up to much, they may take the population closer to 5.9M again. Warofdreams talk 23:59, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Adding Bahrain and Zanzibar
Adding Bahrain and Zanzibar by 84.149.188.8 as #51 and #52 is wrong as there are islands with a larger population than these in the area between 500,000 and 1,000,000. I have added a couple, even if this part of the list is still very incomplete. Note that the 1988 figures of Zanzibar originally posted by 84.149.188.8 might also include other islands in the archipelago, such as Pemba and Mafia Island. According to the 2002 census the total population of the Zanzibar archipelago is 981,754. http://www.tanzania.go.tz/census/regions.htm. By deducting the figures of Pemba and Mafia I find that the population of Zanzibar Island (Unguja) must be 579,031. I also suspect that the figure for Bahrain is wrong, as it probably includes the whole country. As this is a page of islands only, the population of the offshore islands of Bahrain should be excluded. These include Muharraq Island and Hawar Islands. The population of Muharraq city alone is 75,000, while the Hawar Islands are sparsely populated (3,875). By subtracting this figure from the official figure of Bahrain (state), which is 698,585, I find that the population of Bahrain Island as about 620,000. Antipoeten 14:11, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
 * The area usually known as Zanzibar does not include Mafia Island. The main Zanzibar island is essentially the three mkoas of Mjini Magharibi, Kusini Unguja, and Kaskazini Unguja. The total population (2002 census) is 620,957. For Bahrain, you should also subtract Sitra island. I believe it is roughly 40,000 but don't have official figures available. --Polaron | Talk 23:26, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Then I add back the figure for Mafia Island (40,801) to the figure of Zanzibar Island, and get 619,832. Concerning Bahrain: The figure for Sitra Island according to this site is "more than 65,000". http://wikimapia.org/726644/ I subtract 65,000 and get ca 555,000 for Bahrain island.Antipoeten 13:10, 22 August 2007 (UTC)
 * According to this site, the population of Muharraq is 103,576. The figure for Bahrain Island should therefore be even lower. I start by reducing it to ca.520,000. http://www.statoids.com/ubh.html Antipoeten 13:10, 22 August 2007 (UTC)
 * The way to find the figures of Bahrain Island might be the following: Adding the following governorates (according to statoids.com): Capital (163,696), Central (167,691), Northern (166,824), Southern (44,764), then subtracting the Hawar Islands (3,875) which are part of Southern. This gives the figure of 539,100. Now the problem is Sitra, which is part of Northern. Its figure should be subtracted, but since I do not know its actual population I chose to give the figures of Bahrain including Sitra. This should be fixed back when census for Sitra is found. There is also another island called Umm Nasan, but i do not know if it is populated. Note also that the names and/or borders of the governorates may have changed since 2001. Antipoeten 13:16, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Penang Island
I added Penang Island, but the population figures (census 1990) are too old. Maybe someone can find newer data. Note that the state of Penang (Pinang) in addition to Penang Island includes the mainland area called Seberang Perai.Antipoeten 22:55, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
 * The figures you used are for the entire state. Roughly only about half are on the island. Penang Island is composed of the two districts of Barat Daya and Timur Laut with a population of roughly 570,000. Will try and get you official sources when I have time. --Polaron | Talk 23:42, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
 * According to this site the population of Penang Island is at least 678,000, so I change it accordingly. http://www.tourismpenang.gov.my/section.cfm?id=16 Antipoeten 12:22, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

South Andaman Island
I add South Andaman Island on the list, but the population figures are uncertain. Port Blair (the capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands) alone has a population of 100,000. So the figure of the island is somewhat larger.Antipoeten 02:38, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

