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Most Populous Islands

Try to name the 100 islands that have the highest population.
Not counting continental land-masses such as Australia
According to Wikipedia, March 2023
Quiz by Quizmaster
Rate:
Last updated: March 20, 2023
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First submittedJuly 5, 2011
Times taken101,919
Average score30.0%
Rating4.55
10:00
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Population
Island
145 m
Java
104 m
Honshū
66.4 m
Great Britain
64.3 m
Luzon
59.2 m
Sumatra
28.5 m
Madagascar
27.0 m
Mindanao
23.9 m
Taiwan
23.8 m
Salsette
23.7 m
Borneo
22.3 m
Hispaniola
21.9 m
Sri Lanka
20.2 m
Sulawesi
14.8 m
New Guinea
12.7 m
Kyūshū
11.3 m
Cuba
10.1 m
Hainan
8.06 m
Long Island
7.03 m
Ireland
5.89 m
Singapore
5.38 m
Hokkaidō
4.80 m
Sicily
4.66 m
Negros
4.52 m
Panay
4.32 m
Bali
4.31 m
Cebu
4.00 m
Madura
3.92 m
North Island
3.82 m
Shikoku
3.31 m
Lombok
3.29 m
Puerto Rico
3.18 m
Timor
2.95 m
Jamaica
2.89 m
Zhongshan (Macau)
Population
Island
2.63 m
Leyte
2.29 m
Zealand
2.04 m
Xiamen
2.01 m
Island of Montreal
1.83 m
Flores
1.76 m
Bhola Island
1.75 m
Samar
1.69 m
Manhattan
1.58 m
Sardinia
1.56 m
Haizhu
1.39 mil
Sumbawa
1.38 mil
São Luís
1.33 m
Mindoro
1.30 m
Okinawa
1.27 m
Hong Kong
1.27 m
Trinidad
1.22 m
Mauritius
1.21 m
Bohol
1.20 m
South Island
1.15 m
Batam
1.10 mil
Bahrain
1.09 m
Cyprus
1.01 m
Oahu
961 k
Bangka
907 k
Tenerife
897 k
Zanzibar (Unguja)
887 k
Palawan
870 k
Vancouver
862 k
Majorca
860 k
Penang
839 k
Gran Canaria
838 k
Réunion
763 k
Cangshan
Population
Island
760 k
São Vicente
756 k
Nias
707 k
Masbate
686 k
Sumba
662 k
Viti Levu
623 k
Crete
622 k
Jeju
615 k
Chongming
542 k
Tasmania
530 k
Jolo
525 k
Phuket
522 k
Newfoundland
514 k
New Britain
503 k
Zhoushan
496 k
Staten Island
490 k
Margarita
472 k
Sakhalin
468 k
Mactan
466 k
Funen
459 k
Basilan
450 k
Halmahera
447 k
Buton
441 k
Ambon
438 k
Île Jésus
434 k
Seram
423 k
IJsselmonde
420 k
Santa Catarina
407 k
Pemba
400 k
Sandwip
390 k
Martinique
386 k
Malta
383 k
Marajó
375 k
Iceland
+3
Level 65
Mar 15, 2016
For the North Island and South Island I wrote "New Zealand Northern Island" and "New Zealand Southern Island." I guess that's not close enough. Also, I was so proud that I got Manhattan and I didn't even get Long Island.
+1
Level 49
Apr 18, 2016
Same here. And new zealand. But zealand is allowed.
+10
Level 54
Sep 28, 2016
zealand is an island in Denmark, on which Copenhagen lies
+2
Level 59
Mar 15, 2016
47/100 Only needed google (which didn't help)
+5
Level 68
Aug 5, 2016
It helps that I have a World Map on my toilet wall and can study it every day. True.
+4
Level 71
Apr 15, 2017
You want to get out more!
+2
Level 69
Oct 19, 2018
You're already good enough at geography, kiwi. Time to move on to MiraLAX. :-D
+1
Level 60
Mar 20, 2023
I'm not sure you get the idea of testing your knowledge...
+1
Level 47
Mar 16, 2016
Macau isn't an island; composed of a peninsula with two connected islands Taipa and Coloane; total population of around half a million...or am I missing something?
+1
Level ∞
Mar 20, 2016
You're right, sort of. Macau itself is not an island, but it is located on this larger island:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhongshan_Dao

