9 Largest Islands in the World

Greenland, the world's largest island, is also one of the most sparsely populated. More than 80 percent of Greenland is covered in a white sheet of ice, so why is it called Greenland? When the Viking Erik the Red was exiled to Greenland for murder, he gave the desolate island a more colorful name to attract settlers. It didn't work. Greenland's name in the Greenlandic Inuit tongue is Kalaallit Nunaat.

Just how big is Greenland? It's three times the size of Texas and almost three times bigger than New Guinea, the second-biggest island on our list. In fact, Greenland is larger than all of these countries combined: France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, Greece, Switzerland and Belgium. Greenland is considered an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark and has had home rule since 1979.

New Guinea is the largest tropical island in the world and its highland rainforests are some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet.

There are more than 13,500 different species of plant life on New Guinea and two-thirds of those species are endemic, meaning they don't grow anywhere else in the world. New Guinea has the greatest plant diversity of any island in the world — including 2,800 species of orchids. Among New Guinea's 800 native bird species are the extraordinary, shape-shifting birds of paradise.

The eastern half of the island comprises the independent country of Papua New Guinea, while the western half (called Western New Guinea) is part of Indonesia.

Like New Guinea, Borneo is one of the largest islands in the Indonesian archipelago. Covered in dense rainforests, it's also rich in biodiversity.

The Bornean orangutan of Borneo's ancient rainforests is unmistakable with its broad fleshy face and bright orange fur. Orangutan means "man of the forest" in the Malay language, which is appropriate — humans and great apes like the orangutan share 97 percent of their DNA.

Indonesia controls 73 percent of Borneo and the country recently announced plans to move its capital from the overcrowded and polluted megacity of Jakarta to a "sustainable forest city" in Borneo by 2045. Another 26 percent of Borneo is controlled by Malaysia and just 1 percent by Brunei.

Roughly the size of Texas, Madagascar sits 250 miles (402 kilometers) off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. Because Madagascar splintered off the African continent about 160 million years ago, its abundant plant and animal life have evolved in nearly total isolation. As a result, more than 90 percent of Madagascar's wildlife is found nowhere else on the planet.

Lemurs are the most famous of Madagascar's exclusive animal life and there are at least 80 different species of the raccoon-like primates on the island, including the classic ring-tailed lemur and the giant indri, a child-sized lemur known for its leaping ability and shrill calls. This island nation has been independent from France since 1960.

There are more than 52,000 islands in Canada, but Baffin Island is by far the biggest. The rocky island in the central Canadian territory of Nunavut was named after William Baffin, a 17th-century British explorer, and has been inhabited by Innuit and other ancient Indigenous peoples for thousands of years.

Baffin Island claims to be the very first place in North America where a European set foot. Around 1,000 C.E. — nearly 500 years before Columbus — the Viking explorer Leif Erikson struck out for unknown waters west of Greenland. The first place that Erikson landed he named Helluland or "Flat Rock Land," which is an apt description of Baffin Island.

Nearly all Baffin Island's residents live in the small coastal city of Iqaluit, and the surrounding wildlands are inhabited by polar bears, caribou, Arctic foxes and Arctic wolves.

Sumatra is the largest island located entirely within Indonesia and it's home to three majestic national parks — Mount Leuser, Kerinci Seblat and Bukit Barisan Selatan — that have collectively been named a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Like its sister islands in the Indonesian archipelago, Sumatra boasts some remarkable native wildlife including the Sumatran elephant (the smallest of all Asia elephants), Sumatran orangutans, Sumatran rhinos and Sumatran tigers. In fact, the island of Sumatra is the only place in the world where tigers, rhinos, elephants and orangutans live together.

Honshu is the largest of Japan's five primary islands — there are more than 14,000 total — and home to some of the biggest and best-known cities in Japan, including Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe. More than 80 percent of Japan's total population is on the island of Honshu.

Mount Fuji, the iconic, nearly 13,000-foot (3,776-meter) peak is also located on Honshu. Japan's other principal islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa. Of the thousands of tiny islands ringing Japan — known as rito — only 421 are inhabited.

Don't confuse Canada's Victoria Island with the lovely Canadian city of Victoria, located on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Victoria Island is in the frozen north of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and very few people are hardy enough to withstand the nearly year-round cold and snow.

Victoria Island is most famous for a geographical curiosity known as a third-order island. In 2007, a man surveying Victoria Island on Google Maps found a small lake with an island in the middle of it. That alone isn't something to write home about. But that lake was also on an island inside of another lake. Yes, it's an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island.

Let's clear up some confusion. Great Britain is an island composed of three countries: England, Scotland and Wales. The United Kingdom is composed of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland is located on the neighboring island of Ireland, a short trip across the Irish Sea.

Great Britain is the largest island in Europe and the third most populous island in the world. Great Britain is also the largest of the British Isles, a geographical term that includes Ireland, the Isle of Man and 5,000 smaller islands.