Statistics and more on Islands by Satellite Images

Europe has the most with 196 islands or 25%. Asia has 168 and beats North America with 144. Australia & Oceania have 131, followed by Africa with 71, South America with 42 and Antarctica with 32 (4%). I considered islands in the southern Pacific or Indian Ocean with no clear continental reference to be Antarctic.

No continent has more than 5 islands on any quiz. This leads to 5 islands being European on 13 of my quizzes; no quiz has fewer than 3 European islands. All my quizzes also have 2 to 5 Asian islands, at least one North American island, 1 to 4 Oceanian islands and 1 to 3 African islands. 14 quizzes are missing South American islands and 8 have two; only 16 of my 47 quizzes have no Antarctic islands and one has two.

Counting all dependencies, the ranking of countries is: United States 63, United Kingdom 53, France 49, Greece 32, Canada 31.5, Indonesia 30.8, Russia 26, Philippines 25, Italy 23, Japan 20, New Zealand 19, Denmark 18.5, Australia 17, China 17, Spain 16.5, (Antarctica 15), Brazil 14, Netherlands 13.5, Germany 12.5, Bahamas 12, Portugal 12, Chile 11.5, Norway 11, Cape Verde 9, India 9, Solomon Islands 8, Kiribati 7, Sweden 6.5, Croatia 7, Mexico 7, Ecuador 6, Papua New Guinea 5.5, Fiji 5, Iceland 5, FS Micronesia 5, Tanzania 5, Vanuatu 5. All other countries have 4 or fewer islands.

As you can see, the former colonial powers still reign supreme due to their many overseas possessions. If you only count European islands, the UK goes down to 24.5 islands and France to only 7.5. The 50 US American states manage 38 islands, but if you take the lower 48 it's only 19 (five alone in New York City, the most of any city on par with Venice, in front of Hong Kong and Stockholm with four, Singapore with three and Abu Dhabi, Montréal, and Paris with two each).

In total, 112 countries are represented by at least one island. The biggest country without any island in the series is Kazakhstan, the biggest missing coastal countries are Algeria, Sudan, Libya, and Peru. The countries with the longest coastlines and no islands are Somalia, Morocco, and North Korea, while the non-island countries with the shortest coastlines and at least one island are DR Congo, Gambia (both only fluvial islands), and Syria. Gambia is also the smallest non-island country with an island (two, actually), followed by Qatar and Kuwait.

Usually, countries don't have more than one island per quiz. However, sometimes it was unavoidable due to where I wanted the islands to appear based on their noteworthiness. Countries with two islands on any quiz are the UK and the US (both 16 times), France (14), Canada (3), Indonesia (2), Australia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, and Russia (once each). Quiz #3 (my first) is the only quiz with three islands for any country, namely the UK, until Quiz 43 (Indonesia) – I had to catch up the most recognisable islands missed in the first two quizzes. Quizzes 43, 45, and 46 each have three US-American islands.

Interwikis have some inherent biases (e.g. in favour of Greek islands, and European islands in general), so I couldn't use them as the only criterion. Instead, I used further indicators like area, population, remoteness, political and historical significance to select islands.

Which islands appear in a specific quiz was based on subjective judgment as to which I considered most noteworthy among those not yet included, constrained by self-imposed rules on number of islands per country, per continent and in urban areas in one quiz.

I initially chose to discard two atolls because their satellite imagery showed absolutely no land area: Bassas da India in the French Southern Lands on Quiz #27 and Scarborough Shoal (administered by China) on Quiz #45, but then changed my mind and included both on Quiz #46. Some islands I only discovered while making these quizzes and thought them too important to be included in the current quiz; for many I went back and adapted all previous quizzes until the one I wanted to include the new island in.

For some formations, it is unclear whether they should be classified as islands or archipelagoes. E.g. central Venice looks like an island, but is cut by many canals, at least some of which are natural and were artificially enlarged or straightened. The same goes for surrounding areas like Giudecca and Burano. I chose not to classify them as single islands for this series. Additionally, some areas are actually surrounded by natural waterways, but not typically regarded as islands. Because they usually also have no name, I could not include these islands.

