Africa has only one large island, Madagascar, which occupies the fourth position in the world; to find the next island, Socotra, which belongs moreover to an Asian country, you have to get out of the first hundred positions!The other biggest islands are found mainly off the coasts of Madagascar or between it and Tanzania, in the Gulf of Guinea or in the central Atlantic, between Morocco and Senegal; in the ranking we also have a lake island.
The country with the most islands in this ranking is Spain, which obviously is not part of Africa, but to which the Canary archipelago belongs; the third largest island, Réunion, is also dependent on a European nation, France.
| Island | Area (km²) |
Area (sq mi) |
Country |
| Madagascar (1) | 586,500 | 226,449 | Madagascar |
| Socotra (2) | 3,665 | 1,415 | Yemen |
| Réunion | 2,512 | 970 | France |
| Tenerife (3) | 2,034 | 785 | Spain (Canary Islands) |
| Bioko | 2,017 | 779 | Equatorial Guinea |
| Mauritius (4) | 1,865 | 720 | Mauritius |
| Zanzibar | 1,666 | 643 | Tanzania |
| Fuerteventura | 1,656 | 639 | Spain (Canary Islands) |
| Gran Canaria | 1,560 | 602 | Spain (Canary Islands) |
| Grande Comore | 1,146 | 442 | Comoros |
| Santiago | 991 | 383 | Cape Verde |
| Pemba | 988 | 381 | Tanzania |
| São Tomé | 854 | 330 | São Tomé and Príncipe |
| Lanzarote | 806 | 311 | Spain (Canary Islands) |
| Santo Antão | 779 | 301 | Cape Verde |
| Madeira | 759 | 293 | Portugal |
| La Palma | 708 | 273 | Spain (Canary Islands) |
| Dahlak Kebir | 663 | 256 | Eritrea |
| Ukerewe (5) | 647 | 250 | Tanzania |
| Boa Vista | 620 | 239 | Cape Verde |
| Sherbro | 600 | 232 | Sierra Leone |
| Mafia | 518 | 200 | Tanzania |
| Djerba (6) | 514 | 198 | Tunisia |
(1) Fourth largest island in the world.
(2) It is not part of an African country, but rather of Asia.
(3) The largest of the African islands in the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the one where the highest altitude is reached.
(4) Second most populated African island after Madagascar.
(5) A lake island in Lake Victoria, the largest in Africa.
(6) Largest African island in the Mediterranean Sea.