List of islands in the Pacific Ocean
This is a list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, collectively called the Pacific Islands. Three major groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean are Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Depending on the context, Pacific Islands may refer to countries and islands with common Austronesian origins, islands once or currently colonized, or Oceania. This list is organized by archipelago or political unit. In order to keep this list of moderate size, links are given to more complete lists for countries with large numbers of small or uninhabited islands.
Name ambiguity and groupings
The umbrella term Pacific Islands has taken on several meanings.[1] Sometimes it is used to refer only to the islands defined as lying within Oceania.[2][3][4] At other times, it is used to refer to the islands of the Pacific Ocean that were previously colonized by the British, French, Spaniards, Portuguese, Dutch, or Japanese, or by the United States. Examples include the Pitcairn Islands, Taiwan, and Borneo.[5]
A commonly applied biogeographic definition includes oceanic islands within Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia and the eastern Pacific.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] These are usually considered to be the "Tropical Pacific Islands".[13] In the 1990s, ecologists Dieter Mueller-Dombois and Frederic Raymond Fosberg broke the Tropical Pacific Islands up into the following subdivisions:[14]
- Western Melanesia
- The Bismarck Archipelago and other islands directly east of New Guinea
- Bougainville and Buka Island
- The Solomon Islands
- Eastern Melanesia
- Subtropical islands in the Australia/New Zealand region
- Micronesia
- Central Polynesia
- Johnston Atoll
- The Phoenix Islands
- The Line Islands
- Howland Island, Baker Island, Jarvis Island, Malden Island and Starbuck Island
- Tuvalu, Tokelau and the Northern Cook Islands (Pukapuka, Nassau, Rakahanga, Manihiki, Penrhyn, Suwarrow and Palmerston)
- Western Polynesia
- Eastern Polynesia
- The rest of the Cook Islands
- The Austral Islands
- The Society Islands
- The Tuamotu Archipelago and the Pitcairn Islands
- Easter Island and Salas y Gómez
- The Marquesas Islands
- Northern Polynesia
- The Hawaiian Islands
- Oceanic islands of the Eastern Pacific
Geopolitics and Oceania grouping
The 2007 book Asia in the Pacific Islands: Replacing the West, by New Zealand Pacific scholar Ron Crocombe, considers the phrase Pacific Islands to politically encompass American Samoa, Australia, the Bonin Islands, the Cook Islands, Easter Island, East Timor, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, the Galápagos Islands, Guam, Hawaii, the Kermadec Islands, Kiribati, Lord Howe Island, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Niue, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, the Torres Strait Islands, Wallis and Futuna, Western New Guinea and the United States Minor Outlying Islands (Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Midway Atoll, Palmyra Atoll and Wake Island). Crocombe noted that Easter Island, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, the Galápagos Islands, the Kermadec Islands, the Pitcairn Islands and the Torres Strait Islands currently have no geopolitical connections to Asia, but that they could be of future strategic importance in the Asia-Pacific region.[15]
Since the beginning of the 19th century, Australia and the islands of the Pacific have been grouped into a region called Oceania.[16][17] It is often considered a proper continent, with the Pacific Ocean being the defining characteristic.[18] 19th century definitions encompassed the region as beginning in the Malay Archipelago, and as ending near the Americas.[17][19][20][21][22] Non-oceanic Islands with historical ties to the Asian mainland (such as those in the Malay Archipelago) are rarely included in present definitions of Oceania, nor are non-tropical islands near Alaska, Canada and Russia.[23][24] Many consider Australia to be a continent-sized landmass, although they are still sometimes viewed as a Pacific Island;[25] this is partly due to their Indigenous population, who have been associated with the natives of areas such as Melanesia.[26] Australia is a founding member of the Pacific Islands Forum, which is now recognized as the main governing body for the Oceania region.[27] By 2021, the Pacific Islands Forum included all sovereign Pacific Island nations, such as Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji and Tonga, in addition to dependencies of other nations, such as American Samoa, French Polynesia and Guam. Islands which have been fully integrated into other nations, including Easter Island (Chile) and Hawaii (United States), have also shown interest in joining.[28] Tony deBrum, Foreign Minister for the Marshall Islands, stated in 2014, "Not only [is Australia] our big brother down south, Australia is a member of the Pacific Islands Forum and Australia is a Pacific island, a big island, but a Pacific island."[25] David Armitage's 2014 book Pacific Histories: Ocean, Land, People states that Australia and New Zealand are sometimes encompassed in phrases such as the Pacific or Pacific Islands, and that the Aleutian Islands, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia (excluding Western New Guinea) are not, despite also making up other insular regions of the Pacific Ocean.[29] Japan and certain nations of the Malay Archipelago (including the Philippines and Indonesia) have representation in the Pacific Islands Forum, but none are full members. The nations of the Malay Archipelago have their own regional governing organization called ASEAN, which includes mainland Southeast Asian nations such as Vietnam and Thailand.[30][31] In July 2019, at the inaugural Indonesian Exposition held in Auckland, New Zealand, Indonesia launched its ‘Pacific Elevation’ program, which would encompass a new era of elevated engagement with the region, with the country also using the event to lay claim that Indonesia is culturally and ethnically linked to the Pacific islands. The event was attended by dignitaries from Australia, New Zealand and some Pacific island countries.[32]
List of the largest Pacific islands
Islands of the Pacific Ocean proper, with an area larger than 10,000 km2.