The smallest islands that appear are Kolbeinsey (~200 m²), Roca Sur (~400 m²), Rockall (780 m²), Kitakojima (2850 m²), and Chillon (5070 m²). For the two atolls mentioned above, as well as the reef Banc du Geyser, the land area is too hard to tell.

The islands with the most interwikis that do not appear in the quizzes are the Faroe islands of Koltur, Borðoy, and Eysturoy, as well as the Croatian island Mljet with 46 languages each. Than means I included all 224 islands with more interwikis.

In fact, the 38 unused islands with the most interwikis are all in Europe. The first non-European islands are Tidore (Indonesia), Bainbridge Island (USA), and Peñón de Alhucemas (Spain, but in Africa) with 38 languages each. Niutao (Tuvalu) has 37 languages. The first South American island is Navarino (Chile), the first in Antarctica is Deception Island, both with 31 interwikis. It is likely that there are islands I missed which are not categorised as such and have more languages (though it might be impossible to distinguish the islands from the political entity described by the item).

The largest sea island I did not use is Canadian Stefansson Island (121st with an area of 4463 km²), followed by Admiralty Island (Alaska, 4264 km²), Baranof Island (Alaska, 4162 km²), Spaatz Island (Antarctica), and Milne Land (Greenland). The largest unused tropical (and Asian) island is Yamdena with 2971 km², followed by Biak (2278 km²; West Papua, thus part of Oceania) and Obira, all in Indonesia. The biggest missing islands Europe and Africa are Wilczek Land (Russia, 2203 km²) and Sainte-Marie (Madagascar, 222 km²), respectively.

The most populous islands not in the series (based on the Wikipedia list) are Yangzhong in China (106th with 340k), Maheshkhali in Bangladesh and Santo Amaro in Brazil.

The remotest islands that do not appear are Penrhyn Atoll and Manihiki/Rakahanga in the Cook Islands at joint 51st with 350 km to each other, Herald's Beacon Islet (Coral Sea Islands, 346 km), and the Minerva Reefs (Tonga/Fiji, 315 km).

One name appears three different times in the series: St. Paul's/São Paulo/Saint Paul (French Antarctic, Brazil, United States). Nine further names of islands appear twice: Flores (Indonesia & Azores), Long Island (US & Bahamas), Prince Edward Island (Canada & South African Antarctic), Prince of Wales Island (Canada & Alaska), Santa Cruz (Ecuador & US), Santiago (Cape Verde & Ecuador), São Vicente (Cape Verde & Brazil), St. Mary's Island (UK & Gambia), and Tortuga (Haiti & Venezuela).

Some further names are remarkably similar or have the same meaning: Santa Catalina & Santa Catarina (US & Brazil), Mont-Saint-Michel & San Michele (France & Italy), Trinidad & Trindade (Caribbean & Brazil), Providencia & Providenciales (Colombia & Caicos Islands; also the Bahamas' New Providence). Cocos Island (Costa Rica) shares its name with the Cocos Islands (Australia), while Guadalupe's (Mexico) is similar to the double island Guadeloupe.

S is the most common starting letter with 118 islands, followed by M (80), B (54), A (48), and C (47). Most uncommon are X (only Xiamen), Q (Qeshm and Queimada Grande) and Z (five islands). A total of 48 islands start with Saint, Sainte, San, Santa, or São.

As of the writing of this, I've already decided on ten islands in the next quiz: Bushrod (Liberia), Lulu Island (Canada), Minicoy (India), Mljet (Croatia), Navarino (Chile), Pianosa (Italy), Sainte-Marie (Madagascar), Santo Amaro (Brazil), Yamdena (Indonesia), Yeonpyeong (South Korea).

I was also thinking of making a similar series for archipelagoes.

Thanks for reading. If you want, let me know your thoughts in the comments.