+2
Level 47
Mar 21, 2016
I see...I suppose if the cities of Macau/Zhuhai/zhongshan are lumped together it's a sizable population, however it's not really customary to call that region an island (basically part of the mainland delineated by Pearl River tributaries); much less calling it "Macau Island", which could be misleading as "Macau" generally refers to the much smaller peninsula or the administrative region. Anyway just my two cents from this part of the globe
+2
Level 49
Apr 18, 2016
I dont understand why australia is not allowed but strangely tasmania is. Australia is not a continent (its australasia or oceania).
+2
Level 86
Apr 24, 2016
Continental land-mass. Such a thing as the Outback could NOT be found on a mere island.
+3
Level 82
Aug 25, 2016
Oceania is a region. Australasia is a little more blurry in its definition, but most lists of the continents list Australia. As I've said elsewhere on this site, if Australia is an island continent, then why are the Americas not an island continent? Why not is Afro-Eurasia not just considered one big island? You gotta stop somewhere and Greenland seems a logical place (i.e. you make the definitions of continent and island exclusive of each other).
+4
Level 77
Jan 27, 2019
You don't have to stop somewhere. The division between Australia and Greenland IS artificial. You could simply abandon the idea of continents altogether and then everywhere becomes an island.
+1
Level 49
Oct 30, 2021
The division between Australia and Greenland is far from artificial. Australia is a massive 7.6 million sq km landmass. Greenland is a (comparatively) tiny little thing that's only 2.1 million sq km.
+4
Level 76
Dec 6, 2018
Why would it be strange that Tasmania is allowed? I understand that Australia is a bit of a gray area around which there is some debate, but even if mainland Australia were considered an island for this quiz Tasmania would still be considered separately.
+1
Level 47
Jun 18, 2016
Learning islands around the world seems like a good task. I only got 35, so clearly I'm not worldly enough!
+3
Level 47
Jun 19, 2016
Took long enough, but I learned and memorized where each island is located! 100% Great quiz.
+1
Level 54
Sep 28, 2016
accept dahkin shahbazpur? tried many spellings of that...
+1
Level 49
Oct 4, 2016
woho, finally got them all with 3:33 left! Took me quite a few attempts but learned alot from this quiz. Great quiz! will keep on doing it:D
+3
Level 49
Oct 4, 2016
A map on this quiz would be really intresting tho, I have been killing google maps in between rounds to learn where the islands I didnt know were located.
+1
Level 48
Nov 16, 2016
When you forget the island you live on...
+2
Level 44
Apr 15, 2017
So much indonesian island , iam indonesian and i just can guess 6 island : java , sumatra , borneo , sulawesi , new guinea and bali 😂😅
+1
Level 68
Dec 7, 2018
How about Timor?
+2
Level 75
Mar 30, 2023
Nah he's from Kazakhstan and can't name any Indonesian islands.
+2
Level 51
Apr 15, 2017
This might seem odd but could you accept Ceylon for Sri Lanka?
+2
Level 65
Sep 15, 2022
Not until the Tamil tigers overthrow the current regime. That was a joke. If there are any Tamil tigers reading this, don't hunt me.
+4
Level 69
Apr 19, 2017
Well Ceylon was renamed Sri Lanka in 1972, it was in all the papers.
+2
Level 74
Jun 7, 2017
Have you missed Abu Dhabi? It's an island too :)
+2
Level 81
Mar 20, 2023
So as someone who lived in Abu Dhabi for 3 years, I 100% agree with you that it should be there! 😁

However, the Wikipedia page used as the source for this quiz only lists the AUH island population as ~280,000 i.e.: well below the cutoff (it claims that AUH is the 116th largest in the world).

This is definitely wrong - being probably 20+ years out of date and the population is likely north of 1,000,000 now - but there's no way to update it. The Abu Dhabi government only conducts haphazard censuses at best (for various reasons) and while we have a 2021 est. municipal population of 1.5M, there's no breakdown as to how much is on AUH island vs. the mainland vs. other islands. So there's no citation to give for a newer figure for the Wiki page.

(You'll notice most entries in that table have a year & citation but Abu Dhabi's doesn't.)

So we just have to shrug and accept that AUH should be there but isn't.

