If you’re as weirdly stimulated by Google Maps and Google Earth as I am, then you spend countless hours taking imaginary vacations, following rivers to the end of their sources or just marveling at how big and diverse the world really is. In one of my most recent map-induced quests for more pointless knowledge, I began thinking about none other than those water bound parcels of land you people call islands. I then began thinking, hmm, I wonder what the five largest islands in the world are? boom!
1. Greenland
At 836,109 sq mi ( 2,166,086 sq km), Greenland is the largest island on Earth (unless you want be annoying and start counting continents as islands). It is geographically a lot closer to North America, but unfortunately associates more with Europe. Bold explorers from both Iceland and Denmark settled Greenland all the way back in 986 AD, and one of those people was everyone’s favorite viking, Erik the Red.
Greenland still swears allegiance to Denmark, and the Queen of Denmark is technically “in charge”, but they have their own elected prime minister as well. The total population of Greenland is a measly 56,615 making it the least densely populated country in the world. The capital city of Nuuk only has 15,469 inhabitants! The island for the most part is pretty unappealing for human habitation minus the few strips of land around the coast that aren’t covered in ice.
2.New Guinea
Coming at numero dos, New Guinea is the 2nd largest island in the world with an area of 303,500 sq mi (786,000 km sq), which is pretty significantly smaller than Greenland. The island actually houses two countries and is located in the middle of South East Asia. The western half is part of Indonesia, and the eastern half is the independent country of Papau New Guinea.
Sporting a total population of 7.5 million peeps, New Guinea is no deserted island. But, the largest city by population is Port Moresby in Paupau New Guinea at only 307,643 people. There are still more than 250 distinct indigenous tribes living on the island also known as, you guessed it, wu tang clans (I just thought Rza was dating an Asian girl or something when he came up with the name).
3. Borneo
Borneo, also located in South East Asia makes number 3 on our largest islands in the world list. Borneo occupies 287,001 sq mi (743,330 km sq) which puts it pretty close to the size of New Guinea but sports a much larger population at over 18,590,000.
The island actually houses three countries, part of Indonesia (about 3 quarters of the island), Malaysia (1 quarter) and Brunei occupying 0nly about 1%. Samarinda is the largest city on Borneo (in Indonesia) with a population of 726, 223. Borneo holidays are becoming more and more popular because of the island’s diverse and interesting ecosystems, rich culture and affordable vacation options.
4. Madagascar
The 4th largest island in the world is Madagascar which is located off the southeast coast of Africa. The island is home to only one country that shares its name and spans over 226,658 sq mi (578,041 km sq). Madagascar actually split off from India over 80 million years ago (made it pretty far since then!) and offers one of the most unique collections of plants and animals, over 90% of which can only be found on the island.
The people are almost as distinct as the flora and fauna (people ARE actually animals, I don’t care about your religious beliefs) and believe it or not, originated all the way from Borneo (guess it was getting crowded and they chose the next largest island).
5. Baffin Island
Baffin Island comes in at number 5 on our list of largest islands in the world, and you’ve probably never even noticed it on a map. Most likely because it’s tangled up in a bunch of other worthless islands and part of an even more worthless country, Canada (just kidding…sort of). It occoupies 195,927.9 sq mi (507,451 km sq) and the total population is a little over 10, 000! The majority of the inhabitants are Inuit (eskimos) and live in the the capital city of Iqaluit. The city was founded in 1942 by Americans to serve as re-fueling point for aircraft heading towards Europe for the war effort.
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Odd, was just at a museum that was talking about the Danes in Greenland and I was thinking it might be an interesting place to visit (in the summer).
yea maybe on some eco-tour or something, prob pretty close to remote parts of Alaska.
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Ouch—way to alienate your Canadian readers—or rather, your former Canadian readers. I’m currently commenting from Copenhagen where Canadians are highly insulted if you hear them say something other than “out”, “about” or “process” and proceed to ask them where they’re from in the United States.
Visited the Danish National Museum this morning. Turns out that Leif Erikson named Greenland “Green”land as an advertising ploy to try to attract other Vikings to settle there. By the early 1400′s, climate change (cooling) made Viking subsistence farming impossible and they high tailed it back to Denmark, or Iceland or somewhere like that.
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This site is actually not 100% factual, Australia is an island and so is Antarctica which also is mostly Australian territory.Australia is a continent true but it also is an island and guess what so is Antartica an island and whats more New Guinea was also once Australian territory and is still part of the Australian land mass
Yea, but Australia and Antarctica are both continents. If you want to include those in the list, then you have to include all the continents as they are technically “islands” if your definition just means surrounded by water. Everything is connected under the water too, so the New Guinea argument doesn’t make much sense either.
No one disputes that Greenland is the worlds biggest island but the same logic must also be applied to Australia.Its flawed logic to say that Australia is a continent and then not say that of Greenland also.Just because one person in his classification system stood up and said that Australia is not an Island is absolutely absurd.And ooh yes Isn’t he UK part of Europe so how can that be an island.And lastly every Aussie school kid is taught Australia is an island.The problem with many people is they are not taught to think critically,they are not taught to think att all.And don’t forget New Zealand.
Madagascar. THIS IS POSTED TO THE EITHER IGNORANT OR PLAIN STUPID PERSON who stated that people are animals.Wrong people Man and Woman were created in Gods image.People or man kind know the difference between right and wrong.And when you say Madagascar split of from India 80million years ago were you there?Everything supporting the evolutionary theory(tax payer supported religion) has been PROVEN WRONG.Cosmic evolution big bang never happened,Biological genesis no one knows how life formed outside of what God tells us,Stella and cosmic evolution now proven wrong Macro evolution proven wrong one kind of animal changing into another kind DNA barriers never crossed.Variations of kinds happen but its still the same kind
Wow, gonna just have to agree to disagree on this one my friend….god bless.
1.ANTARTICA Worlds largest island 2.AUSTRALIA Second spot Greenland however is much smaller than Australia unless you mistakenly think that it Australia is officially classified as a continent only,it is also officially classified as an island or island continent.Greenland is actually not even an island according to Earth scientists simply because it is part of the North American landmass.So paradoxically sometimes we are mistakenly brainwashed into thinking that we hold the correct view on a topic when indeed we are quite wrong.Did you know that the boab tree that grows in Madagascar also grows in Western Australias Kimberley region. And that water flowing from mountains in New guinea ends up resurfacing in Australias Kimberley region This is because New guinea is part of Australias landmass.