Which Countries Have the Most Islands?
Sweden has the most islands of any country: 267,570, by Statistics Sweden's own count. Norway is second with 239,057, and Finland is third with about 198,000. That ranking appears on almost every list, and as a summary it holds up. The catch is what each country decided to count.
About 62 percent of Sweden's islands sit in lakes and rivers, and only around 38 percent in the sea. Japan's recount left lake and river islands out. Canada's national figure is tallied from its Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic islands. So the countries at the top aren't all playing the same game. Below is each number, where it comes from, and the places where the answer has changed.
Island counts by country
| Country | Islands | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Sweden | 267,570 | Statistics Sweden's 2013 inventory of land surrounded by water, lakes and rivers included |
| Norway | 239,057 | Norwegian Mapping Authority's 2011 review: anything over 10 m². Another 81,192 skerries are counted separately |
| Finland | 198,146 | 2023 government report. Older lists still say 178,947 |
| Canada | 52,455 | National islands database of Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic islands |
| Chile | 43,471 | 2019 estimate from the national assets ministry; over 11,000 have no name yet |
| United States | 28,449 or 18,617 | No single official count. States tally differently, and Alaska counts only named islands |
| Indonesia | 17,508 | Set by a 1996 law and still widely quoted. See below |
| Japan | 14,125 | 2023 recount; only islands with at least 100 m of coastline |
| Australia | 8,222 | Geoscience Australia |
| Philippines | 7,641 | National mapping agency, after a 2016 radar survey |
Why do the numbers keep changing?
Nobody is being sloppy. "Island" has no agreed minimum size, so every country draws its own line. Norway counts anything over 10 square metres. Japan wants at least 100 metres of coastline. Once you know that, a raw ranking says more about paperwork than geography.
Better maps move the totals too. In February 2023, Japan's geospatial authority redid its count with digital maps and found 14,125 islands, more than double the 6,852 recorded in 1987. It used the same 100-metre rule as before. The old paper charts had simply missed thousands.
| Country | Lower figure | Higher figure | What explains it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | 6,852 | 14,125 | Digital maps replaced 1987 paper charts |
| Philippines | 7,107 | 7,641 | Radar imaging, then years of ground checks |
| Finland | 178,947 | 198,146 | A fresh national statistical review in 2023 |
| Indonesia | 13,466 | 17,508 | A 2007 to 2010 survey found the lower figure; the 1996 law gives the higher |
Indonesia is the messiest case. Its mapping agency listed 17,380 named islands with coordinates in 2024, and a satellite census put the total near 13,558. The frequently quoted 17,508 comes from a 1996 law, and the researchers note the method behind it is unclear.
Inhabited islands are just as slippery
Sweden has 984 islands with permanent residents, though slightly more than 8,000 have buildings on them. Indonesia's permanently inhabited islands range from roughly 900 to 1,700 depending on the source, with thousands more used seasonally. Finland reports 430 islands lived on all year without a road link to the mainland. Treat these with the same caution as the totals.
So what's the honest answer?
Sweden, Norway and Finland lead under the rules each of them uses, and Sweden's lead depends partly on counting lake and river islands. Beyond the top three, treat the exact figures as estimates. Anyone who quotes a single confident number without saying how islands were counted is skipping the important part.
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Figures compiled from Wikipedia's list of countries by number of islands and checked against national sources: Statistics Sweden, Norway's Kartverket figures via Lokalhistoriewiki, Finland's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Canada's Islands Database, Indonesia's Geospatial Information Agency, and the Philippines' NAMRIA count. Counting criteria differ by country, so the figures are not strictly comparable.