New Ireland
I add New Ireland to the list, but the population figures are uncertain. The province of New Ireland has a population of 118,350, but this includes some smaller islands, for example New Hanover with about 5,000. I start by giving it 100,000, but the population is probably larger. Now I find that the population is probably around 90,000, so I delete the island. http://www.ida.liu.se/~g-robek/PNG-NiuAilan.htm Antipoeten 03:10, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Manhattan Island
According to the 2005 estimate, the population of Manhattan borough is 1,593.000. From this has to be deducted the figures of Roosevelt Island (9,520) and Marble Hill (7,820) to get the figure of Manhattan Island. So the correct figure should be about 1,575,000. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/census/detailed_narrative_2005.pdf 14:04, 22 August 2007 (UTC)Antipoeten 14:12, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

San Andrés Island
This site claims that San Andrés Island has 100,000 inhabitants (estimate:2005). I don´t know if that is correct, but I still add the island. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Andrés,_Colombia Antipoeten 05:10, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Lesbos
I doubt that the population of Lesbos island is 108.000. The 2005 estimated population of Lesbos (Lesvos) prefecture in 2005 was 110,220, but this includes Lemnos (population 18,104 in 2001) and Agios Efstratios (population 371 in 2001). I therefore delete the island from the list. Antipoeten 22:14, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Chiloé Island
The figure of Chiloé Island is probably wrong, it probably relates to the Chiloé Province, which also includes the populated islands of Qinchao and Lemy. By analyzing the figures from the 2002 census I find that the population of Chiloé Island is 140,376. Antipoeten 23:54, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Oahu
I didn´t make the change of Oahu to 1,012,000 (2007 estimate). But I checked it, and there is a source (estimate) saying that the population will reach 1,012,000 in 2007. So the information is not "unsourced". But I still agree on changing it back, either to a census figure or a better sourced estimate. http://www.architectmagazine.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=1006&articleID=433341 Antipoeten 16:01, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Great Britain
It would appear the estimate is based on the Census in 2001, however this includes all the islands surrounding Great Britain. Although negligible and not affecting the position as third biggest island, having 57.1million is a bit too specific. My suggestion is approx 57 million. For example, there are c.70,000 people in Shetland Islands and Orkney Islands and Eilean Siar (not part of GB) council areas. Panthro (talk) 19:42, 11 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Seems sensible. Also the Isle of Wight and Anglesey have a combined population of approx 209,000, which knock the GB population down a bit - circa 57m still seems appropriate though. Bazonka (talk) 19:59, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Australia
It's fascinating to me that Australia is "generally not considered an island," as the footnote here says. I'd love to know more about why not. I mean, looking at the map, it's you know, an island. A huge one, but an island nonetheless. Also a continent. At any rate, more clarification as to WHY it's not considered an island would be useful in the footnote, I think. Moncrief (talk) 18:18, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I think it's because Australia is typically considered a continent and it seems logical that whatever a continent is cannot be coextensive with whatever an island is. An island cannot simply be "an area of land surrounded by a body of water," for if that were the case Afro-Eurasia or at the very least Eurasia (if you count the Suez Canal) would be considered an island, which is a rather untenable position. Therefore there must be some upper bound on what an island really is and it is conveniently the case that we have a term for large landmasses which we can use as the divisor (continents.) What is less convenient is that continents themselves are only defined by convention, (what seperates Asia and Europe?) and cannot really serve as a cohesive logical upper bound on the islands. However, what matters most in this moment is that we have practical discerning factor between what can and cannot be an island and for the moment continent seems to serve this purpose rather well. Frodo.mintoff (talk) 04:54, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

I lived in Australia around 1970, and both of the secondary schools I attended in Sydney taught pupils that Australia was 'an island continent', which is not quite true. Maybe schools in that country are still teaching that viewpoint? Technically, it is a group of islands, with the biggest one being mainland Australia, and the next biggest being the main island of Tasmania. With that in mind, a collection of islands forms a continent, therefore Australia is both a continent and a group of islands, but not 'an island'. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.17.111.203 (talk) 01:08, 9 December 2023 (UTC)

