Okay, we lied to you. There’s a good chance you can name at least one Australian island (ahem, Tasmania), but with 8,222 official islands scattered around our coastline, odds are you’ve never heard of most of them. What’s even cooler is that Australia has the eighth-highest number of islands on Earth – not bad for a country that’s technically an island itself.
This ranking is drawn from WorldAtlas, cross-checked with 2025 updates from World Population Review, which compiled its global tally of islands by aggregating national records, land surveys and satellite imagery. Generally, a landmass – inhabited or not – is classified as an island if it is surrounded by water at high tide. While some countries set thresholds for size or coastline length, artificial islands, offshore rocks and sandbanks that disappear at high tide are typically excluded.
From Tasmania to the Torres Strait, Australia and its external territories comprise 8,222 islands scattered throughout the Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans, as well as the Coral and Timor Seas. These islands vary wildly – from tiny, rocky outcrops uninhabited by humans to massive landmasses twice the size of the Australian Capital Territory.
Barely more than a speck in the sea, Snapper Island in Sydney Harbour is perhaps Australia’s smallest island, measuring roughly one hectare – barely the size of a soccer field. Another hidden gem is North Reef Island, a sand cay in the Great Barrier Reef spanning just 1.4 hectares. Mostly a sanctuary for sea turtles and seabirds, it sometimes disappears beneath the waves at high tide — so definitely not the spot for rolling out a picnic rug.
If we were ever stranded on an island, we’d want to be stuck on the larger side of the spectrum. Take Tasmania – Australia’s largest island and only island state, covering 68,401 square kilometres and home to more than half a million people. Then there’s Melville Island, the country’s second-largest at 5,786 square kilometres. Part of the Northern Territory’s Tiwi Islands, it’s a place of stunning remote beauty and rich Indigenous culture, though far less known than Tassie.
Other popular Aussie islands you’ve probably heard of include Kangaroo Island – a wildlife wonderland off the coast of South Australia; K’gari (Fraser Island) – the world’s largest sand island located off Queensland; and the beautiful Whitsunday Islands – home to Australia's best beach. Then there are the more obscure ones, like uninhabited Heard Island – home to Australia’s only active volcano (Big Ben); and Warraber Island (Sue Island) – our smallest populated island with just 250 residents.
Want to impress with your island trivia? Here’s a peek at countries with more islands than Australia.
These are the 10 countries with the most islands
- Sweden – 267,570
- Norway – 239,057
- Finland – 178,947
- Canada – 52,455
- United States – 18,617
- Indonesia – 17,504
- Japan – 14,125
- Australia – 8,222
- Philippines – 7,641
- Chile – 5,000