By continent
Antarctica
Asia
North America
Oceania
- List of islands of Australia
- List of islands of Britain
- List of islands of Fiji
- List of islands of France, section Pacific Ocean
- List of islands of Hawaii
- List of islands of Kiribati
- List of islands of the Marshall Islands
- List of islands of New Zealand
- List of Islands of Papua New Guinea
- List of islands of the Solomon Islands
- List of islands of Tonga
- List of islands of Tuvalu
- List of islands of the United States, section Insular areas
- List of islands of Vanuatu
South America
By country
Australia
- List of islands of Australia, including:
Canada
- List of islands of British Columbia, many islands including:
- Haida Gwaii, some 400 islands near Alaska
- Graham Island, the main northern island
- Moresby Island, the main southern island
- Vancouver Island, Canada's largest Pacific island
- Gulf Islands, numerous islands off the southeast coast of V.I. near the U.S. San Juan Islands
- Haida Gwaii, some 400 islands near Alaska
Chile
China
Colombia
Cook Islands
- Aitutaki
- Atiu
- Pamati (Palmerston)
- Mangaia
- Manihiki (Humphrey)
- Manuae (Hervey)
- Mauke (Parry)
- Mitiaro (Nukuroa)
- Nassau
- Pukapuka (Danger)
- Rakahanga (Reirson)
- Rarotonga
- Suwarrow (Anchorage)
- Takutea
- Tongareva (Penrhyn)
Costa Rica
Ecuador
Fiji
- Principal islands:
- Significant outliers:
- Archipelagos:
France
- Clipperton Island
- French Polynesia (Autonomous Overseas Territory of France)
- New Caledonia (special collectivity of France)
- Grande Terre (New Caledonia)
- Chesterfield Islands
- Ilots du Mouillage
- Loyalty Islands
- Matthew Island and Hunter Island, administered by France as part of New Caledonia but also claimed by Vanuatu
- Wallis and Futuna
Indonesia
Japan
- List of islands of Japan, including:
- The five main islands:
- Hokkaido - the northernmost and second largest main island.
- Honshu - the largest and most populous island; home of the capital Tokyo.
- Kyushu - the third largest main island and closest to the Asian continent.