Bahrain
Bahrain's figure is just wrong: there reads 1,234,571 (2010 Census) (whole nation) Muharraq Island article tells it has population of 110 964 (as of 2010). So, the main island population is not more than 1,123,607. Though, List of islands of Bahrain has it as 940,000, but without a source. 85.217.21.147 (talk) 16:03, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

Guam
about 160.000 people. Not listed at all. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.128.101.24 (talk) 11:01, 18 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Done. --KimC1ga (talk) 03:25, 2 July 2016 (UTC)

Guadeloupe Island?
What is Guadeloupe Island? Isn't Guadeloupe two main islands (Basse-Terre and Grande-Terre)? Why would we count them as one island? john k (talk) 15:44, 21 June 2017 (UTC)

Abadan Island
We should insert Abadan Island on the list. --Sharouser (talk) 14:14, 15 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Any idea what the population of the island is (with a reference?) Cls14 (talk) 15:56, 24 January 2019 (UTC)

Reading comments is not advised? I don't disagree, but...
".. please see comments for what is included in figures, as some islands include nearby ones. However, this practice is not advised. "

If reading comments is not advised, then don't advise it. -- 205.220.233.203 (talk) 17:52, 11 July 2020 (UTC)

Repeated, Missing, and Misplaced Rankings
The following edits should be carried out in the order mentioned: 1. Leyte - 2,388,518 (2015) is shown as having a higher population than Zeeland - 2,287,740 (2017)(Shown on the list as "Zealand"), yet it is in 36th, with Zeeland in 35th. 2. The same issue is true for Sumbawa - 1,391,340 (2014) and São Luís - 1,381,459 (2014 estimate), which should be in 46th and 45th, respectively, but are shown in 45th and 46th. 3. Vancouver Island - 870,297 (2019 estimate) is shown in 69th place, while it is higher in population than the current 62nd, Mallorca - 862,397 (2009 census). Thus, everything between and including 62nd and 68th should be moved down one place. 4. Jolo - 530,000 (2015 census) (which has no space between the "0" and the "(") is shown in 84th place, while it is higher in population than the current 76th, Phuket - 525,018 (2010). Thus, everything between and including 76th and 83rd should be moved down one place. 5. Funen (current 86th) and Buton (current 85th) should be swapped. 6. Margarita Island (current 88th) is higher in population than Staten Island (current 81st), meaning that all between and including 81st and 87th should be moved down one place (after applying the changed needed for Issue #4). 7. The 90th ranking is used for both Île Jésus and IJsselmonde, meaning that everything below Île Jésus should have its rank number increased by 1 (e.g., 104th to 105th) 8. Basilan (Current 94th) is higher in population than Seram (Current 89th) Others errors include 97th, 103rd, 107th, 117th, the nonexistence of 134th, Palau Petak being listed yet not ranked, 154th, 155th, Portsea Island being ranked at 130th but placed between 164th and 165th, 173rd, 174th, 175th, 176th, 190th, and 191st. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Historical Cartograph (talk • contribs) 21:15, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

Borneo population is wrong
I'm pretty sure Borneo has more than 25000 people — Preceding unsigned comment added by Smoceany2 (talk • contribs) 13:28, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

Nørrejyske Ø
Should of Denmark be added? It has a population of 293.017. 124.217.188.32 (talk) 12:19, 5 October 2022 (UTC)

Pootung
Is Pudong (Pootung) in some way an island (or maybe a couple of islands)? There are channels leading east and south at the point where the Whangpoo bent from flowing eastwards to northwards. 203.95.212.95 (talk) 14:20, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

Shamian
161,000 is not a plausible population for this 30-hectare island. Virtually the entire island is visible here, and it is mostly low-rise buildings: https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d514f304d6a4d33457a6333566d54/index.html

It seems to have had a population of about 8,000 in the late 20th century, when its density was not much different from today. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00221348608979411 2601:14F:4400:7B80:6023:3DEB:FA4D:1C50 (talk) 22:25, 9 March 2024 (UTC)