1
Greenland
- Area (km²)
- 2119986
Top 15Updated October 16, 2026
Top 15 Largest Islands (USGS Global Islands Data)
The 15 largest named polygons in the USGS Global Islands Big Islands layer, measured from its 2014 Landsat shoreline; the five continental mainland polygons are excluded.
Top 3
- 1Greenland
- 2New Guinea
- 3Borneo
Greenland
1
New Guinea
2
Borneo
3
About this ranking
- Ranking type
- Data ranking
- Data as of
- December 31, 2014
- Last source review
- October 16, 2026
Sort the USGS Global Islands Version 3 Big Islands polygon layer by area_geode in descending order. The separate five continental-mainland polygons and islands under 1 km² are excluded. The dataset uses a 30 m global shoreline derived from 2014 annual Landsat composites. Displayed areas are rounded to 1 km²; ordering uses the unrounded values. The first 30 polygons were queried, including the cutoff: Newfoundland 15th, Cuba 16th and Luzon 17th. Areas can vary with shoreline resolution, boundary processing and dataset version, so values from other measurement conventions are not mixed in.
References: 2. Page edits do not imply that the underlying data is newer. AI assisted in producing this content; verification status is shown above.
Change history
- The original list lacked traceable sources and a reproducible island-boundary convention. This review uses the USGS Global Islands Version 3 Big Islands layer and sorts area_geode from the 30 m, 2014 Landsat global shoreline, checking the candidate set and the 15th/16th cutoff. Retain the 14 original item IDs that remain in the top 15, add Newfoundland, and move Luzon and its associations to a private PENDING archive. Display area rounded to whole km² while ranking by unrounded values. [corpus433:890124228c0371ef73cbf6076a9e6ecb8f55aaa440e0b98799b7396064b95d38]
- Corrected Victoria Island/Great Britain positions 8 and 9. Other island data remain unverified. Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_by_area
Interesting Facts & Summary
In this dataset, Greenland measures about 2,119,986 km², New Guinea 768,675 km² and Borneo 718,333 km². Newfoundland ranks 15th at about 108,971 km²; Cuba is 16th and Luzon 17th.
2
New Guinea
- Area (km²)
- 768675
3
Borneo
- Area (km²)
- 718333
4
Madagascar
- Area (km²)
- 589438
5
Baffin Island
- Area (km²)
- 509660
6
Sumatra
- Area (km²)
- 425283
7
Honshu
- Area (km²)
- 227852
8
Victoria Island
- Area (km²)
- 220346
9
Great Britain
- Area (km²)
- 219076
10
Ellesmere Island
- Area (km²)
- 199039
11
Sulawesi
- Area (km²)
- 168849
12
South Island
- Area (km²)
- 150644
13
Java
- Area (km²)
- 126642
14
North Island
- Area (km²)
- 114400
15
Newfoundland
- Area (km²)
- 108971
| Rank | Island | Area (km²) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greenland | 2119986 |
| 2 | New Guinea | 768675 |
| 3 | Borneo | 718333 |
| 4 | Madagascar | 589438 |
| 5 | Baffin Island | 509660 |
| 6 | Sumatra | 425283 |
| 7 | Honshu | 227852 |
| 8 | Victoria Island | 220346 |
| 9 | Great Britain | 219076 |
| 10 | Ellesmere Island | 199039 |
| 11 | Sulawesi | 168849 |
| 12 | South Island | 150644 |
| 13 | Java | 126642 |
| 14 | North Island | 114400 |
| 15 | Newfoundland | 108971 |
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Sources
- USGS-GLOBAL-ISLANDS-2023 · U.S. Geological SurveyGlobal Islands
The USGS catalog says this 30 m global shoreline vector was made from annual composites of 2014 Landsat imagery. Its polygon classes are continental mainlands, big islands (>1 km²), small islands and very small islands. This review queries the separate Big Islands layer, not the five continental mainlands.
Published: 2023-03-01Accessed: 2026-10-16 - UNEP-WCMC-GLOBAL-ISLANDS-BIG-LAYER · UNEP-WCMC / USGSGlobal Islands Version 3: Big Islands layer
Read name_usgso and area_geode directly from MapServer layer 2, sorted the Big Islands by area_geode and checked the first 30 features and the 15th/16th boundary. The 30-row API response and SHA-256 are archived. Values are displayed in km² rounded to the nearest 1 km².
Accessed: 2026-10-16
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