This is a list of islands in the world ordered by area. It includes all islands with an area greater than 2,500 km² (970 square miles), and several other islands over 500 km² (193 square miles). For comparison, continental landmasses are also shown.

Continental land masses

These figures are rough approximations only.

Notes: Australia, at 7,600,000 km², is more than three times the size of Greenland, the largest island. However, Australia is sometimes considered 'The Island Continent'. Beneath the ice sheet, Antarctica is not a single land mass, but a number of land areas of much smaller area.

Islands over 250,000 km²

Although an island is, in general, any land mass that is completely surrounded by water, some definitions exclude land masses large enough to be considered continents. Placing Australia in the latter category (even though arguments can be made whether it is technically a continent, or merely part of a larger continent also called Australia) makes Greenland the largest island. For the sake of classification the list of islands will begin with Greenland.

• #df58248c414f342c81e056b40bee12d17a08bf61## It is thought that beneath the ice sheet Greenland may actually be three separate islands. This is a matter of definition more than anything else, if the parts where the ice reaches below the sea level is land or sea. The usual definition gives that Greenland is one major island.

Islands 25,000 km²–250,000 km²

Islands 10,000 km²–25,000 km²

Islands 5,000 km²–10,000 km²

Islands 2,500 km²–5,000 km²

Islands 1,000 km²–2,500 km²

This section of the list might not be complete, but covers almost all of the islands in the world over 1,000 km². The area of some Antarctic islands is uncertain.

Islands 500 km²–1,000 km²

This section of the list is not complete, although it should cover all European islands over 500 km² and most islands of other continents.