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List of islands in the Pacific Ocean

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File:Pacific Culture Areas (Philippines+Vanuatu Correction).svg
The islands in the Pacific Ocean divided into three major groups

The Pacific islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term Pacific Islands may refer to one of several concepts: (1) those countries and islands with common Austronesian origins, (2) the islands once (or currently) colonized, (3) the geographical region of Oceania, or (4) any island located in the Pacific Ocean.

This list of islands in the Pacific Ocean is organized by archipelago or political boundary. In order to keep this list of moderate size, the more complete lists for countries with large numbers of small or uninhabited islands have been hyperlinked.

Name ambiguity and groupingsEdit

The umbrella term Pacific Islands has taken on several meanings.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Sometimes it is used to refer only to the islands defined as lying within Toa Samoa.<ref name="realm">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> At other times, it is used to refer to the islands of the Pacific Ocean that were previously colonized by the British, French, Han Chinese, Spaniards, Portuguese, Dutch, Indonesians, or Japanese, or by the United States. Examples include Borneo, the Pitcairn Islands and Taiwan (also known as Formosa).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

A commonly applied biogeographic definition includes islands with oceanic geology that lie within Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia and the eastern Pacific (also known as the southeastern Pacific).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="class">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Template:Better source needed</ref> These are usually considered to be the "Tropical Pacific Islands".<ref>Pacific Science Volume 46, April 1992</ref> In the 1990s, ecologists Dieter Mueller-Dombois and Frederic Raymond Fosberg broke the Tropical Pacific Islands up into the following subdivisions:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Geopolitics and Oceania groupingEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Template:Oceania Labelled Map Template:Wide image

The 2007 book Asia in the Pacific Islands: Replacing the West, by New Zealand Pacific scholar Ron Crocombe, considers the phrase Pacific Islands to politically encompass American Samoa, Australia, the Bonin Islands, the Cook Islands, Easter Island, East Timor, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, the Galápagos Islands, Guam, Hawaii, the Kermadec Islands, Kiribati, Lord Howe Island, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Niue, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, the Torres Strait Islands, Wallis and Futuna, Western New Guinea and the United States Minor Outlying Islands (Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Midway Atoll, Palmyra Atoll and Wake Island). Crocombe noted that Easter Island, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, the Galápagos Islands, the Kermadec Islands, the Pitcairn Islands and the Torres Strait Islands currently have no geopolitical connections to Asia, but that they could be of future strategic importance in the Asia-Pacific.<ref name="asianpacific">Template:Cite book</ref> Another definition given in the book for the term Pacific Islands is islands served by the Pacific Community, formerly known as the South Pacific Commission. It is a developmental organization whose members include Australia and the aforementioned islands which are not politically part of other countries.<ref name="asianpacific"/> In his 1962 book War in the Pacific: Strategy and Command, American author Louis Morton places the insular landmasses of the Pacific under the label of the "Pacific World". He considers it to encompass areas that were involved in the Pacific Theater of World War II. These areas include the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, as well as Australia, the Aleutian Islands, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, the Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

File:Pacific Map 1851 SLNSW FL14253043.jpg
1851 map of Pacific listing colonial names of individual islands.

Since the beginning of the 19th century, Australia and the islands of the Pacific have been grouped by geographers into a region called Oceania.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="countriesoftheworld"/> It is often used as a quasi-continent, with the Pacific Ocean being the defining characteristic.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In some countries, such as Argentina, Brazil, China, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, France, Greece, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Spain, Switzerland or Venezuela, Oceania is seen as a proper continent in the sense that it is "one of the parts of the world".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In his 1879 book Australasia, British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace commented that, "Oceania is the word often used by continental geographers to describe the great world of islands we are now entering upon" and that "Australia forms its central and most important feature."<ref name="austral">Template:Cite book</ref> 19th century definitions encompassed the region as beginning in the Malay Archipelago, and as ending near the Americas.<ref name="countriesoftheworld">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the 19th century, many geographers divided up Oceania into mostly racially-based subdivisions; Australasia, Malaysia (encompassing the Malay Archipelago), Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.<ref name="corn">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="missionary">Template:Cite book</ref> The 1995 book The Pacific Island States, by Australian author Stephen Henningham, claims that Oceania in its broadest sense "incorporates all the insular areas between the Americas and Asia."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In its broadest possible usage, it could include Australia, the Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian islands, the Japanese and Malay Archipelagos, Taiwan, the Ryukyu and Kuril Islands, the Aleutian Islands and isolated islands off Latin America such as the Juan Fernández Islands.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="pi">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Islands with geological and historical ties to the Asian mainland (such as those in the Malay Archipelago) are rarely included in present definitions of Oceania, nor are non-tropical islands to the north of Hawaii.<ref name="ev">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="handbook">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="britoc">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The 2004 book The Making of Anthropology: The Semiotics of Self and Other in the Western Tradition, by Jacob Pandian and Susan Parman, states that "some exclude from Oceania the nontropical islands such as Ryukyu, the Aleutian islands and Japan, and the islands such as Formosa, Indonesia and the Philippines that are closely linked with mainland Asia. Others include Indonesia and the Philippines with the heartland of Oceania."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Certain anthropological definitions restrict Oceania even further to only include islands which are culturally within Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Better source needed</ref> Conversely, Encyclopedia Britannica believe that the term Pacific Islands is much more synonymous with Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, and that Oceania, in its broadest sense, embraces all the areas of the Pacific which do not fall within Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.<ref name="pi"/> The World Factbook and the United Nations categorize Oceania/the Pacific area as one of the seven major continental divisions of the world, and the two organizations consider it to politically encompass American Samoa, Australia, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, French Polynesia, Fiji, Guam, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna and the United States Minor Outlying Islands.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Since the 1950s, many (particularly in English-speaking countries) have viewed Australia as a continent-sized landmass, although they are still sometimes viewed as a Pacific Island, or as both a continent and a Pacific Island.<ref name="smh">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Australia is a founding member of the Pacific Islands Forum, which is now recognized as the main governing body for the Oceania region.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It functions as a trade bloc and deals with defense issues, unlike with the Pacific Community, which includes most of the same members. By 2021, the Pacific Islands Forum included all sovereign Pacific Island nations, such as Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji and Tonga, in addition to dependencies of other nations, such as American Samoa, French Polynesia and Guam. Islands which have been fully integrated into other nations, including Easter Island (Chile) and Hawaii (United States), have also shown interest in joining.<ref name="widen">Template:Cite news</ref> Tony deBrum, Foreign Minister for the Marshall Islands, stated in 2014, "Not only is Australia our big brother down south, Australia is a member of the Pacific Islands Forum and Australia is a Pacific island, a big island, but a Pacific island."<ref name="smh"/> Japan and certain nations of the Malay Archipelago (including East Timor, Indonesia and the Philippines) have representation in the Pacific Islands Forum, but none are full members. The nations of the Malay Archipelago have their own regional governing organization called ASEAN, which includes mainland Southeast Asian nations such as Vietnam and Thailand.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In July 2019, at the inaugural Indonesian Exposition held in Auckland, Indonesia launched its 'Pacific Elevation' program, which would encompass a new era of elevated engagement with the region, with the country also using the event to lay claim that Indonesia is culturally and ethnically linked to the Pacific islands. The event was attended by dignitaries from Australia, New Zealand and some Pacific island countries.<ref name="grif">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