+1
Level 70
Aug 10, 2017
Could you please accept Kalimantan for Borneo?
+6
Level 73
Aug 4, 2018
Kalimantan is not an island, it's part of Borneo
+2
Level 15
Sep 4, 2017
How is Australia not one
+2
Level 73
Aug 4, 2018
As has been pointed out numerous times; Not counting continental land-masses
+1
Level 69
Oct 10, 2017
I thought Iceland would be on there somewhere.
+1
Level 73
Aug 4, 2018
Way too small, only around 250,000
+2
Level 82
Oct 19, 2018
348,000 actually, quite close.
+1
Level 80
Sep 23, 2022
It actually appears to have passed up Grande Comore and should now be on the list as number 200.
+1
Level 84
Oct 19, 2018
And today I learned that Laval is on Ile Jesus. I always thought Laval was also the name of the island!
+2
Level 69
Oct 19, 2018
Stay tuned for more and more islands to appear as sea levels rise! They say Nova Scotia's only got 15-20 more years as a peninsula before it says goodbye to its isthmus with New Brunswick for good.
+3
Level 76
Dec 6, 2018
Eh, it'll be evened out by the current islands that will DISappear.
+1
Level 63
Oct 29, 2018
Södertörn in Sweden could probably be added.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_islands_by_population

+1
Level 68
Dec 6, 2018
30! More than I thought I’d get. Main ones I’m annoyed about missing were Sardinia, Bali, Majorca, Vancouver and Mindanao.
+1
Level 19
Apr 10, 2019
why isnt Santa Claudia included?
+2
Level 50
Apr 24, 2019
thats not how you spell mallorca
+5
Level 78
Nov 29, 2019
British spelling rules, not country/language of origin.
+3
Level 66
May 25, 2019
Is it an idea to add the countries they belong to in the answers? That way everyone can learn a bit. I looked up a few, but there are too many to all look up, so most people wont I think.
+2
Level 47
Oct 1, 2019
Could you maybe accept Pulau Ujong it's the actual name of the singaporean main island
+1
Level 61
Nov 14, 2022
I'm Singaporean, and I've never heard of this name before. But it's definitely not the name of this island.
+1
Level 78
Nov 29, 2019
That is the longest I've spent on a quiz... Every time about 5 that stumped me that I got every other time... So frustrating!
+2
Level 88
Mar 22, 2020
I was curious about Lagos Island. I know it's small but anchors a metropolis of 20 million. The best sources I can find are 14 years out of date in a city of explosive growth and only cover the administrative division of one half of the island. That shows 200,000, but it would seem the total island is higher by now.
+1
Level 49
Aug 10, 2020
i had NO idea Manhattan was an island
+2
Level 85
Feb 28, 2022
"I like the island Manhattan! Smoke on your pipe and put that in!"