- Shikoku - the second smallest main island after Okinawa; between Honshu and Kyushu
- Okinawa Island - the smallest and southernmost of the main islands
- Other notable islands:
Kiribati
- List of islands of Kiribati:
- Caroline Island
- Flint Island
- Gilbert Islands
- Line Islands (8 of 11)
- Kiritimati/Christmas Island
- Malden Island
- Phoenix Islands
- Starbuck Island
- Tabuaeran/Fanning Island
- Teraina/Washington Island
- Vostok Island
Malaysia
Marshall Islands
Mexico
Micronesia
Islands of Federated States of Micronesia
Nauru
- Nauru, a country and single island
New Zealand
- Islands of New Zealand, around 600 islands including:
- Tokelau (mostly autonomous), three coral atolls with about 25 islands combined, including:
- Olohega (Swains Island), administered by the United States as part of American Samoa, but claimed by Tokelau due to geography, history and language
Niue
- Niue, a country and single island
Palau
Palau has over 250 islands, including:
Panama
Papua New Guinea
- List of islands of Papua New Guinea
- New Guinea, eastern half
- Bismarck Archipelago
- Solomon Islands archipelago (northern part)
- Trobriand Islands
- Woodlark Island
- D'Entrecasteaux Islands
- Louisiade Archipelago
- Misima Island
- Tagula Island or Sudest Island
- Rossel Island
- Samarai
- Daru Island
- Kiwai Island
Philippines
- List of islands of the Philippines, over 7600 islands including:
Russia
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Taiwan
- List of islands of Taiwan, 166 islands including:
- Taiwan, the main island with over 99% of the country's total area
Tonga
- List of islands in Tonga; in north to south order:
Tuvalu
United Kingdom
United States
- Alaska, many islands including:
- American Samoa
- Aunuu
- Ofu-Olosega
- Rose Atoll
- Swains Island (Olosenga, Olohega) (Disputed)
- Tau
- Tutuila
- List of islands of California
- Hawaiian Islands, many islands and islets including:
- Marianas Islands
- List of islands of Oregon
- United States Minor Outlying Islands, eight small island groups between Hawaii and the Philippines
- List of islands of Washington state
Vanuatu
- List of islands of Vanuatu, some 83 islands including (north to south approximately):
- Torres Islands
- Banks Islands
- Espiritu Santo
- Malakula
- Ambrym
- Paama
- Epi
- Shepherd Islands
- Efate, home of the national capital Port Vila
- Lelepa
- Erromango
- Tanna
- Disputed:
- Matthew Island and Hunter Island, administered by France as part of New Caledonia but also claimed by Vanuatu
Notes
This is the only contemporary text on the Pacific Islands that covers both environment and sociocultural issues and will thus be indispensable for any serious student of the region. Unlike other reviews, it treats the entirety of Oceania (with the exception of Australia) and is well illustrated with numerous photos and maps, including a regional atlas.– via JSTOR (subscription required)
One cannot refer to “Pacific islands” and ignore the Galapagos Islands and other eastern Pacific islands.
There are six great divisions of the earth— Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America and Oceania. Of these, Asia is largest, Europe smallest. Oceania is made up of Australia and many scattered islands
Oceania, the fifth great division of the earth's surface, includes the numerous islands scattered over the great ocean which extends from the south - eastern shores of Asia to the western coast of America.
Oceania is the word often used by continental geographers to describe the great world of islands we are now entering upon [...] This boundless watery domain, which extends northwards of Behring Straits and southward to the Antarctic barrier of ice, is studded with many island groups, which are, however, very irregularly distributed over its surface. The more northerly section, lying between Japan and California and between the Aleutian and Hawaiian Archipelagos is relived by nothing but a few solitary reefs and rocks at enormously distant intervals.
Oceania, the fifth great division of the earth's surface, includes the numerous islands scattered over the great ocean which extends from the south - eastern shores of Asia to the western coast of America. It is separated from Asia by the Str. of Malacca, the Chinese Sea, and the Channel of Formosa; and from America by a broad belt of ocean comparatively free of islands.
the whole region has sometimes been called Oceania, and sometimes Australasia—generally, however, in modern times, to the exclusion of the islands in the Indian archipelago, to which certain writers have given the name of Malaysia [...] we have the three geographical divisions of Malaysia, Australasia and Polynesia, the last mentioned of which embraces all the groups and single islands not included under the other two. Accepting this arrangement, still the limits between Australasia and Polynesia have not been very accurately defined; indeed, scarcely any two geographers appear to be quite agreed upon the subject; neither shall we pretend to decide in the matter. The following list, however, comprises all the principal groups and single island not previously named as coming under the division of Australasia: 1. North of the equator—The Ladrone or Marian islands. the Pelew islands, the Caroline islands, the Radack and Ralick chains, the Sandwich islands, Gilbert's or Kingstnill's archipelago. and the Galapagos. 2. South of the equator—The Ellice group, the Phoenix and Union groups. the Fiji islands, the Friendly islands, the Navigator's islands. Cook's or Harvey islands, the Society islands. the Dangerous archipelago, the Marquesas islands, Pitcairn island, and Easter island.