List of the largest Pacific islandsEdit

Islands of the Pacific Ocean proper, with an area larger than 10,000 km2.

Name Area (km2) Country/Countries Population Population density Region Subregion
New Guinea 785,753 Indonesia, Papua New Guinea 14,800,000 18.8 Oceania Melanesia
Borneo 748,168 Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei 23,053,723 30.8 Asia Southeast Asia
Honshu 227,960 Japan 103,000,000 451.8 Asia East Asia
Sulawesi 174,600 Indonesia 18,455,000 105.7 Asia Southeast Asia
South Island 150,437 New Zealand 1,201,300 7.5 Oceania Australasia / Polynesia
North Island 113,729 New Zealand 4,749,200 33.0 Oceania Australasia / Polynesia
Luzon 109,965 Philippines 48,520,000 441.2 Asia Southeast Asia
Mindanao 104,530 Philippines 25,281,000 241.9 Asia Southeast Asia
Tasmania 90,758 Australia 514,700 5.7 Oceania Australasia
Hokkaido 77,981 Japan 5,474,000 70.2 Asia East Asia
Sakhalin 72,493 Russia 580,000 8.0 Asia North Asia
Taiwan Island (Formosa) 35,883 Taiwan 23,000,000 641.0 Asia East Asia
Kyushu 35,640 Japan 13,231,000 371.2 Asia East Asia
New Britain 35,145 Papua New Guinea 513,926 14.6 Oceania Melanesia
Hainan Island 33,210 China 8,180,000 246.3 Asia East Asia
Vancouver Island 31,285 Canada 759,366 24.2 North America Northern America
Shikoku 18,800 Japan 4,141,955 220.3 Asia East Asia
Grande Terre 16,648 New Caledonia (France) 208,709 12.5 Oceania Melanesia
Palawan 12,189 Philippines 430,000 35.3 Asia Southeast Asia
Hawaii 10,434 United States of America 185,079 17.7 Oceania Polynesia
Viti Levu 10,388 Fiji 600,000 57.0 Oceania Melanesia

By continentEdit

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AntarcticaEdit

AsiaEdit

North AmericaEdit

OceaniaEdit

South AmericaEdit

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By countryEdit

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American SamoaEdit

AustraliaEdit

BruneiEdit

CanadaEdit

ChileEdit

ChinaEdit

ColombiaEdit

Cook IslandsEdit

Costa RicaEdit

EcuadorEdit

FijiEdit

Template:Main list

FranceEdit

French PolynesiaEdit

GuamEdit

Hong KongEdit

IndonesiaEdit

JapanEdit

KiribatiEdit

MacauEdit

MalaysiaEdit

Marshall IslandsEdit

MexicoEdit

MicronesiaEdit

Islands of Federated States of Micronesia

NauruEdit

  • Nauru, a country and single island

New CaledoniaEdit

New ZealandEdit

NiueEdit

  • Niue, a country and single island

Northern Mariana IslandsEdit

PalauEdit

Palau has over 250 islands, including:

PanamaEdit

Papua New GuineaEdit

PhilippinesEdit

Pitcairn IslandsEdit

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RussiaEdit

SamoaEdit

SingaporeEdit

Solomon IslandsEdit

TaiwanEdit

TokelauEdit

  • List of islands of Tokelau
    • Tokelau (mostly autonomous), three coral atolls with about 25 islands combined, including:
      • Olohega (Swains Island), administered by the United States as part of American Samoa, but claimed by Tokelau due to geography, history and language

TongaEdit

TuvaluEdit

United StatesEdit

VanuatuEdit

Wallis and FutunaEdit

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NotesEdit

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Template:Eastern Pacific Islands Template:Oceania topic {{#invoke:Navbox|navbox}} Template:Regions of Oceania Template:Authority control

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