-West Side Story

+1
Level 60
Aug 18, 2020
When you get the island Magellan died on, but not Hong Kong. Oops...
+1
Level 60
Aug 18, 2020
Still had 45 though. Couldnt make it to 50. :(
+1
Level 65
Aug 21, 2020
70/100, and I've been practicing and still nowhere near 100%, difficult quiz, very good.
+1
Level 75
Nov 1, 2020
The quiz says it was most recently updated in 2020 but Malta's population is much lower than the 2020 or 2019 estimates. I know it says populations are taken from a 2018 Wikipedia article, but you might want to update some of the populations.
+7
Level ∞
Nov 1, 2020
Hi there, keep in mind that the country of Malta has multiple islands.
+1
Level 65
Dec 14, 2020
Afro-Eurasia is and island and the Americas is also an island. Please accept that!
+7
Level 69
Apr 5, 2022
please be joking please be joking please be joking
+1
Level 43
Jan 16, 2024
he is
+3
Level 71
Jan 9, 2021
Somehow I completely forgot Manhattan even though I got Long Island and Salsette Island (Mumbai).
+1
Level 48
Jan 12, 2021
Got 68/100, still 5/5
+2
Level 57
Mar 1, 2021
Flevoland is an island and has 417k. Why is it not in the quiz?
+1
Level 75
Mar 6, 2021
Does it strike anybody else as weird that Madagascar is the most commonly given answer?
+5
Level 75
Mar 7, 2021
Nope. A lot of Risk players on here.
+1
Level 81
Mar 20, 2023
Not to mention it's kind of a famous movie, etc.
+2
Level 78
Mar 6, 2021
I spent far too long getting 100% on this quiz. never again get out of my homepage please the nightmares are strong
+1
Level 70
Mar 7, 2021
I got 53 and don't feel even slightly bad about the ones I missed. Dang there are a ton of Indonesian and Philippines islands.
+1
Level 64
Apr 22, 2021
Getting New Britain and forgetting Oahu
+6
Level 62
Jun 14, 2021
Typed in Margarita just because I found it funny as a Venezuelan and then it was in the list. Most surprised I've been in here for a while.
+1
Level 67
Aug 11, 2021
Nice haha
+1
Level 19
Dec 11, 2021
this makes no sense but ok.
+7
Level 43
Dec 30, 2021
Which part of this that makes no sense? I'm curious.
+1
Level 44
Feb 27, 2022
how did i get funen ile jesus and viti levu but i forgot sri lanka and sulawesi
+2
Level 75
Sep 7, 2022
I was really surprised how little of Mombasa's population is on the island.
+2
Level 51
Oct 19, 2022
Please accept ''Laval'' for Île Jésus !
+2
Level 72
Dec 12, 2022
All those cities built on really small islands make this quiz really hard. I live in the Netherlands and literally nobody here thinks of ijsselmonde as an island. And that is just one example.
+1
Level 46
Feb 6, 2023
how did more people guess "sumatra" than "zanzibar"
+8
Level 72
Feb 8, 2023
One of Indonesia's largest islands versus a small island off the coast of Tanzania. I wonder.
+2
Level 59
Feb 6, 2023
UK works but United Kingdom does not
+4
Level 60
Mar 20, 2023
Although I don't think either should...
+1
Level 67
Feb 24, 2023
I'm surprised Penang and Phuket were guessed so infrequently. They are among the most popular tourist destinations of Southeast Asia.
+1
Level 87
Mar 22, 2023
When you think you're smart and intentionally don't try the world's biggest island, only to miss it's "icy" counterpart....ugh lol. 91/100 good for 4 stars, sheesh!
+1
Level 52
Apr 1, 2023
I see Wikipedia has Sandwip with a population of 450,000, but having a squiz at it on Google Maps I don't see how that's possible. Looks pretty rural.
+1
Level 67
Apr 4, 2023
If you trust these numbers, then over 800 million people live on islands. Probably closer to 1 billion. This blows my mind!
+1
Level 48
Apr 24, 2023
Can you do a map version of this quiz?
+1
Level 68
Apr 24, 2023
Someone (who might or might not be me) has already done that! Here's the quiz :)
+1
Level 59
Apr 24, 2023
I think Laval (other island in Montreal) eeks in at 440k

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810000202&geocode=A000224

+1
Level 68
Sep 3, 2023
Laval is a city located on the Île Jésus, which figures in this quiz.
+2
Level 52
Apr 24, 2023
Accept Grand Canary for Gran Canaria?
+2
Level 63
May 16, 2023
That's not its name.
+1
Level 60
Apr 24, 2023
The first time I took this I got 1 point for 37/100. This time I got

2 more points (3 points total) for a 38/100 (1/100 higher).

+1
Level 60
Apr 24, 2023
3 of the entries say "mil" instead of "m".
+1
Level 58
Apr 24, 2023
I put Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Okinawa… But I forgot Honshu
+1
Level 66
Apr 25, 2023
According to Wikipedia, Laval (suburb of Montreal located on an island) had a population of 443,192 in 2021.
+1
Level 68
Sep 3, 2023
Laval is a city located on the Île Jésus, which figures in this quiz.
+1
Level 25
Apr 25, 2023
If you Google Ijsselmonde, it says Ijsselmonde only has 60K inhabitants, instead 430K
+1
Level 68
Sep 3, 2023
You mixed up with the city of IJsselmonde, indeed located on that much more populated island of IJsselmonde.
+1
Level 78
Apr 26, 2023
I feel like we could use a novice version of this quiz... at least one that will make me feel less stupid, anyway!
+1
Level 55
Oct 4, 2023
I think Macau should probably be removed from the list, apparently it isn't an island anymore. On both Google Earth and Maps it clearly isn't an island, and Wikipedia even calls the "island" the Macau Peninsula. Wikipedia is pretty contradictory on whether it's an island or not but it says on multiple pages about Macau that "Macau was once an island but gradually a connecting sandbar turned into a narrow isthmus." It's overall pretty confusing and not very clear.