How much do you know about the world’s islands?

An old navigator once said: "The islands in the ocean are like the stars in the sky, no one can count them." This sentence describes the large number of islands in the world. So far, how many islands are there in the oceans around the world? It's hard to tell an exact number. Some people say around 200,000, others say around 100,000. Which statement is closer? It depends on what method and standard you use to calculate.

Schematic diagram of the three-dimensional shape of the island

Aerial view of Zhoushan Islands

In the ocean, in some places, a reef of several square meters is exposed on the water; in some places, the coral reefs are like a string of pearls, scattered on the sea surface. When the tide recedes, rows of reefs are exposed. When the sea water rises, there are The shell is submerged under the water. If these reefs and shoals that are exposed to the sea are all considered islands, then it may make sense to say that there are more than 200,000 islands in the world.

Schematic diagram of the distribution of islands in China’s sea areas

The lush Lantau Island

Lingshan Island without vegetation

According to the statistics on the number of islands published in map books published by various countries around the world, there is some basis for the statement that there are about 100,000 islands in the world. However, the statistical calculation standards and methods of countries around the world are not exactly the same: some consider reefs of more than 10 square meters or more than 100 square meters to be islands; some consider small islands in the ocean of more than 500 square meters or even more than 1 square kilometers. A piece of land is considered an island. Obviously, different standard methods will result in different statistics. For example, Indonesia is the country with the most islands in the world. According to statistics from relevant Indonesian government departments, there are more than 13,000 islands, while statistics from the Indonesian Navy are 17,000. The number of islands counted by different departments in a country varies by about 4,000. The total area of islands in the world is approximately 9.77 million square kilometers, accounting for 1/15 of the total land area.

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